Professor Merryman

We are growing so much. I can't even tell you everything that is happening at Cypris because...well...I don't know. It seems that everyday/every minute there is someone to talk to at Cypris Village. Activities and practice times happen randomly.

Check the calendar on our website at http://cyprischat.org to see regular activities.

I am always tutoring from 5am to 6:30am SLT every Tuesday. Come learn and meet new friends. It might even change your life.

Search Cypris Chat on Google.com to learn more about us.

  

Real Life workshop for learning how to use Second to teach or learn English. This is a real life workshop, not in SL. English 90% / Japanese 10%


More information at http://www.cyprissociety.org/
Bring your friends! Drinks and chatting after the workshop.
  

We have moved our island and our website.

New website address: http://cyprischat.org/

Our new island is Cypris Village III
SLurl: http://slurl.com/secondlife/Cypris%20Village%20III/128/128/2   

Do you want to meet people from other countries? Do you want to have friends from around the world? It's easy...if you know how.

Foreigners want friends too, but we don't try to find friends. Friends come from spending time with each other. So don't rush friendships.

What is your purpose for making friends? To help you speak English better? Just to have fun? Or do you need help with something?

It's easier to make friends when you and he or she want the same thing. Do you both like music? Maybe you both like reading or art. Join a group that has something you enjoy doing in Second Life.

And Finally, and this is REALLY important, don't add them as a friend until you make a plan to meet again. For example, "OK Kenji. I'll see ya later. Have a good one" means, maybe you will see him. Whereas, "OK Kenji. I gotta go. Will you be here tomorrow? I'll see you then" means, I like you and next time we can become friends.

Never say:
Will you be my friend? ("Can I add you a friend?" is OK)
I want to practice my English. (I hate that one. I feel like a robot.)
Can I see you again? (Might be ok...but not really with an English teacher)

When saying goodbye it's best to say:
It was nice meeting you.
I hope to see you again.
Have a good morning/day/evening/night.
See you again.
Take care.
Have a good one. (guys)

Don't be too aggressive. Take your time. Slowly and surely you will find good friends that will last a lifetime.

HEY! Wait...I have an idea. Come to Cypris Chat and meet friends. LOL!

SLurl: http://slurl.com/secondlife/Cypris%20Village/155/100/24

Website: http://cypris.ning.com


  

Finally!

The website is being translated. I can finally join the community! Yay! BUT this also means a lot of other English speakers from around the world will join. That will be difficult to manage. You can expect to see A LOT of spam coming soon. New English speaking members should be pre-approved before being accepted into the community.

I also notice there is a link to ENGLISH (unfortunately not SLMaMe) on the top right. It takes me to Metaverse.jp. What's that? What's Metaverse.jp? Is it an OpenSim grid? Do you actually have currency working? Are people really using it?

I found this on the staff blog site:

-----------------------------
2009年11月02日
METAVERSE.JP is a portal site for the metaverse, featuring content from the largest Second Life and Open Simulator community in Japan.

- What can I do at METAVERSE.JP?

You can read or write blogs (SLMaMe), purchase and sell virtual items on a marketplace (Metacommerce), and find information from the metaverse community. We plan to keep adding English information, so stay tuned! Get started by registering an account now!
------------------------------

Interesting. So Metaverse offers a place between Second Life and, I'm guessing, other OpenSim based worlds where one can buy and sell virtual goods. So if I make something in SL and want to sell it from my island in Reaction Grid can I post it for sale here? I mean, for example, if I sell something in SL I have to get an xstreet product dristributer and rez it on my land inworld. What if I want to sell Metaverse products? Can I rez a Metaverse product dispenser in Reaction Grid?

I'll have to watch this one. hmmmm.
  

Take a look at our new video about Cypris Village in Second Life. We hope you can come join us and see just how great learning English in a virtual world can be.

  

Sorry I haven't been writing much around here. I've been a bit busy these days with Cypris Village. I thought I would write a little something to let you know what I am doing.

