Staff Meeting at TheLinguist, December 2004, Part 2

Part 2

Mark: I was just going to say, that combined with training tutors for our system, we should do that, because (a) we have a specific methodology and message that we want to put across to our learners, but also, if we can get them, we can train them, then it's sort of a sales force almost, that we can send out wherever they go. They're familiar with our message, our system, and hopefully they will spread the word.

Steve: Yeah, I think there's a real opportunity to train people in the principles of creating autonomous learners. How do you get people turned on to language learners so that they motivate themselves, and in what way is The Linguist system sort of the ideal mechanism and the ideal resource for autonomous learners?

One other small thing-we have to have a standard, like we have to be on the same page with regard to, say, a new product. I made a mistake-this lady phoned me this morning. She wants to join with the new package. I didn't get her phone number, I didn't get her email address. I should be trained! I should have certain things that I say, not sort of, "Oh yeah, well, who are you again?" I don't want to have us sort of struggling for words. Every one of us should be trained. We need a routine-this is what you say: "Thank you very much for whatever, and it's this, and it's this, and what is your phone number, and what is your email address?" That was my fault. I should have-it seems like an obvious thing, but somebody phones you out of the blue, and you don't necessarily think of it. So we need-all of us-to be trained in what we say, and maybe we need more formalized documentation that we give people. And again, we got that little flyer that Keith proposed as an approach to teachers, for the school system. I'm going to sit down and try to come up with a-maybe Jill, you and I can work on that-come up with one for the corporate sector, for the institutional sector. So it's a relatively inexpensive handout. Otherwise, every time we hand out something, it's that very expensive, colorful brochure. It adds up, that's a lot of money. So we've got to have some of these things in place. We're sort of getting over our development period now, we have to be a little more, I think, structured in our whole marketing approach. So this brings us then to the issue of content, David, and just where we need to go in content right now. Jill, what do you feel in terms of talking to the users? What sort of content are they looking for?

Jill: Actually, they never discuss content with me. We never really talk about content. None of them-I haven't asked what they thought, and none of them have brought it up. So, the only one I know of is the one who submitted the writing about wanting more stuff to do with fashion and beauty and that kind of thing. That's the only one I've ever heard of.

David: The reviews of the movie-everyone that I speak to, every student that I speak with, speaks to me about the content, because I guess they know that I have something to do with the content, and it's always-they're very engaged. They tell me-rarely do they say what they don't like, they say what they really, really like, and they want more of it. The most basic discussions that I'm having with Chris or with Jill or with anyone, they really like that. The notion of-we were talking about reviewing movies, how we have active social lives, and we get together-myself and Mark, or myself and Chris, whomever-and we talk about movies that we've seen over the weekend, and I ask questions. We do it in the most unstructured, natural, conversational way. Those things that we do have on up there, that people have access to right now, they just absolutely adore them. I think there might be a disconnect between people using everything together at the same time. Using the-we're trying to get them to choose content, or get into groups, or pairs, pick content together, read it together, study it together, talk about it together in a voice chat, together, and then write about it together, or write about it, the whole sort of circular thing. That might be a reason they're not talking about the content. They talk to Jill, they're not sure that Jill has anything to do with the content, or she's aware of it, or something like that.

Steve: Okay, but I think some of the things I would like to work on in content-because we've got two banks interested in our program, we have to go out and deliberately get more business/bank/finance-related content, and I think I will talk to you about how we can set up to do that, interview certain people.

Mark: I mean, I think just conversations like this, they are good. More conversations, interviews, that type of thing. Natural conversation. Right now, we've sort of spent a lot of-lately, we've added a lot of literature, we've added a lot of articles. Probably, natural conversation is what we should work on next. I know that also, David, you had tried talking to Safeway to see if we could talk to the different departments there and get interviews there. I mean, that kind of thing would be good too. Anything like that sort of infomercial type of stuff, combined with learning about the culture here.

Just on the subject of content, I think the thought of-that we talked about earlier-having a forum on each content item, so it's up there on our forum, and people can start to interact about the different items that they're-each individual item should have its own forum that's not related to a sentence or a phrase; it's just the forum on this item. What did you think-and maybe you start it off with a thread.

David: People with whom I speak ask questions about that, have opinions about that, and if we jump-start the conversations on some particular items, that'd be great, because when they start asking questions, it just blossoms. We learn more about what they want from us.

