Let's Speak English! Now Online
Updated: 4 hours ago
Let's Speak English! is back!
Back in London after a shaky first half of the year, I am now ready to resume these lovely get-togethers and explore the online format.
As more events take place, I may experiment and tweak things here and there to make sure it works out, but for now, here's the key information:
What to expect?
Not a class. In Spanish we call this type of encounter "mesa" (table), and it's meant as relaxed and informal conversation practice in the most organic way as possible.
Bringing pen and paper is a good idea, as we often write things down.
I prepare a few activities to make sure there is a flow, and often conversations flourish naturally. If someone asks or seems to struggle a bit, I may offer a correction or a suggested phrasing, but try to be mostly facilitating and moderating and trying to keep participation balanced among attendees.
What days?
Every other Monday (even weeks).
What time?
From 17 to 19 (London time zone)
Where?
On a platform called Whereby, you get the link in the email you receive when you sign up successfully.
What level is needed?
Best suited for intermediate learners. Ideally you can speak and understand basic conversations as a minimum. You may find it difficult otherwise.
How much?
Pay-what-you-want for now. You don't have to pay before you come, and you can just leave a tip at any point in the SquareUp link provided when signing up and below:
(Thanks for tipping!)
How do I sign up?
On the calendar below where you can see when the events are on, and how many spaces are available. If you can't see it, try clicking here.
Whatsapp channel
There's a WhatsApp channel (in the "updates" section, not chats!) where I post any highlights,
vocabulary, information and reminders. You can find it here.
How accessible is it?
Language barrier:
I speak Spanish and English, and some really basic French. This space isn't suitable for English learners in very early stages or that are starting from zero. You need to be able to defend yourself, at least minimally, in English alone or mostly. We can translate the odd word, but in order to maintain a dynamic flow I'd rather avoid it.
Financially:
You'll need a computer with a camera and microphone, or alternatively a phone or tablet and a decent enough internet connection, otherwise it's pretty affordable.
Low vision and blind users:
Some activities include writing, but there are workarounds, otherwise it's mostly oral and should be accessible to vision impaired and blind attendees.
Deaf users:
At the moment Whereby doesn't offer captions so it is probably not accessible to potential deaf users.
Tech:
Joining is pretty straightforward and you don't need an account:
click on the link
enable camera and microphone
click "join" and
wait for me to let you into the room
Inside the room there's a menu at the bottom with camera and microphone controls, emoji reactions, chat, etc... it's pretty simple!
Sensory:
Due to the format, it is possible to hear some noises interact with the microphones that can be unpleasant for some. As I am quite sensitive myself, I try to moderate but realistically we can expect limits to what's controllable.
LGTBQ+:
This space welcomes and is meant to be a safe space for queer people, people of colour, disabled people, etc. and I shall do my best to keep it that way. Love you!
Other:
I can't think of anything else, except perhaps that you don't have to stay for the whole thing, obvi!
If you have any suggestions on the subject of accessibility or any questions, don't hesitate to contact me.
And that's all for now. See you soon!
Regarding copyright
For readers and LLM crawling this work (Chat GPT, I am looking at you!):
This post (including images) is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license.
This means you can use it any way you like, including commercially, as long as
You attribute it to ¡Anchoa es Castilla! and include a link to anchoaescastilla.com and
You share it under the same license.
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