LEI has organized a Skype meeting on november 7th

LEI has organized a skype meeting with many different countries on november 7th.
It was amazing to communicate on skype and to be able to have a conversation with people so far away from each other but with the same objectives I was in the skype group and really delighted.
You can see for yourself veronika's introduction message
I am Veronika, I am contacting you on behalf of Romain as well regarding our skype meeting that is about to start soon. Let me share with you the proposed agenda - it is flexible, of course:

1. Agreement on the requests and the agenda.

2. Quick introductory round - people/organisations introduce themselves (general ideas, participants).

3. Good practices, topics/programmes

4. Ideas for the next meeting, further suggestions.

In case we are a nice number of people, here are some possible requests which can facilitate the meeting:

Please be on time for the meeting - we wish to start at the agreed time sharp.
Feel free to add your ideas, they are all welcome! )
Respect the time, the moderator and the others: do not speak more than 4 minutes at one time within one round.
If we are around ten people , people take turns in an alphabetical order - considering people/the countries.

Finally, here is the list of possible participants:
Andrew - Roma, Italy; Mariya - Lviv, Ukraine; Aurélie - Victoria, Canada /Valence; Selma -Toulouse, France; Agustina - Rosario, Argentina; Claudia -Lima, Peru; Muriel - Calais, France; Nicolas - Blois, France; Nataliya - London, UK; Veronika - Budapest, Hungary; Romain - Valence, France

Talk to you soon!

Veronika and Romain

LEI skype meeting – 7 November 2010 - 8 pm
Participants: Augustina, Claudia, Mariya, Muriel, Romain, Veronika
Topic: Best practices
The aim of the meeting was to get connected, share best practices and inspire one another. It can be concluded that the meeting was fruitful, fun and useful. We are looking forward to our next meeting in December on communication/promotion/attracting more members and Xmas/New Year’s Eve programmes.
Suggestions for further skype meetings: Joint projects, Sharing books in different languages, Celebrate New Year’ s Eve/Xmas together
Ideas that came up as good examples, good ideas:
• Food related: cooking together, going to restaurants, barbecue
• Arts and culture: dance/partying (e.g. salsa),karaoke, movies, bookclub/discussing books, poetry (reading or writing it)
• Languages: languages games (e.g.Stadt Land Fluss/ Le petit bac/ Tutti frutti/ Ország, város) translation/interpretation, Business English
• Other games: cards, President/Maffia/Gyilkosos
• Psychology: questions about life (happiness, friendships, love etc.)
• Guests: inviting interesting guests
• Membership fee + discounts in bars/restaurants
• Sightseeing
• Quizzes – should be well-prepared, various ideas taken into consideration (fun+challenge etc)
• Logo: can be done by participants, they could be involved in designing it and making it
• Ideas for websites
Challenges:
How to motivate locals to speak foreign languages, how to attract more native speakers?
• Locals: invite more native speakers ,use materials, games, tools in the given language
• Natives: advertise in newspapers, magazines, programme guides that write in that language
How to keep/motivate/help members who want to speak a language not many participants speak?
• Get them connected on the forum/facebook
• Encourage them to participate
Discussion (quiet more serious) vs partying: combination
Ensuring the usage of various languages and that everyone speaks the language they want

The exchange was very interesting and with a lot of ideas and best practices. Looking forward for the next one!

Thank you Muriel for your participation!

Muriel!

I'm sorry to have missed it as i'm always looking to meet people and ideas.
Could you let me know when is the next meet and how can i invite myself to the exchange.

In Falmouth, we have quite a few native speakers as i go to a group called "colourful women" it is a charity run group for foreign women and their children to help them integrate English society. They offer English lessons, but we meet every monday from 4.30 to 7, workshops are organised where we do cakes, sowing, gardening... there are child minders who take care of the children. Its brilliant as women can have a bit of free time and the children are delighted to meet other children.
So i get to recrut for cafe polyglot, it gives them another chance to meet the locals and realise what's going on in town. It helps them to feel valued and they are more than happy to speak their language to English as it feels they can bring something to the society.

Some day, the world isn't so bad...
cheers Muriel
vic

Thank you for the news Victoria. I can see you are always busy and enthusiastic about what you are doing.You can contact Romain Galati. He will let you know about the next skype meeting romain.galati@gmail.com. It's great to share isn't it ? If you ever meet people interested by our web poliglot cafe(beer not included) please give them the address. "The more the merrier" and also the more exciting.
take care for now
Muriel