Meeting in Second Life

Our group members Amanda, Wienie, Iris and I met each other in the Princeton University. While waiting for another members to show up, Wienie and I taught and shared with each other how to use the tools and functions in SL. By communication, we interact with people while exchanging the information and receiving help.

In our chat, I found some linguistic features. First, in order to save time, we use a lot of abbreviation. Besides, in order to type fast, we ignore some spelling or grammatical mistakes as long as the meanings can be understood. Here are the examples:

C: hi u look cool

w: i want a buatiful out fit > <

C: you just check your place u save ur stuff

Second, we used a lot of expressional symbols to express our feeling. Since we were all new, we did not quite know how to use the gesture in Sl. The following are the examples:

A: >////////////////<

w: i want a buatiful out fit > <

w: i had been to Freebie and got a lot of clothes :P

Also, I found that we change to use native language when we are short of vocabulary in the target language. Here is the example when we told the peers some instruction for setting:

A: i m nor sure if i succeed to set it

C: press 即時通

C: and there is log chat

In the meeting with TA, because of different register, which is in the conference room with TA, the use of language becomes more formal compare to the chat between the peers. TA gave several questions for us to discuss. The interaction was going well. We shared our opinions and gave some feedback with each other. Sometimes TA would ask us to elaborate our ideas more and guide us to discuss further. Here is the example:

TA: Are you satisfied with the tools/page elements Blogger offered?

A: not really

C: not realyy

TA : why?

TA : does dome functions bother you?

C: it's hard to edit if u wants to post pictures

i: strange in their tools

A: i get used to the usage of Taiwanes Blog so .....i don't think blogger is convenient as pixnet or other blogs in TW

TA : i thought it was much the same as the wretch blog?

All in all, I like Second life a lot. I like to have a virtual class here. It is so free and so fun. What's more, I can make friends around the world and learn some real language use here. It really helps. I can't wait to be in SL again. :)