Hi everyone, I'm new member!☐☐
Can we create a new group for people who only need help practicing English???
I spoke to a friend the other day about couchsurfing and she said 'I used to go onto the couchsurfing community but I don't anyone more because all the posts are from people trying to find foreigners to practice English with'. I thought that was extreme but she has a point. Too many people in HCMC use couchsurfing only to look for people to practice English with and then half the posts are about this at times.
I thought this to be a shame as i'd like to see her (my friend) at events!!!
In other cities around the world there are more interesting events and posts for more things than just opportunities for people to practice a language.
It would be nice if people came to an event because they wanted to 1) be a part of the event 2) get some time to practice English. This is true most of the time.
but don't join an event and write 'great I can practice English!' because then your main reason is to practice English not join the event!
I know it's a cultural thing too. In other languages, you wouldn't say to people 'can we be friends? I want to practice English'! It's ok to say it in Viet 'Can we be friends?' after just meeting someone but in English and many other languages it sounds weird and desperate. Many people who don't learn Viet don't know this and many Viet just translate words not culture. It is not ok to say in many cultures 'Can we be friends?' when you don't know someone or you have just met them...you can say you are looking to meet interesting people...
If someone says to me 'Can we be friends?' after I just met them I am less likely to help. If you want to make friends, then just say that! I did it when I first came to Viet nam. I said I am new and I'd like to meet people to show me around and take me to nice places.
Some of the people I met in my first two weeks I am still friends with today. That was great! I got a lot of replies. So...if you are Viet and want to make friends then say I live here I can teach you about the city and show you some cool personal places, I think more people will reply positively and then make some suggestions. As couchsurfing.org is very international you will definitely have a chance to practice many languages and English.
This is better and a lot more meaningful than 'I am Viet, I want to practice English. Can we be friends?'
If we make a group for people who want to meet people just to practice English and make friends, then we will have more energy, time and space for interesting events and posts like...
- bicycle trip to the countryside/meditation in the park/art show/dance class/party this saturday etc These are more cultural and social.
This is couchsurfing!
1) Meeting and sharing!
...and of course a lot of language practice will come through this at the same time ;)
So, what do you think?
Can we try to clean up the community a bit more by referring newcomers who are only interested in learning a language to a special group?
and then more interesting posts will show with more space available!
I only moan because I care! :) I hope I haven't offended anyone but it would be nice to see only interesting and social posts!
Chuc may mon!
Also if you can't speak English and you want to get a message across then write viet! please don't translate as translating viet to english doesnt make sense
It's great to find out some new passages from u. I think while we do sth together, we begin to be a partner and friends.^^ I like this!
I disagree.
I joined many different CF communities and only in this community do I find so many posts about "help with English!". This is couchsurfing and so many Vietnamese people are taking advantages and changing the beautiful meaning of its. I feel pretty annoyed whenever I see such posts about helping with English. Some may defend "okay, you are good at English so you don't care. We need to learn. It's none of your business". But yes, I'm sure most foreigners here who are travelers would feel uncomfortable as well since I get email notifications all day. There are thousands of websites to learn English on the Internet and they can always find available talking/chatting partners and teacher. Why do they have to bombard this TRAVELING community? I find it a shame being a Vietnamese member here because I don't find such posts on many other communities I join around the world.
There are language communities on CF as well, though I find it funny to have such communities on a "lonelyplanet" website like this.
However, I agree with you Tom, it's better people stop saying "hey, let's hang out! I want to practice English" because surely they will get the chance to practice language. Instead, they should have more respect for the community, the travelers as well as themselves not showing themselves a shallow person.
I know my message sounds harsh and Tom's message is very gentle and understanding already.
Life is about serving others.
Trúc, I totally agree with you. Give Couchsurfing the proper function it is here named.
Worse still, some guy always post for event of meeting locals to practice languages. It's despicable the way Couchsurfing is abused for business like coffeeshop and restaurants, and the couchsurfers in Saigon community are just procurers for Cafés or restaurants. In so doing those people don't serve anybody, they serve themselves, they are profiteers.
