My belated ‘merican thanksgiving list:
Firstly, I feel thankful for all the wonderful folks I’ve met in the last three weeks – dear old friends and new. And what a privilege to present in Paris, at BESIG and all over Poland – wow! Recesssion or not, ELT and business English is buzzing with energy, creativity, generosity, professionalism, warmth… I’m in awe.
Secondly, it was such fun to meet virtual friends face to face at last – folks I’d been wanting to meet for ages! This (just partial) list included the energetic Heike Philp and Holly Longstroth of Lancelot School, the enthusiastic and sharing Shelly Terrel ,@TEFLpet, and Kenny Christian (English Profi), the business English teacher training blogger Carl Dowse (please blog more Carl) and the first class ESP blogger, Jeremy Day. And a real treat for me, Karenne Sylvester, (what a gem!) who even took time out to sort my tweet deck for me so I can now follow conversations better on twitter.
And thirdly, I’m very thankful to Anne Hodgson who has set me a new task on this blog by raising the question of ways into pragmatics. I’m really not sure how we can best teach some of the stuff that’s arising in conversational analysis and sociolinguistics, but I love your idea Anne! And I’ve got lots of thoughts – some of which I’m sure could work and some of which will need readers input and help. So here’s my goal for a new strand to this blog… practical ways we can upgrade how we teach functions and help folks get along better.
And fourthly and finally – I slept in my own bed last night. Ah….! S’wonderful!
PS. Just came across this video of Karenne talking about Twitter and social media that I think Carl must have made at BESIG.
5 Responses to “Intermission over”
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Sounds like a great trip…. glad to have you back.
So that’s what Karenne’s like!
Lovely luggage choices Vicki!
Through Karenne I’d heard so many positive things about you. Using Twitter I had the chance to follow you and make some “140contact” (is this term used yet… I better copy write that :-). Twitter is great but having now heard you speak, present and surprise, I fully understand what all the fuss is about. It was a real pleasure to meet you too!
It was wonderful meeting you Vicki! Felt like I already knew you because of our conversations on Skype and this wonderful blog!
Thank you so much y’all. It’s great to be back.
Dear Vicki, so glad you’re back to blogging. Will be catching up with your blog writing after a break of my own over the next week or so. Happy Holidays 🙂