Tdol's English Language Blog

Typely

2017-08-21T10:57:24Z

Typely is a free editor that claims to be able to edit grammar. Most grammar tools are fairly limited, and this is no exception.

]]> This one barely allows people to copy and paste text, and its suggestions are based on weak and cliched views of the complexity of the English language. If you manage to paste in a text, which is not that straightforward, it may manage to give you a suggestion or two, but it is very far from turning a non-native learner's text into a native's text.

Non-Roman Language

2017-08-02T09:44:37Z

I have been studying Lao for the last few months. As I leave the school and go home to work on the internet, I don't practise that much. But I have been learning how to read and write in Lao.

]]> It is the first non-Roman alphabet language that I have learned. I chose to be illiterate in Cambodia and have never progressed much beyond knowing exit signs in Japan.

Learning to read again in your fifties is a humbling experience. And one I have enjoyed. I wouldn't be able to read a novel, but I have moved beyond decifering words. Lao isn't that simple a language, and when I went to Japan a few months ago, I felt much more confident about being able to work out their symbols. Learning beyond the way you write naturally is a step well worth taking.

EFSET

2015-12-22T09:45:44Z

EF (Education First) have created a free online language test called EFSET. As it stands, it is a bit of a curate's egg, but I do think that they are onto something. It's slick and available in several languages, and you can log in directly from Facebook,Google or Linkedin.

]]> They seem to want to provide some sort of alternative to IELTS and TOEFL, and I don't see any way that an online language test that could be taken by anyone will do much to replace them because it can be cheated so easily, but the fact that you can publish the results to Linkedin may mean that employers start to see it when people apply and start to notice it, and get an idea from the results, which can only be a good thing as long as this limitation is clear. Cheating is already a problem- the UK stopped accepting ETS exam results (TOEIC & TOEFL) for visas because people were taking the exams on other people's behalf. However, if people start taking the test and publishing their results online, then employers may naturally gain a sense of what to expect and be more aware of standards in interviews.

At the moment, it consists of a listening and a reading test. It's quick- it takes about 15 minutes. The test is mostly aimed for higher levels- the results a beginner would get from the current test would largely be irrelevant as they could easily be the product of chance. I think it could grow into a worthwhile tool. I don't see EFSET replacing IELTS and TOEFL, but I think that they could develop this into something useful if they continue to work on it and expand it to a number of levels.

It's free, you can take it any number of times, you can post the results to your Linkedin page- there's quite a lot going for it. I hope this does go somewhere.

Access to the forum from South Korea

2015-07-07T15:46:19Z

A couple of weeks ago, we blocked access to the forum from all IPs from South Korea. The forum had been under attack by some organised spammers for a few weeks, and it was ruining the forum. The attack was, presumably, using something like a botnet as there was a seemingly unending supply of different IPs used. Day after day, hundreds and hundreds of posts were being made and it was impossible to keep up with deleting and banning the accounts posting the spam. This was affecting the forum- people were complaining, and many were simply put off by finding page after page of nonsensical messages. The spam filter was not catching a lot of the messages as most didn't contain links but text pointing towards sites that were probably full of malware.

]]> We put other measures in place and now the attack seems to be receeding, so we have lifted the block. I apologise to our many genuine users from South Korea, who have been greatly inconvenienced by this. However, we had no other option as the spammers were using so many different South Korean IPs that we could not stop them simply in the normal way by blocking individual addresses or batches, and lifted it as soon as possible to try to get everything back to normal. We have seen a lot of spam and advertising over the years in the forum, but this was on another level completely. I know it must have seemed strange and unfair to be denied access to a forum out of the blue that you have been using regularly, and hope you understand that it was a temporary response to a situation where the forum was being overwhelmed.

Forum Policies- Cross-Forum Posting

2015-05-28T11:57:03Z

Quite a lot of people post the same question in a number of ESL forums. The logic behind doing this is clear- you should be able to access a wider selection fof views and opinions and get better answers. However, things don't always work out the way people think and this process can lead to objections from the people answering.

]]> Firstly, the world of forums about the English language is limited, so many people answer questions in a number of forums. They get tired of seeing the same question over and over again. Many of the questions that are posted simultaneously in a number of forums are basic questions of fact, which means they don't require a lot of answers.

I can see why people want to post in a number of forums, but I would suggest that you don't do it simultaneously- post in one, see what answers you get and then think about posting in another. Also, don't post questions that have a single answer in more than one place. If you follow these simple steps, you'll get better answers from a broader and more friendly base than if you simply slap the same question in ten places in the space of ten minutes and hope for the best.

