Some suggestions

[karabe]

Hello !

First of all, thank you for your website, your forum and the podcast.

I have some suggestions and ideas, and I wanted to know what you think about it :

- Openning a thread in which you only speak english. I know that it will be dificult for the beginners but I think that it could realy help us improving our english. For instance, I begin a discussion about a precise topic, the other members of the forum answer only in english and if someone doesn't understand a word or an expression, we try to explain it (in english), with simple words.
Their could be several threads, each one dedicated to a precise level : level one called "let's go easy we're just beginners" - level two "it's ok, w'ell try to understand..." - level three "Just test our english ! We're not beginners anymore" - level four "Try to follow if you think you're able to !", and so forth...

- Making a special section called "how do you say" to help people translate a french word or expression into english. We can also imagine an other section called "Que veut dire" to give translations from english to french. I noticed thar their already is a section "Questions" but I think it's too general. Openning precise sections would help people when making a specific search.

What do you think about that ?
PS : As you can see, my english is not very good and I probably make a lot of mistakes. Excuse me for that, that's why I'm here !

[Bettina]

hello Karabe, i read your proposition and i think it is a very good idea.

[karabe]

Thank you !

I have another suggestion :

When you speak english and you make mistakes, it would be nice to be corrected by the other members, in order to know what are your mistakes.
If nobody tells you what is wrong in your sentences it can take you a lot of time to notice it !
For exemple, MemberX says something and, at the end of my answer, I add few lines to correct what was wrong in his post. The correction could be announced by the word -CORRECTION- plus the name of each person I want to correct.
Here is an exemple

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MemberX's post :

Hi !
Bla bla bla bla bla bla...

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MemberY's post :

Hi MemberX !
Bla bla bla bla bla bla la bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla.

-----------------------------------------------
My post :

Hi MemberX, I agree with you, bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla.

-CORRECTION-
MemberX> You said "he done", the correct expression is "he did".
MemberY> You said "confiance", the correct word is "confidence"

-------------------------------------------------

What do you think about that ?
I will write a post in french about this suggestion in the thread "feel like speaking with beginners".

[Thomas]

Welcome to the forum karabe!

I really like your ideas. I have just started (as you have noticed, perhaps) the Beginners Discussions, and I'm thinking about different sections for different levels of practice, but I just don't want there to be too many sections. And it's the same thing with the help sections. I originally had different sections for translations, grammar, corrections, and vocabulary questions, but I thought that there were too many sections, so I deleted a few. Like I said, I just don't want there to be too many sections. But I'm trying to come up with a solution.

As for the corrections, I think that that's a good idea, except that I don't want people to worry about mistakes. I do want to help correct people's English, and I think that I will be making a general "Practice your English" section soon, and in that section corrections will be encouraged (and expected). In general, though, I don't want to "nitpick" (WordReference gave me "pinailler") too much, because I think that would make people hesitant to post. The trick is, which things should be corrected, and which should just be ignored? That's all I'm worried about with your corrections idea. But let me know what you think!

[karabe]

Thank you for your reply Thomas.

I think you're absolutely right. Some people may not want to be corrected and we should respect that.
But for those who want to be (like me) I have an idea :
they could add, at the top of their message, "A.C" (means "accept corrections). Then, the other members would know that this person wants to be corrected.
Exemple :
------------------
[A.C]
Hello,

bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla...
-------------------------------

Once again, I think it would realy help us improve our english.

What do you (I mean you Thomas and the other members) think about that ?

[Bettina]

personally, I want to be corrected. That's the only way to progress.