Introducing another Myngler, Michael Vissers
Please join me in welcoming another new member of the Myngle team, Michael Vissers. See below for his introduction in his own words.
First let me introduce myself. I am Michael Vissers and 57 years of age . I studied linguistics at the University of Leiden(NL) and did a Master at the University of Nottingham(UK). I work actually at the Department of Economics of a large Polytechnic.
I joined Myngle in April on a one- day- a-week basis. I had read the heartbreaking story of Marina Tognetti , who founded the company, on her struggle to find a teacher of Chinese and the hardship to comply with the rigid timetable of classes.
So far I have done some market research on the way students experience synchronous online language instruction. As a spin off I could also suggest some improvements to make to the website. I am also working on the promotion of Myngle and I get acquainted with the system myself as a user.
The eye-opener that technology can help to facilitate communication I had in 2001 while on summer holiday in Brittany. I watched an IBM commercial on one of the French TV channels that still intrigues me. The storyboard was like this: we see the living room of a penthouse and at the background a man is shaving himself . Then the phone rings and his teenage daughter picks up the phone. We hear a male voice that in rapid Arabic communicates something unintelligible. After the call, the girl pushes a button on the phone. Next thing we hear is the translation of the call. It turns out that the business meeting her dad was supposed to have that morning was cancelled. Finally we see that she passes this message to her dad, who is still in the bathroom.
We are in 2008 now and still miles away of what IBM had in mind seven years ago. This year is coined the International Year of the Languages by UNESCO. Due to globalization the number of contacts in foreign languages keep increasing vigorously and with it, the need to brush up languages we learned at school or to start with a brand new one.
Fortunately, we are in the Internet age now with broadband connections and hot spots all over the place. Today we can learn almost any language we want or need to learn with the teacher of our choice at a competitive price at the time that suits us best.
That is where Myngle steps in. Real life communication with someone who not only speaks the language but who also knows the culture is fun. Once you get the taste of it you want to continue since you learn an awful lot even in one lesson. On average it takes you two or three sessions to get familiar with Skype and Myngle classroom. After this, on-line language learning is a snap. At least that is my experience, brushing up French and German.
Michael Vissers
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