Yes, i also saw many posts about "let's gather at this and that cafe, restaurant" to practice English. I find it ironic because for the sake of speaking language, we don't have to practically gather at such places. Being a local, I know the prices of drinking that recommended there are not cheap at all. I know many English clubs at coffee shops which offer a much cheaper price for students, and they never go to CF to post and call students to come there but they still have foreign volunteers.
I can only assume that the Viet people who come here and ask help with English are either too lazy or too bad at Google.
Don't make fun of the helpless.
Yeah, Some of my new friends from CS asked me if Vietnamese people just looked for foreigners to practice English?
It's kinda shame
Count me in!!!
Good ideas Tom, there are group of Saigon language Exchange @ https://www.couchsurfing.org/group.html?gid=62651
and Language Exchange @ https://www.couchsurfing.org/group.html?gid=4441
Let join.
Totally agree! Dont want to be mean but this site is definetely not an english club :)
totally agree
Your agreement is inconclusive.
You are so great!!! I like your good ideas
Le Oanh is blind.
Cleaning things is like weeding.
I host 4 times
firsr I .aslo practice english.but after they go.I and ny familly miss them likge our family.they make our know more cuture we can not buy by money
Tom, great idea. My fraternity used to 'own a road' with a sorority and each semester we'd have a 'volunteer' event where we cleaned the road together, afterwards have a BBQ or something. Both cleaning together and after volunteer event built new friendships and developed existing ones.
We wore bright orange safety vests and had prongs and gloves to pick up trash. Needles and other dangerous objects were not picked up.
I'm down to co host an event if someone wants to help me. I'm not sure if we need permission from local government to organize an event like this. Any suggestions?
Cheers,
Eric
We need more English clubs and other clubs.
Thank you so much Tom :)
I did wonder about that . You helped !!
The post kinda long but in overall I agree with you. Thanks for post it, Tom. You must understand the culture very well and hope it will help people who want to practice their language.
In the next month, I will set up E club in D5 street, Binh Thanh district. If you care, you can contact me. I want to create a place who want to practise speaking E and cser can have a chance to meeting up with vietnamese people
Totally agree!
PS: did u mean "good luck" in the last line? If it is, it's better be "chuc may man" rather than "chuc may mon". If it isnt, i'm sorry for misunderstanding :)
Hey,
I'm still hoping somebody steps up and acts on Tom's point of community service while practicing English. I'm willing to help, but would like a local or someone fluent in Vietnamese to help coordinate with local authorities about the possibility of a road clean up. Please send me a private message or reply to this post. If you just want to practice English, but not volunteer, there are many existing clubs:
Sozo Coffee Shop
176 Bui Vien, D.1
Notes
• Tues & Fri 6.00 - 9.00 pm (TIme / date may have changed) https://www.facebook.com/Sozovn
Drink and Talk Coffee
B1-B2, D2 Street, Binh Thanh District
(08) 6275-1004
Notes
• Check out their website & become a member: http://drinkandtalk.net/cafe/
Master’s Cup Coffee Shop
B-08 Nam Do, Phu My Hung, D.7
(08) 54170978 http://www.masterscupsaigon.com/
Hoa Huong Duong (Sunflower)
59 Nguyen Khac Nhu (near the corner of NKN and Co Bac)
01264685686 / 0918711402 (not sure if still open, please call to find out)
MM Café
130 Ba Thang Hai St. District 10
(08) 3868-1809 (call if still open)
Youth Cultural House (near Diamond Plaza)
4 Pham Ngoc Thach, D.1
Notes
• Sunday 1.00 - 6.00 pm
Completely free! http://tuoitrenews.vn/english-study/3576/english-speaking-club-review-2 (I wrote this review ;)
thanks for all the comments everyone! Eric, what do you mean by road clean up? What do we do? We should definitely do this! I am up for this!
@ Tom, your post is great & meaningful...
I am living in Vung Tau, if someone really want to "practice English" I would like to join the group & share "learning E experience" between member & member...
P/S: I have some very good & useful soft-wares for whom wants to study E "by her/himself"...
Warmest welcome to Vung Tau City..., friends....
Have a nice weekend ahead!
Couch Surfing will always be abused because humans abuse everything because all humans are abusers. It is common sense.
Agree!! I never hard learn enough for practice English...so be great have group improve it together!