First Certificate- Updated Exam Specifications

2015-03-09T10:50:13Z

We are updating our site to incorporate the changes that have been made by the updates to the First Certicate in English (FCE) exam from Cambridge English.

]]> Lesson plans have already been fixed. The Reading Comprehension section is a bit more complex as we will have to redefine sections to fit the new exam, but we are working on it and will have it sorted soon. However, for the moment, please check the new exam specifications before taking the exam or assuming that everything on the site reflects the new exam perfectly.

Many thanks and good luck to people taking this, or any other, English language examination.

Salaries

2015-01-06T10:06:17Z

I left the UK in 2004. There are jobs currently advertised that pay the same, or in some cases 10% less, than I was earning then. Add even a very small amount of inflation and this makes for a huge drop in spending power. The average salary that people talk about in Japan today is the same as when I first visited Japan in 2005. I saw hourly rates in Portugal, where I first taught, a decade later that were the same as when I left.

]]> When I first taught, there was no internet, no mobile phones and flights were expensive. I have since lived in places far more different and remote that were closer to home. When I started, salaries were reasonable- they had to be. Now there is a race to the bottom, and the starter ESL teacher will be paid far less than before. There are still opportunities for specialists, but ESL is a far less valuable profession today than when I started out and that race to the bottom is only likely to get worse.

Family-Friendly Forum

2014-11-16T15:31:40Z

I have had a few complaints about swearing in the forum, even though the posts were legitimate questions about the use of slang and swearwords. There aren't that many threads dealing with these, but some of them do contain language that somewould consider to be extreme and taboo.

]]> If people could avoid using the words in the titles of threads, so that they don't appear in the index, it would be a great help and would avoid causing offence to people who don't want to see these words. Like many people answering, I use asterisks in the body of posts too when answering these questions.If people could do this,we would be able to discuss these things without causing offence to anyone.

Football Glossary

2014-06-08T17:01:58Z

The World Cup is about to start and the football glossary posted in the forum a couple of years ago has been updated, turned into a regular glossary format and is now available as the Glossary of Football Vocabulary.

]]> If you have any comments, the original forum threads can be found here. You could also contact Alex Case, the author, directly on his personal blog:

If you want more on ESL and football, you could also visit LanguageCaster, a site dedicated to Learning English through football.

Forum- Passwords & Personal Data

2013-09-27T12:48:04Z

After we changed everyone's passwords a couple of weeks ago, people were asking some questions about passwords and personal data. Firstly, we don't hold much personal data- as people have usernames, we don't know real names. We do ask for the year and date of birth to comply with the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA). We ask for an active email account and send a link that has to be clicked on to complete the registration. This is to make it harder for automated registration by advertisers and spammers. We also ask where you're from, where you are based now and what your first language is. There are also optional fields where people can add biographical information and interests if they wish. Unless you use your real name as a username or connect via Facebook, the data is anonymous. If an acount is deleted, this information is deleted from our records.

]]> We cannot see passwords. Here's a screenshot of what we can see in admin:

The box for password is blank- we have no idea what it is or how many characters it uses, and we have no way of seeing it. We can enter a new password, and occasionally do when someone is having problems logging in or sorting out a new password. However, the second we save it, the box goes blank again.

If you're emailing or sending us a Private Message about your account, please don't send us the password- the username is enough.

[Edited by the webmaster to add...]

Since we use the leading brand of forum software (vBulletin) to manage our forum membership lists, these passwords are stored in a secure way and we have no possibility of retrieving them from the database. For those that are more technical, the actual passwords are salted with a random three character string created on registration. The actual password is stored as md5(md5(password) + salt).

Talk a mile in my shoes

2013-03-24T16:23:06Z

I was having lunch a few months ago when I suddenly struggled to get to the end of what I was saying- my voice dipped and wouldn't come back. Within a week or so, I couldn't produce any noise and was forced into a soundless whisper. If I strained a bit, I could just about make a sound that could possibly be heard at very close range. My first medical consultation did nothing, and I had tickets to go abroad that meant going with just this silent croak.

]]> It soon became clear that such inability to speak is not that common- most people at first didn't know what to do and I had to adjust. Some were worried that I was infectious, so I quickly learnt to say that I simply couldn't speak at all- then they would lean closer to try to understand. Many were keen to help and didn't worry about this risk. You can choose who's right.

