SSi Forum

Journaly, a new site for practising writing different languages

#1

I watch a few language learning YouTubers and I recently came across Robin MacPherson’s channel. I’ve watched a few of his videos and he has some interesting ideas to help introverts practise speaking. However, that’s not what I’m here to tell you about. Robin has also created a brand new site for people to practise writing in the language(s) they are learning. Journaly is still in beta testing, but I’ve signed up and written a couple of posts in Welsh and have already received a comment!

I’ve tried writing in Welsh on other social media sites, but the journal entries just get lost in the torrent of English and there is no way to connect with other Welsh learners and speakers. I do follow some Welsh speakers on Twitter who post in Welsh, but Twitter is so fast moving and noisy that it’s not suitable for what I want to do and of course you are constrained by the character limit.

So if anyone has completed a couple of the SSiW levels and is interested in trying their hand at writing in Welsh (or any other language), I think Journaly has a lot of potential.

Here’s the link: Journaly.com Why not join me?

Oxford Welsh learners group
#2

Interesting!

Do you have the same name there as you have it here? I tend to sign in and will surely search for you. :slight_smile:

P.S. it seams it’s no way to search profiles but just posts and I don’t see there’d be a link to profile (have created one too) to be posted elswhere. So I can’t search explicitely for you in order to follow your posts.

#3

I hope this is a link to my profile. I’m just Margaret on there. I need to explore the site further but it feels comfortable posting there, unlike on Facebook or Twitter. If you can follow me, I’ll follow you back.

The site is still in open beta testing, so Robin may still be interested in suggestions for improvement, but I think the site has a lot of potential. I know other language learning sites have places to post pieces of writing for correction, but they are mainly about language learning, not about using the language to communicate.

#4

Thank you. After some “struggling” because you’re not able to search for the profiles - which is the feature Robert might reconsidder to add - I found you right after I’ve written my post here and I’m following you now. To be honest, I’ve read only one of your posts until now, because I have to explore things on the site too but the one I did seams great to me so keep on posting.

I might transfer my German and Spanish blog there and close those two on Blogger though but I won’t transfer my Welsh because there are quite some posts which are a bit out of date now so it’s no point to re-post these things there.

#5

I hope to eventually start writing in Spanish too, but I’m only on Challenge 14 of Level 1 SSiS at the moment, so that won’t happen for a while.

I will try to start a regular habit of blogging in Welsh. I should try posting a condensed version of the posts I make in English on LiveJournal. Next step is to see if you can post photos to Journaly.

#6

I still have no idea how to find you, Tatjana. Did you create an account? If so, can you post a link to your Journaly profile?

#7

Hi there - this site is a great idea! I’ve written a draft post, but can’t see how to publish it. Am I missing something or does the post need to be checked before it is published? Many thanks for the information :smile:

#8

Hi Margaret - here is my profile! https://www.journaly.com/dashboard/profile/3896

#9

The journal entry seems to have posted OK. I’ll read it properly tomorrow when I’m on the computer. I’ll see if I can follow you too.

#10

Well, I still can’t beat my old habit to create my profiles with my nickname which I use allover the net. My profile is KnightGhost and you can find it here: https://www.journaly.com/dashboard/profile/3593

For the Spanish: I’m on lesson 7 I believe but I still can’t say much. I am getting on and off the course all the time so there’s no way I could sicceed with such aproach though. So both blogs I’ve written in Spanish but didn’t transfer to Journaly them yet are consisting just of 2 or 3 sentences and that’s all. I should really start to publish something though.

Oh, and one little thought: Is there wanted to be posted something in native language too, perhaps for other learners to read and learn? Or is it more aimed to post in the language(s) you’re learning? Any knowledge about that?

Oh, and to follow someone is a bit tricky. You have to find that one’s profile, click on their post to go to read it and from there on the right down corner you have the data about the author and only there ther’s a link saying “follow”. (so that you know how to follow pepole). Obviously I need to post something before one can follow me though. :slight_smile:

#11

Hello, @margarethall. Thank you for introducing Journaly and for the link to your profile. Also, thank you @tatjana for the tip on how to follow someone. I would never have found the button otherwise. I have had a go too, and (with luck) my profile is at https://www.journaly.com/dashboard/profile/3898.
Sue

#12

Great @Betterlatethan! Following you.

Now more tips. @margarethall as far as I could establish, there’s no way to attach pictures into the post but you can change cover picture, this is one which is at the top of your post (where the title of the post is set). On the top right corner there’s a button saying “Upload Imatge” and if you click on it you’re able to choose the photo from your computer and upload it. It appears as a darkened banner carring title of your post on, but it also apears as the thumbnail of your post which is much better than having the default one so the post stands a bit out from the other posts this way.

I strongly believe the things will improve and more features will be added.

You can also update your profile with uploading profile picture, telling the world a bit more about yourself and as much as I see there will be possibility of listing your interests so people would easily find other people of the same or similar interests.

