Trying to find a fit dress in Second Life

I went to a lot of places in today's SL adventure. I was trying to find a fit dress and my boyfriend in SL teleported me to the place called noob island( picture as follows). There were a lot of free clothes to choose from. However, what really annoyed me was that the computer lagged so that I kept logging in and out, which took me almost one hour. I think that's one of inconvience for second life if the computer of the user does not work well.
After a while, my boyfriend teleported me to the place called Heaven of the God. We greeted each other as following:

D: Hey, Cherry. Iit's nice to see you.

C: Me too :)

Then I met a new friend here, whose name was luna, the girl who wore high heels and danced well. She was a friend of D and actually D was the manager in this place. In this place, I observed that some people flirted with Luna by saying:

F: Wanna fuck?

L: No thank you.

I was a little shocked when hearing that and finally understood what Emma said "harrassment". Perhaps in the virtual world, some people think they do not have to take responsibility for what they say.

Later, Luna suggested us to go to the club (the picture as follows). We teleported there; however, there was no music playing at that time. So Luna left soon. When it was time for me to leave SL, I said goodbye to him by saying:

C: gotta go, D.
C: see u soon :)
D: Okay, bye.
D: hug (with the kiss gesture)
C: kiss
C: bye

Different relationship has diffferent degree of interaction. For the relationship of lovers, they will be more intimate and care about each other more. They will IM each other whern they are online and share stuff with each other.

I like to be in relationship with D. It makes me have some attachment and have more strong motivation to go to SL.

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. :)

I've got a boyfriend in Second Life!!!

Today I went to freebie heaven in SL, trying to get some free stuffs. Then I met HIM. At first, he asked me if I had some change to spare with him. I told him I was new. Then he added me as friend and teleported me to Sooseunhwa.

After greeting, he asked me if I would be his girlfriend in SL. The following is our conversation:

d: you said your new here

d: berstam: in sl

d: so how are you

C: yeah

C: i am good thx:)

d: i can buy you stuff if you want

C: Thanks :) I want a pair of earing

d: will you be my girlfriend in sl

d: ill treat you good

C: let's try ( a little shy)

d: is that a yes

C: yeah

d: so we are together in second life then

d: nice

C: it will be a special experience

d gave you Silver Hoops-Left ear.

d: for starters

I was shy when I heard that but I decided to gave it a try. He gave me a pair of earing and took me to the mall for shopping.

I found that people in SL really care about their apperance and dressing and I was no exception. After we were in a relationship. He started to give some "suggestion" for my dressing. He asked me to take off the gloves ( I admit that they are not good)and changed jeans into the skirt. His look was nice. He wore a shining necklace and watch and dressed in fashion.

As a new player, I asked him the question about where he was from in real life. At first, he did not answer me. After we were in a relationship. He asked me where the time scale I was in real life and also answered my question. It was kind of paradox because we were in the virtual life but we ask about the things in real life. Maybe in SL, we can let go of who you are in real life and start a new life in SL. I think it is one of the reasons that Sl is so attractive for the people around the world.

Why do we use stories for teaching?

Verdugo, D. R. & Belmonte, I. A. (2007)


I like to use stories as a teaching resource. There are many advantages. Take my tutor student in senior high school, Ivy, for example. I taught her English with the song "Travelin' Soldier" whose lyrics was a story about the love between a town girl and an American soldier who was going to Vietnam war. The following is the clip and the lyrics:

"Travelin' Soldier"

Two days past eighteen
He was waiting for the bus in his army green
Sat down in a booth in a cafe there
Gave his order to a girl with a bow in her hair
He's a little shy so she gives him a smile
And he said would you mind sittin' down for a while
And talking to me,I'm feeling a little low
She said I'm off in an hour and I know where we can go
So they went down and they sat on the pier
He said I bet you got a boyfriend but I don't care
I got no one to send a letter to
Would you mind if I sent one back here to you


Chorus:
I criedNever gonna hold the hand of another guy
Too young for him they told her
Waitin' for the love of a travelin' soldier
Our love will never end
Waitin' for the soldier to come back again
Never more to be alone when the letter saidA soldier's coming home