Road cleanup is basically walking along a street and picking up litter. For safety, we wore bright colored 'construction vests' and had latex gloves and prongs. We worked with the local city government to 'Adopt a road' and picked up litter twice a year... in saigon, i dont think twice a year is enough ;-)
another opportunity tom suggested: we do gardening work, plant flowers, trees, plants, pull weeds, etc. If you are fluent in vietnamese and can help contact a local organization to volunteer our services, please send us a private messgae so we can start coordinating :-)
cheers,
eric
Does that penetrate the root issues?
Our future event will be open to all who want to partixipate. One of the first steps is raising awareness. It starts with one. But if you are a negative nancy personality, nobody is forcing you to do anything. (Im refering to the K.M. poster)
smile :-)
Who is being negative?
Yeah..I'm in
Appreciate Tom's ideas. We disagree with language learning topics but nobody has ever had a practical action to help us improve this. Cheers!- Has anybody know anything about Secondary Oatmill? Do you believe in a member without a complete profile? I just got a private message from Oatmill, not through Couchsurfing (?), I am still wondering how he can get in touch through my Yahoo Messenger. He seems to be knowledgeable and know a lot about other CS members. He identified himself as a free worker of some sort. He sounded indignant about some members as though he was seeking fair treatment for a friend of his. Sounded like sort of vigilante justice.
Hey Oatmeal, this is a commmunity of nice Couchsurfers. Don't kick up a rumpus!
oh
Don't bias!
Secondary Oatmill is a nice guy despite his sarcastic humor.
by the way, his profile was deleted... Weird...
And Nickbitshull: no picture, 98 yo, profile just opened, no ref.
You were at the same ghost school with Oatmill? :)
Talk to Joey Arnold (OriginalOatmeal):
http://OriginalOatmeal.WordPress.com
http://FaceBook.com/OriginalOatmeal
http://YouTube.com/OriginalOatmeal
OriginalOatmeal@Gmail.com
let send joey home
lets send luke a girl friend
joey just remind me about some nephews who always try to horse around and shout loudly to get adults a look and claps. :>>
oh really?
clap clap.. i ride horsey - Okay, I've avoided getting involved in the whole Joey thing so far, but I feel that this needs to be said:
If you want Joey/Oatmeal/Kim/whateverhisnameis to piss off and leave us alone, the very simple solution is to STOP RESPONDING TO HIM WHEN HE POSTS ON HERE. Just ignore him. He is looking for attention and validation, and every time you reply to him or acknowledge him, no matter how well thought your argument, you are giving him the attention he seeks and encouraging him to post again. So stop.
Please guys. I know it's difficult, but it's the only way!
If you still need convincing, read point #4 here: http://bit.ly/1b4nPtc
From the above link:
"He's not expecting agreement or for the community to change based on his feedback. He's looking for that community to attack him. He wants the attention. He can't get love from the group, but he can get hate, and even hate is better than apathy.
Therefore, screaming insults at him only ensures that he'll continue doing what he's doing. If nobody responds to anything he says, he'll simply get bored and go away.
It's so simple, yet incredibly hard to do. Every instinct in your body will scream for you to react, the same instinct that makes the other dogs in a pack attack the one acting like a fucktard. You must resist it.
Before you can even stop to think about what you're going to say, your fingers will be hammering out the perfect combination of letters to "put him in his place." Understand this: if you combined all of the languages from every life form on every developed planet in an infinite number of universes, you would not be able to construct a single sentence that would accomplish this goal.
He's not after an argument. He's after your response. Any response. If you hit that "enter" button, he automatically wins."
This could probably do with being translated into Vietnamese...
I totally agree. It seems like he's bringing up all the previous posts to get more attention. So it's a smart choice to remain silent :) He'll gradually get bored, I hope.
Nice
not true
U mad, bro?
I always pictured trolls as just angry nerds, but never thought they might literally be mentally ill. I heard through the grape vine that "He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named" stopped taking medication and Saigon's CS community took the toll. Just in case the grape vine had any truth in its rumors I decided to feed the troll. Worth a shot I guess. But never again :> It's a shame that CS can't block "You-Know-Who's" IP address or something.
Ah well.
Great article btw. In case you haven't already seen this video of how to thwart an internet troll: http://youtu.be/FMEe7JqBgvg
Michael, you are prematurely stereotyping. You are making judgement calls without sufficient evidence or understanding to the situation. Pray for more developed wisdom.