How do you ask a taxi or tuk-tuk to turn left when they cannot hear you? You have to tap and point. One friend thought I was trying to whisper a secret message when I arrived at his door with a porter, when I was just trying to say hello. It's easy to carry a pen and paper, and your pointing and signalling get better, but it's harder when you have lunch with a friend you haven't seen for a couple of years and communication is very limited.

You do realise that some people you deal with think you're stupid- friends will find workarounds, strangers are different.

I knew that it was a temporary state, and it only lasted a couple of months, but it did give me an idea of what it is like to be deprived of one aspect of language completely- it's horrible, but the good thing is that most people I came across were willing to try and help. Some thought I was a bit thick, which must be very frustrating long-term, but I only came across one complete and utter jerk. I might have been lucky and there may be more than him in real life, but I did get the impression that if people don't think you'll infect them, they'll try to help. It's complex, frustrating and takes adapting to, and I only had to do it for a couple of months.

Explaining for the third time that you don't need a return ticket when you are heading somewhere you have a residence visa for is difficult when you can make no noise, and want to explode with frustration at someone unable to read this who wants to stop you getting on a plane. I used to think that being deaf or mute were nothing compared to being blind. Having experienced one of these sensory losses, even for such a short time, I am no longer so sure. When the next course of treatment started working, I found that I could make odd, random noises, then speech started coming back. It was a miraculous thing, but one many don't get.

China Holistic English

2012-12-17T12:29:41Z

A few years ago we used to host some pieces written by Martin Wolff and Niu Quiang about their experiments in trying to teach English in new ways in China, which have since evolved into the China Holistic English site (link broken).

]]> Later, Martin wanted to move the pieces to a new site with someone and asked us to take them down. We were experiencing some technical difficulties and couldn't do it as fast as he wanted, so he launched a breach of copyright complaint against us, even though we managed to do things in a couple of days.

He then fell out with the person on the new site and later regretted having made the move. He was a complex and prickly character who rubbed many people up the wrong way, but he also made a lot of friends.

He and I continued to communicate by email after our difficulties, and I always enjoyed his sarcasm and wit. His papers were also peppered with it. Many disliked his ideas, and I disagreed with plenty, but they were heartfelt and thought-out. He was never dull and often had a lot to offer. I was saddened to receive an email from a colleague of his that informed his mailing list that he had died recently, and I wish Holistic English well.

Budget ESL in the Philippines

2012-11-19T15:27:26Z

There have been a number of articles about the growth of ESL teaching in the Philippines like this, but some of what they are stating don't strike me as right. The Philippines does have potential and in the drive to reduce costs, it is clearly a place to watch out for.]]>

There are many native speakers here, but these are mostly found in the upper levels of society, and connected people with MBAs from American universities, etc, are not queuing up to teach ESL. People who speak Taglish often do not have the clear American accent described- they have their own stress, and use their own forms and vocabulary. I have no idea how the claim to be the third largest English-speaking nation is made, and won't challenge it, though I can't help wondering whether there are really more native speakers here than in India.

I have heard anecdotal reports from Japanese learners who switched to teachers from the Philippines that they did so because their teachers had a better understanding of Asian culture, which may be a very good sales pitch. Price may also be an advantage. This article seems fair, but the idea given in some places that there are dozens and dozens of millions of cheap native speakers here waiting for your call or to teach is an exaggeration.

Speaking Activities That Don't Suck

2012-11-05T13:16:14Z

I have English Teacher X's obra prima to read next and have enjoyed the other ebooks - they include a lot of sensible and realistic advice - but I didn't enjoy Speaking Activities that Don't Suck as much.]]>

I have since lived in SE Asia and seen how things are, but this book is not universal. It may help a beginner teacher, but an experienced teacher might find more in the other books.

How To Survive Living Abroad

2012-10-29T14:21:33Z

The next of English Teacher X's ebooks that I have read is subtitled An expatriate guide to not getting robbed, scammed, jailed or killed. In pre-Skype days, I was living in a place in SE Asia where the internet was expensive and used to use an internet cafe across the road Most days I heard someone phoning home to ask their family to send them some money as they'd been robbed. The risks he's talking about are very real, and the first part of the book makes a lot of sense.]]>

I found the second half about sex, drugs and alcohol less interesting, which is strange as these are often said to be his specialist areas. It picks up again when talking about security. It's a patchy and uneven book and I found myself skipping over bits, but there are very good sections and a lot of it rings very true. The person thinking about teaching English abroad would lose nothing by reading it and might gain a lot.