So the letters came from an army camp
From California then Vietnam
And he told her of his heartIt might be love and all of the things he was so scared of
He said when it's getting kinda rough over here
I think of that day sittin' down at the pier
And I close my eyes and see your pretty smile
Don't worry but I won't be able to write for awhile


[Chorus]
One Friday night at a football game
The Lord's Prayer said and the Anthem sang
A man said folks would you bow your heads
For a list of local Vietnam dead
Crying all alone under the stands
Was a piccolo player in the marching band
And one name read but nobody really cared
But a pretty little girl with a bow in her hair


[Thanks to www.azlyrics.com ]


By using a story as a context, the student can contextulize the new language and also can make the context meaningful to her. Because the background of this story is Vietnam war, which is associated with the student's history knowledge. By this story, the student can learn the cultural value and perception from it. Besides, it is the story about love, which is also associated with the adolescent girl's feeling. Therefore, I found that Ivy wasvery interested in the story and was deeply into it.


Because the student is motivated, she will eaily absorb the linguistic forms, grammar, phrases and vocabulary from the story. Besides, the meaningful story can make the student connect what she has learned together.


Besides, in this story, the writer uses some verbal expression, which the student can learn the verbal usage from the story.


In conclusion, using stories for teaching not only enhances student's motivation but also enhances the comprehensive comprehebsion for reading.

ICT-Mediated Learning -- reflect on an activity-reflection cycle

ICT-Mediated Learning
An activity-reflection cycle (Richards, 2004; 2005)



After reading this essay, I am interested in the activity-reflection cycle. It is interested that there is the difference of learning between the western countries and the eastern countries. Eastern countries focus on this line: content—process. It should be traced back to the eastern education system. Take Taiwan for example. The education in Taiwan emphasizes on the content of textbooks. The teachers ask the students to memorizing lots of theories, sometimes even cramming the knowledge without digesting it well. Some of the students do not know how to apply what they have learned to practice. Therefore, the knowledge they have learned becomes “dead”. What’s worse, the idea of cramming kills the creativity of students. They fail to think and reflect what they have learned and do further research. That’s why even though we eastern people stand out in the academic Olympic but fail to achieve the Nobel Prize. Another example is English teaching in Taiwan. The teachers focus too much on the grammar and ignore the importance of listening and speaking. Therefore, many students end up learning English for many years but not able to communicate with foreigners. It is such a pity! On the other hand, western countries focus on another line: doing —thinking. The teachers in Western countries encourage creativity. The students are not afraid to ask questions. They have more opportunities to do the projects, which will apply what they have learned and they really absorb the knowledge. That’s what our education should emulate.

【Heros】-- I Am Becom Death

Link:http://www.tvsquad.com/2008/10/06/heroes-i-am-become-death/

Title: Heroes: I Am Become Death

Dates of Entry: Oct. 18th 2008

Summary: This article comments about the plots and the roles in the show Heroes this season. Besides, the blogger also compares this season with the previous season.



I am impressive of the blogger that he uses figure of speech to describe, which makes the article more literary. Here is the example:

“However, just like you'll tell your wife whom you love more than anything else that she has a piece of lettuce stuck in her teeth, I'm not going to just put on rose-colored glasses and pretend that every scene, line and moment of each episode is solid gold. If I see lettuce, I'm going to call them on it. Because the way I see it, it's just lettuce. It doesn't change how wonderful and beautiful she is in the slightest. It's just a little thing that needs to be taken care of because it's distracting me and it doesn't really fit the whole look her face is going for. Kind of like whatever's going on with Mohinder.”


There are literary sentences in his writing, however, the blogger still uses some colloquial language such as “suck” and “bitch”.


