Congratulations...!

My congratulations to Younghee, the first person in any of my classes to achieve "Flyer" status (or a Three-Star ranking). That means she is the first student to have posted 30 contributions in the forums.

You may have noticed the ranking system and wondered how it is organized. Well, so far I can tell you about the first three ranks:

1 Star / Starter = 1-9 postings
2 Stars / Mover = 10-29 postings
3 Stars / Flyer = 30 or more postings

There are two additional ranks that can be achieved, for a four or five star ranking in the forum. However, I won't tell you just how many postings they require or what the rank names are... that would spoil the surprise now, wouldn't it?

In any case, keep up the great work everybody, and congratulations again to Younghee for reaching this small milestone. She has been kind and thoughtful to others in her feedback, and deserves to be the first to achieve the highest rank so far in this forum environment.

Bye for now,

~ Jason


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Yes! she is such a hard working, devoted student who will challenges me throughout this class.
She is unbelievable! She is an excellent writer, and the better is she's a fast writer. (For me, it took almost 4 hours to complet OP2, and still I am thinking about the topic for my first journal entry) As Namjoo mentioned, she would be the roll model for the rest of our classmates.

Nevertheless, I have to say that the one who has to be exalted most is definitely you, dear Jason. I have never met such organized, demanding and dedicated teacher like you in my life. The amount of required writing tasks is kind of overwhelming , but, still I will do my best to meet all your expection since I believe this is the right way of improving my writing skills.

Thank you again.

with my best regard,

Inkab

Inkab wrote:Yes! she is such a hard working, devoted student who will challenges me through this class.
She is unbelievable! She is an excellent writer and the better is she's a fast writer. (For me, it took almost 4 hours to complet OP2, and still I am thinking about the topic for my first journal entry) As Namjoo mentioned, she would be the roll model for the rest of our classmates.

Nevertheless, I have to say that the one who has to be exalted most is definitely you, dear Jason. I have never met such organized, demanding and dedicated teacher like you in my life. The amount of required writing tasks is kind of overwhelming , but, still I will do my best to meet all your expection since I believe this is the right way of improving my writing skills.

Thank you again.

with my best regard,

Inkab

Hi Inkab,

Thanks for your very kind comments - both to Younghee and myself.

It does make me feel a little bad, however, as the sudden arrival of my family from Australia in weeks 2 and 3 of our term (and they only gave us 1 week's notice - they wanted to surprise us and they certainly did that!) really put me behind. My publisher in Hong Kong is putting me under the pump for sample manuscripts for another Longman series, and well - that's just the start of what is becoming a rather exhausting schedule. However organized you feel I am, so far I have to confess I haven't been up to my usual teaching standards... However, I'm making up ground as fast as I can.

I am sorry to hear the writing tasks have eaten up so much of your precious time. I have such enormous respect for students like you who are balancing study with marriage and parenthood. I don't think the younger/single students really have an inkling of just how challenging it is for people like you (and others like Namsook and Heeyoung, not to mention our mother-to-be Min-jung!) to juggle so many demanding roles all at once. Remember that you can expect a sympathetic and understanding ear from me if you need me to adjust any of your deadlines.

I know I have really pushed the "write a lot" agenda in this class, but experience has shown me that it is the one tried and true key means of facilitating writing development. To get good (and faster) at writing means doing a whole lot of it on a constant basis. I can already see this in your and several other students' writing so far. You've made enormous progress in just four weeks.

If it is taking you four hours to do one piece of writing, that is a bit of a worry. It means you are thinking far too much about it all, and potentially making mountains out of molehills. See what you can produce in a 1-2 hour limit for any given piece of writing, and just understand that it will take time to get faster at doing this sort of writing at the level of thoroughness you expect of yourself in a "perfect" world. Take it step by step, be willing to have some failures or imperfections, and be patient with yourself. Look also at the very admiring comments about your writing from your classmates. They know you can write well, and enjoy seeing your thoughts in text.

I totally believe in your ability. You have made great progress so far and will undoubtedly continue to do so. If you can trust my (and your classmates') opinion on that count, you will start to realize that you can relax a little more and let your writing 'flow' (rather than 'flop').

And remember, if you need any personal help with any of this, my office is always open for you (just tell me when you intend to drop by!). It's quiet and lonely in there , so why don't you come and cheer me up some time?

Take care, Inkab, and make sure you get some quality time with your family this weekend...

(Hey that reminds me... trying to come up with topics for your personal journals? Why don't you tell me about your family? That sort of stuff comes easily, and it's always great to read!)

