Today I learned a bit more about my own website from a fellow English teacher and friendly fan.

A gentleman from Tennessee called my home, thanked me for the sample conversation materials, and asked some insightful questions about the updated Compelling Conversations website. I appreciate his call – and his giving a practical suggestion on how to improve the site for adult educators by adding clearer language. The influx of new immigrants, mostly Spanish speaking with limited formal education, can be seen across the United States. As you might expect, many churches are providing many education and literacy programs for new immigrants in the South – often on a shoe string budget.  I’m glad that the free reproducible worksheets can be of some assistance.

Second, the gentleman’s call encouraged me to take a longer look at my own website through new eyes. Designed more for English teachers than English language learners, the revised site does include an entire section for students. The materials, however, are probably too hard for most English students to understand since they are written for high intermediate and advanced ESL students.

Fortunately, there are also  rough Google translations for the Compelling Conversations website now for speakers of  46 languages. The long list goes beyond the usual suspects (Chinese, French, German, Korean, Spanish) to cover tongues ranging  from Albanian and Arabic to Vietnamese and Yiddish! That’s sort of amazing – even if the computer translations remain imperfect and contain many errors. Consider me jealous of my computer’s language skills! Wouldn’t it be great to just know 10 words in 46 languages?

Perhaps in the future. For now, I’m grateful for Google translations – and dedicated English teachers who share their experiences about my small, evolving website and niche conversation textbook.  Maybe it is silly, but I still get a kick when – like today – an adult education teacher tells me about how their students enjoy the book – even when it is a bit difficult.

So please feel free to share your experiences, positive or negative, because we are learn from each other. As the cliche goes, “everyone is a student; everyone is a teacher.”  Today I learned quite a bit about my own website, its strengths and flaws. Have you visited the revised website yet? What worked? What could be improved? Do you have some suggestions for the next version?

Ask more. Know more. Share more.

Create Compelling Conversations.

Visit www.CompellingConversations.com

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Cities attract the young, the strong, the ambitious, and the hungry.

Millions move from countryside and across the globe to live in new cities every year. Cities provide jobs, culture, and education. Cities are exciting. Yet, sometimes danger also lurks in cities. Do you like living in cities? Which cities have you visited? Which cities you found most satisfying? Why?

Teaching English in Los Angeles and Santa Monica I’ve found that students, who come from across the globe, enjoy talking about cities. Some English students share stories about moving from rural areas and small towns to an international city; other students enjoy talking about their travel experiences. Discussions naturally touch on housing, employment, and lifestyle choices – or what education bureaucrats call “life skills”. English language learners – whether adult immigrants creating a new home or university students living abroad – can reflect on their experiences and share insights discussing urban life.

This month Exploring Cities, one of my favorite chapters, is highlighted as a free, reproducible chapter on the  Compelling Conversations website. Like the other 44 chapters, this chapter includes over 30 questions, five proverbs, a dozen quotations, and five classroom activities. Meeting new people, seeing new sights, and holding satisfying conversations are classic urban experiences. Why not bring those discussions and experiences into your English classroom too?

Ask more. Know more. Share more. Speak more.
Create Compelling Conversations.
Visit www.CompellingConversations.com .

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Today Amazon has Compelling Conversations listed at 6,198! That’s my highest overall rating yet – and far better than my usual top 35,000 rating. The book is also rated #3 in the category “adult and continuing education”. Consider me satisfied and surprised.

For a small self-published author, selling a book around the world – and collecting favorable reviews from customers in Australia, Japan, and Spain is a simple pleasure. Amazon’s customer reviews have certainly helped promote the unusual conversation book aimed at sophisticated adults who want to bring their insights, wit and humor into more and deeper English language conversations. Besides my website, www.CompellingConversations.com that offers free sample chapters, Amazon remains my principal promotional tool. So the Amazon ratings and category rankings provide a way to measure success.

Of course, I remain curious about Compelling Conversations finding more success in adult education ESL programs than the flexible private language programs, university programs, and conversation clubs. Private schools, focusing on student desires and needs, usually provide smaller classes with more speaking opportunities. Further, the academic vocabulary appeals more to university bound or university trained adults. Compelling Conversations usually ranks higher in categories like “English as a Second Language”, “English as a Foreign Language”, “Teaching Methods”, “TOEIC”, and even “Quotes” than “Adult and Continuing Education.”