Besides, I found an interesting part in the blogger’s writing. He crosses out what he says instead of deleting it: “ And we finally learned what Sylar's true ability is I finally thought about how Sylar's ability really works”


There are a lot of interaction between the blogger and the readers in this article. For example, in the beginning of the article, the blogger interacts with the readers about the content of his previous review by responding the readers: “A lot of people have said in the comments that it appears as if I don't like Heroes. Believe me, that's not true. I'm actually a huge fan of the show”. Besides, the blogger uses the humorous way to interact with the readers by saying that “Sylar is living in the Bennett household and is a 1950's sitcom ... mom (you thought I was going to say dad).” In his writing, the readers are regarded as second person (you), which puts the relationship closer. In the middle of the article, the blogger interacts with the readers by listing lots of questions in a roll for the readers to think about together. In the end of the article, the blogger also interacts with the readers by asking their opinions like “How about you?” What’s more, the blogger holds a voting activity for the readers to express their opinions.


There are 46 comments responded to this article. It is really interesting to read the comments of this article. They have a lively discussion and interaction. The first lively discussion is started by the reader commenter 3. He complains the TV squad does not provide the current-reviews and details of the show Heroes and that the website is becoming irrelevant. He hopes TV squad to improve. However, some of the readers do not agree with his comment. The reader commenter 4 responds him back by telling him that TV squad really did with ironic tone “Apparently you don't read, Mr. Faithful Reader. They covered this last week. Archives, Mr. Reader! ”The reader commenter 5 also provides the link for him. After the reader commenter 3 reads the above comments, he feels ignorant and also thanks them to provide the information. On the other hand, some of the readers agree with the point of view of the reader commenter 3 such as the commenter 8 and 9. they both feel the same way that TV squad does not keep the quality as usual and becomes lame. It is really interesting to see them interact with each other.


Some readers will shares the extra information with the blogger and the other readers. The reader commenter 2 is the example. He shares the documentary about real-life superheroes in his comment and he also provides the link.


Some readers will use expressional symbols in their comments. For example, the reader commenter 11 uses “LOL”, the reader commenter 23 uses “*giggly*” and the reader commenter 27 uses “:D”.


Some of the readers use simplified form in their writing. For example, the reader commenter 20 uses “btw” and the reader commenter 27 uses “w/”.


I found out that the commenters in this article write longer than the other I have read. Some of the commenters use formal style in their writing. Some of the commenters uses informal style in their writing such as “kinda” in the comment 23.

【Survuvior】 -- It Was Like Christmas Morning

Link:
http://www.tvsquad.com/2008/10/09/survivor-it-was-like-christmas-morning/

Title: Survivor: It Was Like Christmas Morning

Dates of Entry: Oct. 14th 2008

Summary: This article gives the details for the show Survivor. The challengers are going to have a grouping for three tribes and then compete with each other. The blogger gives some comments according to the show.


In the beginning of the article, the blogger posts a picture of his favorite challenger, Ace, as an opening. Then the blogger quotes a line of Ace right under the picture, "We were like legless chickens racing against sleek weasels," which guides the readers into the context of Survivor. The blogger even writes in a roundabout way to make the readers curious: “One would think we were in for mud wrestling or ... read on past the jump for my review of tonight's show!” By this way, it will motivate the readers to keep reading the article.


As for the writing style, it is informal. The blogger uses many colloquial expressions. One is slang. There is lots of slang such as “dumb”, “butt”, “That’s kind of neat” and “darn” in the article. Second is exclamation word such as “Yay”and “Heck” in the article. Besides, in the article, the blogger expresses his feeling toward the episode, such as “Sounds boring, eh?”


The blogger also gives some information to the readers such as the tribe ranking and comments on some of the challengers’ performances. I found out that the blogger is really into the show. He gives his opinion of who he wants to pick up if he were in the show. When the result does not turn out in the way he wants, he writes down indignantly “They don’t know what I know” to express his discontent.


As for the structure of the article, the blogger gives the titles of the paragraphs in order to make the readers to get the idea better. The blogger also uses hyperlink to make the readers get further information. In the end of the article, the blogger holds a voting activity to interact with the readers.


There are 11 comments responded to this article. The reader commenter 2 interacts with the blogger by expressing appreciation of the article. (Thanks, Jackie.)
The reader commenter 3 and 4 interact with the reader commenter 1. The reader commenter 1 questions the numbers of the tribe so the commenter 3 and 4 provide the answer. The reader commenter 8 uses lots of slang in his writing like “Hi-Def”, “dude” and “She’s hot.”