Well, I'm spending most of time trying to help people learn English...as I am sure you can guess. Cypris Village is growing very fast and the amount of time I am spending there is beginning to pay off...not financially of course. :-) In any case, it's fun. I'm really loving the time I spend with all of my new friends.

Cypris has really changed my life. I used to spend my days off going out with friends and drinking. Now I do it at home. haha. yeah..still drink but at least I can keep the wife and my wallet happy. And to tell you the truth, I don't drink half as much as I used to with my friends...gaijin drinkers. Wow!

Anyway...I just wanted to tell you that we are waiting for you to come over and help us out. We are really looking for volunteers to spend a couple hours a week to be available for a chat. You can go jet skiing, horseback riding, sailing, dancing, play games, watch a movie together and so many more things. Tell us what you'd like to do and we'll make it happen.

Hope to meet you! Until then. All the best.
PM  

Tuesday Night 3/17 from 11:30pm (JST). That's right. We're having a GREEN party at Club Cypris; the coolest video dance sphere in SL. Wear GREEN and win $$$. Costume contest! Beer drinking contest!! This is gonna be fun!!! Bring your camera.

Party starts after chat. TP from the Clubhouse in Cypris Village. Wear your group tag.
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Cypris%20Island/25/29/22

Join us for study time and chat from 10:00PM (JST). We practice English, do an activity, travel, play games...and chat in English using voice. It's FREE! We hope you can come. Join our group Cypris Chat. See you soon.  

Use these phrases and vocabulary to communicate in English:

A:This place is nice
B:Yeah. So beautiful.
A:There are so many people here
B: Yeah. Its a very popular place
A: You ever been to ____
B: No. How is it
A: Its fun. Do wanna go
B: Sure. TP me
A: OK. Can i add you as a friend
B: Sure. ty.
A: Just a sec. I'll TP there.
B: k

...

A: There is nobody here
B: sec. I'm rezzing.
A: You're a cloud.
B: It's very laggy here
A: Because there are so many prims, scripts and big textures.
B: Yeah. But it looks great
...
More coming...

You can use these phrases when you come visit us on Cypris Island at Cypris Village. :-)
  

Cypris Chat voice chat group meets every Tuesday and Thursday from 10:00PM JST (5AM SL time). Meet native speakers and practice your English for FREE. Members can also rent a house in our sim and live in an English speaking community. Search for our group in world or come to Cypris island to learn more. IM Professor Merryman for more information.  

Are you a teacher in Japan? Join my Private Second Life group so we can talk about virtual learning. Let's stop following the world's way of educating our students. Japan is the most technologically advanced country in the world. Our students should be able to use it well.

Textbooks and teachers are boring!! Teachers are bored!! Nobody knows how to make change. Let's meet and put creativity together with networking, a generous grant and some students and teachers who would like to be real pioneers.

Send me an email at mike[at]professormerryman.com or IM me in Second Life   

Why should we care?

Because it's the future!

Let me paint a picture.

Real Life

Eikaiwa. Genki gaijin teacher (sometimes) turning tricks to entertain you because he or she really doesn't know what else to do to get a reaction off the student's face. Whiteboard. Off white walls. Fluorescent lighting. Uncomfortable chairs. A textbook. A notebook. A dictionary (electronic hopefully...I REALLY feel sorry for those who think a chug-a-dic is still OK). And a pencil case with no fewer than 15 pens and pencils.

Second Life

Um. Have you seen any of the videos. Just do a search for English Village on You Tube or scroll down or up to see one. Oh hey, why don't you come over to English Village and let me show you. Bring your friends and I might even teach a class for FREE!

PS: I'm looking for research grants. Put your school on the leading edge. Contact Mike McKay aka Professor Merryman sponsorship information.  

Why should we care?

Because it's the future!

Let me paint a picture.