The popularity of Compelling Conversations also reflects an increasing awareness that adult education students want and need more speaking opportunities. Adult education programs, sometimes narrowly focused on a so-called life skills curriculum and preparing students for fill-in the blank mandated tests, offer few conversation classes. Why? Mostly because of the funding structure which doesn’t encourage specialized language classes. The large class sizes also limit the chances to speak – even in intermediate and advanced classes. Creative, dedicated adult education teachers have to make exceptional efforts to provide students with speaking skills – and many do so. Compelling Conversations helps busy adult education teachers supplement life skills lessons with energetic conversation activities.

Amazon updates their numbers every hour, and no doubt Compelling Conversations

will soon return to its usual ranking. Reaching the top 10,000 on Amazon may not sound like much to people who reduce all experiences to dollar signs. I made more money teaching Thursday than on my exceptionally successful Friday, but it provides a sense of being appreciated. Yet I’m counting this milestone as a personal victory, counting my blessings, and smiling.

Ask more. Know more. Share more.
Create Compelling Conversations.
Visit www.CompellingConversations.com .

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Rachel Carson (1907-1964), biologist and environmentalist

The mailman brought the “Summer Fun” issue of Easy English Times yesterday, and it made me smile. It’s another wonderful issue of ESL student essays, teaching tips, and classroom exercises for English language learners. The editors also generously added seven photographs to the monthly “instant activity: conversation” column written by Toni Aberson and myself. This month’s topic is Enjoying the Beach. The beautifully illustrated excerpt from Compelling Conversations, modified for beginning and intermediate ESL student readers should be popular. The column also inspired me to take a long walk on Santa Monica beach with my dog to celebrate.

The summer issue also lead me to revisit the Easy English Times website. Unfortunately, it doesn’t include the entire current and past issues so the conversation column isn’t online. The clean website, although in need of an update, includes several valuable chunks of information for ESL educators and people teaching in adult literacy and prisons.

The section titled Immigration Issues features first person essays from immigrants and refugees and an evocative photo essay by Betty Malmgren that documents the intense passions and political symbols used at immigration protest marches. Malmgren deserves credit for showing both sides of this heated and very American debate in a fair, nuanced manner. I’m also fond of the section titled internet resources which includes archived columns from Andrea Uram for teachers of beginning ESL students and Susan Gaer’s columns on using the internet in ESL classrooms.

Yet my favorite part of the Easy English Times website remains student writing

where you can read first person stories from immigrants and refugees who have created new lives in the United States for themselves and their families. This short essays and poems, written by adult ESL students living and working across the country, provide a riveting glimpse into our often troubled world. The range and diversity of writers and writings is quite impressive. I can’t help but be moved and proud to be an English teacher while reading this section.

Website visitors can request a free copy of Easy English Times newspaper, and subscribers can access the entire adult education newspaper online for $15. It’s a good buy, especially for American ESL teachers working with beginning and intermediate adult ESL students. In a far better world, there would be fewer refugees from wars, famines, and persecution – and more than enough money to buy class sets of this ESL newspaper for more adult schools.

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The site meets me where I am – an English teacher curious about new technologies, but unsure how to proceed and which technologies to explore in depth. Filled with concise, yet detailed guidelines to various 2.0 technologies, I look forward to reading and learning more about evolving web technologies and how they can be used as 21st century educational tools.

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My website, down and out for almost a week of tech turmoil as I changed server, host, and webmaster, demonstrates this point. The site, www.compellingconversations.com , has been restored and even slightly upgraded. The check out system, for instance, takes consumers directly to Paypal – saving time and reducing hassle. The blog, still primitive, is a more advanced version of WordPress, but I still don’t really know what that means in practical terms. I seem to have lost numerous blog postings, but these brief musings are first thoughts and not finely crafted essay. The free conversation lessons and five book chapters on Traveling, Studying English, Being Yourself, Talking about Movies, and Practicing Job Interviews,  can be easily downloaded.

I’m still learning – and sometimes stumbling, but the website is stronger, safer, and deeper than before.

Please drop by, check out the free lessons, and read about creating lively ESL classroom discussions. As ever, please contact me if you have any questions, suggestions, or comments at talktome@compellingconversations.com.

Enjoy!

“Have friends. It’s a second existence.”

Baltasar Gracian (1601-1658), Spanish philosopher

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One website goes down, essays get lost, and the email gets blocked for a few days. Frustration mounts.  I recall the Bulgarian proverb, “we learn by stumbling.” I cool down, take a breath, and try to appreciate the process of resurrecting a modern communications miracle (website) and move an evolving blog.

How’s it going? Slow. But please be patient. Compelling Conversations will soon be back, improved, and ready for further technological improvements. Some changes will work; some will fail.

We learn by stumbling.

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