~ Jason


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I could have done first though..

because of my damn Job interview for two days..( Can I say "damn" in holy English forum here? )

Kanghoon Jang wrote:I could have done first though..

because of my damn Job interview for two days..( Can I say "damn" in holy English forum here? )

"Damn" is assuredly inappropriate in a course-based forum, and I wouldn't recommend it in most polite company. "Darned" is a softer version that might pass, but just to be on the safe side, try using "horrid" or "frustrating" - something like that.

Remember that the written language is our chance to show the better side of ourselves... It leaves a permanent record, unlike casual spoken language, and hence ought to reflect the way we would like to be remembered.

Best wishes,

~ Jason


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sorry and thank you!

I never say that for now on about that!


Sincerely,


Kanghoon

Kanghoon Jang wrote:I could have done first though..

Perhaps you could have been first, but I count quality as much as quantity. Younghee's comments have always been well-measured and very useful to the people she responds to. A good portion of her posts have shown a clear dedication to doing quality writing tasks as well. Also, unlike you (who posts here as both a composition and speaking methodology student), she is only enrolled in one of my courses, which makes her targeted contributions all the more impressive.

So sorry, Kanghoon, even if you had beaten her in a tally, you wouldn't have come close to beating her on grounds of appropriacy, content and sheer dedication!

That said, I really do appreciate your kind spirit and words of encouragement to your classmates. It's great to see.

Let's see if you can post more messages that echo Younghee's style and substance, as well as her overall tally!

Best of luck,

~ Jason

Kanghoon Jang wrote:sorry and thank you!

I never say that for now on about that!

Sincerely,

Kanghoon

No problem at all. The good thing is that you asked, so there was no offense taken at all.

Keep up the good work,

~ Jason

I am very flattered to hear that I won a prize, which I didn't totally expect to get.
I've mentioned in my first journal that I really hate writing of any kind even in Korean.
The honor you gave me may be the result of my struggle to overcome my handicap.

In addition, my early writing comes from my personality.
I don't like to leave something to do behind and worry about it for not doing it.
To tell the truth, since procrastination bothers me a lot, I tried to get out of the way by finishing it as fast as possible.

I tried to spare my time everyday in visiting the forum so that I should not be inundated with things to write and respond.

Actually, I am a very slow writer. It takes me several hours to complete writing not only because I suffer from lack of ideas but also because I have a hard time finding the appropriate words and expressions.
But I decided to limit my writing time within 2 hours maximum regardless of the quality of writing.

Thank you for encouraging me, Jason and Inkab.

finally, I definately know what you want me to do.
I am going to take seriously this forum more than I did before. Honestly, I tried to answer towards other people's writing as much as possible even though it would be short. However, I think that I was in wrong way.
I am going to make efforts to write productively. I want to follow your suit because I have known how much your efforts are making this forum.



To Younghee,

You deserve it. Don't get me wrong. I just wanted to say something in funny ways.
Plus, I always enjoy what you write in here.


Sincerely,


Kanghoon

Congratulation, Younghee. I knew that you would make it!

The 4 stars.... The following ranking's name.. would more active than flyer be transformer??
Sorry.. I have studied for more than 4 hours without rest.

It's just kidding but on the other hand, I am really curious about it!

Seyoung Yoon wrote:Congratulation, Younghee. I knew that you would make it!

The 4 stars.... The following ranking's name.. would more active than flyer be transformer??
Sorry.. I have studied for more than 4 hours without rest.

It's just kidding but on the other hand, I am really curious about it!

Hi Seyoung,

Good to hear from you. I can see how hard you have been working, and I appreciate and admire your work ethic. These are the acorns that can help you grow a towering oak tree of success!

Yes, the 4-star ranking... More active than the 'Flyer' rank, but I'll leave it to you students to discover what the rank name is and how many posts you need to have to achieve it. At the start of the course I pre-programmed the ranks, post numbers and names. Based on that, as soon as a student's posts hit the minimum for a new rank, the forum will automatically verify this and allocate the new rank name.

The 4 and 5 star rank names are a little more creative... I hope they create a pleasant surprise for the students who achieve them.

Keep up the great work, Seyoung!

See you in class soon,

~ Jason


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In addition to Younghee and Kanghoon, I'd like to congratulate three more recent additions to the "Mover" club (= 30 or more posts in this forum): Namsook, Heeyoung and Inkab. Thanks for your ongoing efforts and dedication to the composition class!

Keep up the excellent work.

~ Jason


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Wow, you have four stars now. You are the most diligence student in the class.
I have only two stars now. I have to make an effort more.

Congratulation!
I'm just two stars.
I'll try to be active!