Viewing topic: Eastern Europe forums

At last, (I think) I've made a pretty good start on the site for teaching in Eastern Europe. There's a long way to go yet, but I hope it'll work out as well as VisaRus has.

If you go to http://esl.visarus.co.uk (soon to be changed to a different domain) you'll find that in fact I've gone just a little over the top and tried to create a worldwide ESL site. You'll even find Antarctica there...

The parts I'm mainly interested in right now are Eastern Europe, i.e. Poland and further east.

If you're already registered on VisaRus, you can login with your existing username and password. It would be a great help if you (my trusted friends and members could help me to check the site before I start telling everyone where to find it!

Eventually each country that is actually relevant to ESL (there are a hell of a lot in there I hadn't ever heard of before) will get a site with all the functions that are on visarus right now.

Any volunteers would be HUGELY appreciated, as there's a lot of work to be done!

Hey Robert!

How can I help you with this site?

Barry

Hi Barry -

Well, there's a heck of a lot to be done to make the rest of the site into a proper resource (I hope eventually to make it something like an ESL wiki-style thing). At the moment I really need people to tell me when something doesn't work - e.g. a link is broken, a page doesn't display properly or something like that.

After that, when everything's definitely working, I need people to find the site, so recommending it to friends would also be helpful. A link on a personal homepage, blog or whatever (like on Mr. Larch's blog at http://tefl-online.blogspot.com) can be useful. Best to link to http://esl.visarus.co.uk as that is the worldwide site.

If anybody would like a link in return or a bit of publicity for their own sites, I'll gladly add a link from my own blog at http://bobs12.blogspot.com or I have a bunch of other places. I can even write you a mini-article about your sites

Also, I need ideas to keep the site improving and expanding. Right now what I know is missing is more 'interactive' stuff for users, like a homepage etc. and more control over user information, That's kind of in the pipeline, but when new things come out I really need people to test and give feedback on them!

Plus any information is useful - articles etc. I need to write up some overviews about different countries but just don't have the time to research them. Also, if you find any country-specific English-language RSS news feeds, sending me the links would be v. handy.

Bit of an overwhelming 'wishlist', but every little helps - even just letting me know when things don't work would be a great help!

Well, I will certainly do what I can. It is a great idea.

For me, the greatest attraction to a site is that it has folks who live, or who have lived in Russia and can share their experiences, so daily blogs with galleries are a huge plus.

Further, a clear breakdown as to what is and is not available in the various parts of Russia (and all the countries of course) would be awesome.

I will start going to the site and looking for bugs and I will continue to ask questions of the seasoned vets.

Barry

Fantastic - your beer is already waiting for you in St. Pete's!

If ever you come up with a page that has a program error message on it - those are the things I'm most worried about. They end up in Google, hackers search for them and the next thing the site's been taken over by teenagers and my hosts have kicked me off because they used the site to send 50 billion spam emails

In reality, just comtinuing to use the site is enough - I get a kick out of people coming here and finding it useful!

The best thing will be if you stay with the site and help out newcomers when you get here and know the ropes yourself

The local info is something I hope to include, hence the wiki-style idea where everyone can contribute. I need a few weekends with beers to work out how to organise and catalogue information to make it easy to navigate and find stuff.

Ideas for how to do that are more than welcome at any time - there's a 'support forum' for any ideas, requests etc.

I have a lot to learn, and I would be a fool to not continue to interact. Before the internet, how difficult it must have been right? I mean, this is like a life line. It is very cool.

Barry

Thanks again Barry I kind of try to make the site to be as much as posible like 'the one that wasn't there' before I started teaching here. I think it's working, thanks to members!

I do lose track a little now and again though, spending too much time on developing silly 'gimmicky' things that nobody uses, but most of it's doing fairly well

That makes me laugh,

Hey, you have to give things a whirl right? If they stick, then they must have been valid. I am not sure how popular this could get for you. From a newby perspecive, I read your writings on Dave's cafe, and you spoke with a tone that cut like a knife, and that is what I wanted. Truth is extremely important to someone who is interested in trying on a whole new wardrobe as it were..

Anyway, I really hope that you are successful. The area is very interesting to me (Well, both the areas - teaching and the whole Russian region (I feel foolish writing this. lol). Foolish by the way because it is SO FREAK'N BIG!!

You are on to something that could help a ton of people. That is my take on it - the newby speaks. lol.

Barry

Awww, shucks! :blush: I've noticed that my time on eslcafe was more appreciated by newcomers & less by the old farts that have been working in BKC for 30-odd years Glad to have been of encouragement to folks though.

I hope it'll all work out and get a bit better recognised. It's a great kick when I read on the forum that someone's got a job through the site or I get an email to say the site was helpful etc.

The gimmicky things (the new site's full of them) might catch on, but it's slow Might happen in the next ten years, by which time Russia will probably be out of bounds and me and the site will have moved to Poland!

I know what you mean about the size of the place, it's awesome. I;ve personally never been further from St. Pete's than Volgograd, and now I've kind of taken root here I even get jealous of Will and Anna with their Oktyabrsky exploits. I've been here nearly four years now and I know it would take another forty to really see the country.

Kinda gives me agoraphobia

Hello I am not sure if this is the right place to ask this question, but I have just started an online TESL course. I have started to think about future employment opportunities in Eastern Europe. I am interested in finding opportunities in Moldova. Dose anybody knows of any English schools or websites catering to potential English teachers in Moldova?
Any info will be greatly appreciated.
Sam