I also uploaded two posts (which were already published on my old blogger blogs but no harm to be added on Journaly too), one in German and one in Spanish. Both are very short as I really didn’t have much of idea what to write really. I just knew I have to try to write something and that was it: :slight_smile:

Writing or editing the text in the post you can only use those standard things like bold, italic, strike out etc and you can add numbered or buletin list and I believe this is approximately all. apart from seting text as a header also. As much as I can remember, you can’t post links of any kind in the posts for now either. But what you can do, you can add links to your Facebook profile, YouTube channel and a link to one of your sites (if you have any) directly into your profile so the visitors can click on the links which take you straight to the desired destination. The links open in separate tab so no worries the visitor would be carried away from your Journaly profile though. :slight_smile:

Now, this is really all for now.

Good luck with posting.

PS WOW! Only now I’ve seen that people can comment your text with the corrections exactly on the wrong expressions and I’ve got some of them in both - Spanish and German text - which is prety cool. You can correct the text if you wish or just learn out of the corrections/comments you get on the text. This is separated feature from the comments you can post below the posts so expect someone will correct your texts and this way you’ll be able to learn rules, words and other things too!

Gwych! :slight_smile:

#13

I found your German post, @tatjana, so I used it to follow you. I can even understand it - more of less.
Sue

#14

I’d have to listen again to the video where Robin explained the purpose of Journaly. I think he did mention that it was fine to post in your native language if you wanted to. I won’t be doing that because it would only duplicate my LiveJournal posts. Thanks for the tip about the pictures. I’d discovered that when I tried to post a photo of a pottery guinea pig and was surprised to see that it came as the thumbnail for the post. I do like to add photos in the body of what I’m writing (which is one reason I still use LiveJournal), but now I know how the photos work, I’ll try to add one for each post because it does make them stand out more.

With Spanish, I’m currently doing Challenge 14 for the second time. I have to do each one three times before anything sticks, but I was pleased how much I remembered from my first attempt last winter.

I will now go and write a few sentences in Welsh on Journaly and see if I can manage to follow you all over there.

ETA: Yay! I’ve found you all. I’ll read your posts tomorrow.

#15

Well, I’ve JUST got the e-mail about activities on my posts if even I discuvered all the corrections and comments before the e-mail was sent. This means you obviously get notified about what is happening with your posts - whether one comments on them, make a note/correction etc. This is prety cool and now I’m thinking about what should I do with these corrections but at the moment I’m pondering a thought to not correct the original post but rather making kind of the whole corrected text in the post itself and at the end thanking the readers who corrected my writing. This only goes with short posts though so I’m not sure if this really is a good idea. On the other hand if I correct original post, the comments are not relevant anymore and the things written wrongly will be lost so no one would be able to learn from my mistakes, even not myself. :slight_smile:

This whole thing is a learning tool so I intend to use it this way rather than making pure long journals which is sometimes hard to follow. :slight_smile:

Let’s see what happens next.

And, of course, thank you all.

#16

I’ve just had another look on Journaly and I’ve worked out how to highlight mistakes and comment to suggest a correction. I need to watch the YouTube video again, but I think Robin said something about how to do a corrected draft. Anyway, here’s the video where he explained it was now ready to throw it open to public Beta testing.

Robin explains Journaly

#17

I’m not planning to practise writing at the moment, so I’ll keep the link aside for later.
But I had a look at the YouTube channel and saw a few brilliant videos that are really helpful for my learning right now (feeling a bit stuck and unsure of where to go)
So thanks a lot for the tips!

#18

I decided to join Journaly!
https://journaly.com/dashboard/profile/6815

I’ve just had a quick look around so far. I see the Welsh section is not very active, at the moment, unfortunately.

But I do agree with @margarethall that it has a great potential. Seeing how well it’s working for other languages, it’s just a matter of having a larger community of Welsh learners and at least a few native or very advanced speakers (well…writers) to help with corrections.

The reason why I’ve joined is mostly that I watched Robin’s videos about transcribing podcasts and I thought it could be a really good practise for me to do: podcasts, TV, radio or random videos and audio clips.

And another good thing about it is that I think even learners at a lower level (like me) can able to help one another to catch the right or missing words.
What do you think? And is it something you might enjoy doing?

Besides this, I can try and mention it a bit around and see if I can drag a few learners and speakers.

By the way, I saw that Robin just moved back to the UK and in Bristol, so we should put some pressure on him about going for some Welsh too! :wink:

#19

I’ve done my bit and added a piece in two parts - since I had already written it for the people who walked in the woods with me recently.
Sue

#20

I posted a couple of pieces but then didn’t get round to doing any more. I must get back to it because it would be good practice for me, especially as I’ve signed up to do the Welsh for Adults Exam (Advanced). Because of Covid, the exam is online and oral only, but writing does show up where the gaps are in one’s knowledge.