[Icvv] 050907 Hi from Japan

[Tomoko Nozawa]

Hi there, 

I'm Tomoko Nozawa, writing from Japan.  I am pleased to say hell to you!  

I currently teach English at three different universities as a part time teacher.  I've done e-mail, BBS, Nicenet, Moodle(with help from my partner teacher) activities in the past and have enjoyed seeing exchanges among the participants.  Sometimes, I got frustrated seeing less activities, though. 

In this semester, I have 13 90-minutes classes, which I meet 15 times a week altogether.  Yeah, this would drive me crazy so that I don't think I can try out various experiments.  But, most of them are done in CALL classroom all the time so that I could do something any time and I am always looking for partner classes. So that's why I have reached here.  It is always my pain in the neck to find partner classes.  

OK, some information about my classes: 

<Location>
Kanagawa, Tokyo, in Japan

<The age> 
As university students, the age range is from 18 to 22, some classes are from women's college. 

<Majors>
My classes are offered as required English classes for freshman, and  electives for sophomores, juniors, and seniors.  The majors are mostly humanities related international communication.  So, they are very much interested in communicating with other nationalities.  

<English level> 
The English proficiency levels vary from low to intermediate, and remember the situation here: it's EFL situation obviously. And most of them have very few chances to communicate in English online. 

<Duration>
The Japanese school year starts in April and ends in March, the classes in this semester are starting in two weeks will last formally 15 weeks, practically by the middle of December.  So, I cannot match those who want to continue till June, or July. 

<The class size>
I don't know yet. Most classes should be around 20. 

<Tools>
I am apprehensive about tools used in this kind of exchange.  You and your students seem to be pretty much computer literate and using various tools, making webpages on Geocities.  The Japanese students like to use mobile even to send e-mails.  Having a computer at home, they don't use it as a mean to send e-mail unless they are required in class.  And making a webpage in English on Geocities must be very challenging for them.  I have a class to make a homepage using homepage building software, and open only on campus.  

OK, as a first message, I have written enough, right?  Thanks for reading this lengthy message. 

Cheers，

Tomoko Nozawa