

Esmanur Kara is a Turkish participant of Eric Hagley’s International Virtual Exchange Project.
She’s a 24-year-old English language teacher graduate, currently undertaking a Masters’ in ELT. She wants to be an academic.
Up to now, Esmanur has participated in seven iterations of this project and is very happy to be part of it.
Up to now, Esmanur has participated in seven iterations of this project and is very happy to be part of it.
“When I first heard about this virtual exchange, I was very interested in the different backgrounds and cultures of the participants. As a teacher, I felt I needed to understand about culture. After all, we don’t just teach language; we are also teaching culture. I said to myself, if I want to do this properly, I need to know about it. That’s why I wanted to participate and meet new people and learn about cultures. My first aim was to improve my intercultural tolerance.“
The pieces of the puzzle
Esmanur explains how in the virtual exchange project they had asynchronous forums where they could write to each other, react to posts and give opinions and views. We also attended weekly synchronous meetings.
“There were so many different people to meet and interact with,’ she explains. “Both in the forums and in the synchronous sessions: we met participants from Japan, Mexico, Columbia and more. So when we had our zoom meetings, we also talked about our cultures. As a result, I became familiar with different elements of their culture.”
Using zoom and breakout rooms for the VE
The weekly synchronous meetings took place mostly on zoom and sometimes they used google hangouts. About 15-20 students would attend and they made full use of the breakout rooms for the different levels of language skills involved.
The students chose the topics by invitation as Eric asked them each week what they wanted to talk about and welcomed suggestions. “We were quite autonomous and we could decide ourselves,” says Esmanur.
“For example,’ she continues, I chose the topic of our future plans, our aims, dreams and goals. It was a really great topic and we all shared a lot in this session. I remember how much we all enjoyed discussing together.”
She explains how the different backgrounds of the participants – from economics, politics, teaching, to name a few – really affects the way they see their future goals.
“I remember a girl who had always wanted to be a veterinary surgeon since school, so we spent a lot of time talking about this and I found it a really interesting example because it was so different from my own background and what I want to do in my future.”
Memories of the VE experience
“I love cooking, which is something I think helps to bring people together. On our asynchronous forum, I saw a recipe from Japan, and decided to have a go at making it. It wasn’t quite right as I couldn’t find the original ingredients’, she laughs, ‘but I had fun trying.”
Managing large numbers in a VE
Esmanur says that Eric put her in charge of the breakout rooms, as she already felt quite comfortable about her language skills.
“I am open to learn all the time, so he gave me a chance to manage the rooms. I always did my best to encourage everyone to talk. We are all here to learn and I would tell them not to worry about making mistakes as this is how we all improve. I wanted to encourage them all the time as we need to speak to improve.
“My language skills have definitely improved since taking part in this international virtual exchange project. At the start I wasn’t so fluent, but now I feel better.
“After all, I have done this seven times!!”
Advice to others
“There are so many beautiful and encouraging teachers and pupils in this project, so come and join us and do something. Don’t worry about anything. Just come and be with us!
Thanks for the opportunity to speak about something that I really love!”
For anyone wishing to sign up for the next iteration of IVE – see here