Point taken.
I regret falling for the bait that this army of fake profiles put in front of me. I could see the trap but just couldn't resist. What a mistake that was.
But will ignoring the legion of fakes be enough? Seriously, i'm starting to be more pissed at the couchsurfing admins than at the lame dudes for allowing him/them to come back again and again, with no problem whatsoever.
Ignoring something is all fine and dandy. But when something is stinking your backyard it's hard to ignore the smell.
someone can explain what does he say, i don't undsrstand any more
noooooooooooooo thanh chien please don't miss the point! hahaha! No more explanations and discussions about the boy
Do you mean you don't understand what I said or what Joey said?
co lẽ chúng ta gần bản địch tiếng Việt....
Couldn't agree more and good point.
Yay . . that's the point! Keep ignoring!
Yah! I got it. Ignoring n no more!
why are you pissed at the admin. we are all volunteers with no pay and we have our lives to live too...
Matt-Teo.Jolley Likes This: (thumbs up)
Couch Surfing is a forum website with questions and answers. However, when some ask questions about learning English, meeting people, finding a place to live, eat, those members are outcast, alienated, banished, spat upon, similar to how the Germans did so to the Jews. Some of these bullies on CS are miniature versions of Adolf Hitler, Osama Bin Laden, & Barack Obama.
He has his clone anytime you want to exterminate his presence. Accept the truth he must coexist with you. Joey has his all rights to co-exist. Piss your own face George Millo!!!!!
Joey is the air we breath.
Trolls are people, too.
trolls are people, too, for sure
Don't feed George.
huh?
It isn't that what Couchsurfing is about George. CS is about gathering more people. Wake up! you're so ego.
huh?
If you know he has a need of validation then let him be :) Show some compassion.
@Phuc Nguyen Lam: do you know Him? is he such a pathetic guy that you feel like showing your compassion?
huh?
huh huh?
Where is Joey Arnold, the Original Oatmeal?
http://OriginalOatmeal.WordPress.com
oh?
I was pretending to be Joey Arnold, but I read that the police of Vietnam kicked him out of Vietnam. I am talking about Original Oatmeal. Here is what he wrote as follows.
The police in Vietnam kicked me out of my house without telling me why, which means it may happen again. I was not told why at all. If I try living at another apartment or hotel, this may happen again.
.
.
Yours Truly,
Joey Arnold, the Original Oatmeal. http://OriginalOatmeal.WordPress.com/ .
OriginalOatmeal@Gmail.com
0-163-425-1695
Yesterday, I fell off my bicycle (broke my 8.000.000 VND glasses) & I was told I have no work (for this month of July 2013) from a school I work teaching English for.
.
.
That means less money.
Later, the power cord to this laptop I use starting shooting fireworks. Today, a man sold me the wrong replacement cord for almost 400.000 VND. He will not give me a refund. I gave him the money too quickly. I showed him the problems and he laughed at me.
A place tried selling me rice and chicken and rice to me for 60.000 VND, when it is suppose to cost around 15.000. I ended up giving them 30.000.
After that I was riding my bicycle for the past 4 hours because I kept on getting lost, & I skip breakfast everyday, because I do not even enough money for rent right now and I have no where to go.
.
.
.
Smile.
As I was riding my bicycle a few guys and girls said hello to me, which gave me a smile to my face, in the mist of this temporary storm. At the moment, I have no idea what I should do.
I was not told why I cannot live in this room at this house in district Binh Thanh. I was not told when I have to leave. i do not know where to go. Here is my current address as following:
.
.
The Never Ending Story in Never Land.
Joey Arnold
191/37b Võ Duy Ninh, phường 22
Quận Bình Thạnh, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
.
.
.
On top of this, it is my mother's birthday.
Marilyn Mitchell. Oo Joey Arnold. Rick Arnold.
Restore Main Street. Mea Omnia. Jen-jen Pableo.
Live long & prospers.
What is a troll?
by troll, sombody means homeless.
thanks for your response
Troll Means Homeless?
like!
Like what?
haha, "like" means i agree with what this topic is! :P
Why admin not remove them out hoho?
Trang, you have a problem.
yes, trang Polly has more than a problem.