Real Life

Eikaiwa. Genki gaijin teacher (sometimes) turning tricks to entertain you because he or she really doesn't know what else to do to get a reaction off the student's face. Whiteboard. Off white walls. Fluorescent lighting. Uncomfortable chairs. A textbook. A notebook. A dictionary (electronic hopefully...I REALLY feel sorry for those who think a chug-a-dic is still OK). And a pencil case with no fewer than 15 pens and pencils.

Second Life

Um. Have you seen any of the videos. Just do a search for English Village on You Tube or scroll down or up to see one. Oh hey, why don't you come over to English Village and let me show you. Bring your friends and I might even teach a class for FREE!

PS: I'm looking for research grants. Put your school on the leading edge. Contact Mike McKay aka Professor Merryman sponsorship information.  

Here is a flyer that is going around Kobe in hopes of starting a group about using Second Life. I'm hoping this will spread the word about the use of social networking and virtual worlds in education in Japan.



If you are interested in attending a meeting, add a comment, or email me at mike[at]professormerryman.com. Hope to see you at the next meeting.  

I made my first movie in Second Life today. It's a tour of the island. Take a look. It's nothing special, but it shows how we can video our lessons for archiving. Students will be able to have access to their lessons after taking them.

Recording lessons on video is not exactly possible at the moment due to file sizes and the amount of time it takes to edit and upload, but we are able to record voice and text chat for students.


Links from this video:
mike.slmame.com
gaijin-in-japan.com
eslteacherlink.co.kr
secondlife.com
jp.secondlife.com
  

Professor Merryman, and Fire Centaur will be having an informal chat about what's happening at English Village. This discussion will be aimed at English Language Learners. So come introduce yourselves, and check out some of the cool additions we have added to English Village, including some bright orange EV Scooters, that anyone can fly. This will be an open conversation, so come and enjoy! We are looking forward to seeing you! http://slurl.com/secondlife/English%20Village/220/41/49/  

I'm going to try to start a group here in Kobe for people interested in Second Life (Japanese). My thoughts are:

SL Kobe is a group for people in and around Kobe interested in learning about Second Life. It is a regular meeting in which there will be a presentation on tips and tricks, recent news, statistics, and ways to use SL in your RL. We will also have time to meet and socialize. These meetings are open to everyone and will be held the 3rd Sunday of every month from 3:00 to 5:00 in Kobe. Cost: around 1,500 yen including coffee or tea and snacks. Organized by Mike McKay. English/Japanese spoken OK. Joint the mailing list on www.professormerryman.com

Please spread the word about Second Life in Japan. Without the Internet, foreigners in japan would be lost. With a 3D world and the Internet, communication is even easier. Come to a meeting to see how this virtual world is going to change how we think about communication in the future.  

How to meet a foreigner in SL

Say "Hi!"

"Do you like this place?"

"How long have you been in Second Life?"

"Where are you from?"

"Would you like to see my house? my island?"

"Where is your favorite place to go?"

"Is voice chat OK?"

The try to add them as a friend. Tell them, "Thank you. I enjoyed chatting with you. See you again."

If you have a notecard, landmark or gift object then give it to them.

Don't be shy. Have fun!  

My name is Mike. I teach. You study. You talk. That's good. Then we play and dance and act really crazy. LOL. Seriously though. I am a teacher on English Village island in Second Life. If you would like to study English or hang out and watch movies, then come over and say hi.

Isn't SL the bomb?  

I'm an American from San Francisco. I've lived and taught in Kobe for the past 8 years.

Why did I come to Japan?

That is a question you should ask me when you come to English Village. It's a long story. I came to Japan after I lived in San Francisco because I was living in Germany because I hated LA but I didn't need to live there but I had to because Humboldt was not enough money and there was no way I was going to keep living in OC so I wanted to go back to Germany but it didn't work out so I ended up in San Francisco when I met a pretty girl who had to come back to Japan so I followed her.

Understand?

Now where do the commas go?