Couple of 中文角 questions

[rezaf]

I have a (childish) solution for you: Maybe you should give some kind of reward to people (non-native speakers if possible) for each post they send in Chinese corner. :rolleyes: It can be one point to their reputation.

[anonymoose]

Lower-level learners seem to quite frequently post small texts that they ask for comments and feedback on. I'm not sure which sub-forum these usually crop up in, but they seem to find their place somewhere. These posts also often receive good quality feedback, usually in English, which is of benefit to the average learner.

On the other hand, I think a dedicated practise area, such as Chinese corner, will inevitably tend towards the advanced level, because let's face it, it is difficult to have a genuine and interesting (that people will be motivated to participate in) discussion, entirely in Chinese, if you are only at an elementary or even intermediate level.

[Kenny同志]

There might be a few reasons contributing to the coldness of the Chinese corner. One major reason I believe is lack of easy topics that really interest people. Very few native speakers bother to start a topic in Chinese because most of them come here for learning English rather than Chinese; when they realize they are unable to communicate their ideas effectively with people here in English, they become discouraged and leave. Those Chinese who can express their ideas in English are comfortable using English only for they have no need to hone their Chinese skills with laowais. Due to the lack of participation from native speakers and scarce interesting topics, non-native speakers have less motivation to speak in the Chinese corner, perhaps holding the idea that the topic is dull or that it’s not so wholesome to go there as it’s all laowais who are talking there.

[Outofin]

I agree with kenny. It's about content. If it generates enough interesting topics, people will participate.

Some other random ideas:

Allow mixing use of English and Chinese to attract entry level learners.

Roddy pretends to be a low level users, so others will feel comfortable posting too.

By the way, I really like the idea of Signese. It has a lot of fun. I read it too. Good job!