Part 2

Mark: I was just going to say, that combined with training tutors for our system, we should do that, because (a) we have a specific methodology and message that we want to put across to our learners, but also, if we can get them, we can train them, then it’s sort of a sales force almost, that we can send out wherever they go. They’re familiar with our message, our system, and hopefully they will spread the word.

Steve: Yeah, I think there’s a real opportunity to train people in the principles of creating autonomous learners. How do you get people turned on to language learners so that they motivate themselves, and in what way is The Linguist system sort of the ideal mechanism and the ideal resource for autonomous learners?

One other small thing-we have to have a standard, like we have to be on the same page with regard to, say, a new product. I made a mistake-this lady phoned me this morning. She wants to join with the new package. I didn’t get her phone number, I didn’t get her email address. I should be trained! I should have certain things that I say, not sort of, "Oh yeah, well, who are you again?" I don’t want to have us sort of struggling for words. Every one of us should be trained. We need a routine-this is what you say: "Thank you very much for whatever, and it’s this, and it’s this, and what is your phone number, and what is your email address?" That was my fault. I should have-it seems like an obvious thing, but somebody phones you out of the blue, and you don’t necessarily think of it. So we need-all of us-to be trained in what we say, and maybe we need more formalized documentation that we give people. And again, we got that little flyer that Keith proposed as an approach to teachers, for the school system. I’m going to sit down and try to come up with a-maybe Jill, you and I can work on that-come up with one for the corporate sector, for the institutional sector. So it’s a relatively inexpensive handout. Otherwise, every time we hand out something, it’s that very expensive, colorful brochure. It adds up, that’s a lot of money. So we’ve got to have some of these things in place. We’re sort of getting over our development period now, we have to be a little more, I think, structured in our whole marketing approach. So this brings us then to the issue of content, David, and just where we need to go in content right now. Jill, what do you feel in terms of talking to the users? What sort of content are they looking for?

Jill: Actually, they never discuss content with me. We never really talk about content. None of them-I haven’t asked what they thought, and none of them have brought it up. So, the only one I know of is the one who submitted the writing about wanting more stuff to do with fashion and beauty and that kind of thing. That’s the only one I’ve ever heard of.

David: The reviews of the movie-everyone that I speak to, every student that I speak with, speaks to me about the content, because I guess they know that I have something to do with the content, and it’s always-they’re very engaged. They tell me-rarely do they say what they don’t like, they say what they really, really like, and they want more of it. The most basic discussions that I’m having with Chris or with Jill or with anyone, they really like that. The notion of-we were talking about reviewing movies, how we have active social lives, and we get together-myself and Mark, or myself and Chris, whomever-and we talk about movies that we’ve seen over the weekend, and I ask questions. We do it in the most unstructured, natural, conversational way. Those things that we do have on up there, that people have access to right now, they just absolutely adore them. I think there might be a disconnect between people using everything together at the same time. Using the-we’re trying to get them to choose content, or get into groups, or pairs, pick content together, read it together, study it together, talk about it together in a voice chat, together, and then write about it together, or write about it, the whole sort of circular thing. That might be a reason they’re not talking about the content. They talk to Jill, they’re not sure that Jill has anything to do with the content, or she’s aware of it, or something like that.

Steve: Okay, but I think some of the things I would like to work on in content-because we’ve got two banks interested in our program, we have to go out and deliberately get more business/bank/finance-related content, and I think I will talk to you about how we can set up to do that, interview certain people.

Mark: I mean, I think just conversations like this, they are good. More conversations, interviews, that type of thing. Natural conversation. Right now, we’ve sort of spent a lot of-lately, we’ve added a lot of literature, we’ve added a lot of articles. Probably, natural conversation is what we should work on next. I know that also, David, you had tried talking to Safeway to see if we could talk to the different departments there and get interviews there. I mean, that kind of thing would be good too. Anything like that sort of infomercial type of stuff, combined with learning about the culture here.

Just on the subject of content, I think the thought of-that we talked about earlier-having a forum on each content item, so it’s up there on our forum, and people can start to interact about the different items that they’re-each individual item should have its own forum that’s not related to a sentence or a phrase; it’s just the forum on this item. What did you think-and maybe you start it off with a thread.

David: People with whom I speak ask questions about that, have opinions about that, and if we jump-start the conversations on some particular items, that’d be great, because when they start asking questions, it just blossoms. We learn more about what they want from us.