Is Wednesday 9:30am EST time a regular slot going forward? I can make it from next Wednesday (only saw this now and missed today’s session).
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So apparently, we will be meeting at 930 am on Wednesdays moving forward. But I am still waiting to hear from the others about other suggestions.
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Next week I could join you on Monday, Tuesday or Friday … Or on Thursday after the Arabic group meeting.
Wednesday will only work for me in 2 and 3 weeks.
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Why not do this on Discord? The interface is so much better! You can get on Voice/Video any time and you can see who’s on all channels before you join. That way you know if you want to join the French channel or the German channel, for example. Each language has its own channel.
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If I’m honest, I don’t use Discord. I’m not opposed to it, but I have never had a need to participate in that platform. Perhaps, you can help me understand how adding a new social platform would benefit me? I have read your posts, but I’m still not compelled to join. Is it a time thing? Is there more freedom to chat whenever? Thank you for your time.
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I will try and be available after the Arabic class for some German practice next week 
@Alesia I appreciate your suggestion but personally I prefer to use this platform because people are already familiar with it and there are also new members joining us here frequently. With the new schedule in place for November 8th and later, I also believe we will all have a better and more concrete schedule to follow here. If others prefer meeting elsewhere, that’s fine too. The important thing is that we get to practice our languages either way 
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To all, thank you to everyone who joined today. To the ones I already know, it is always great talking to you! To the ones I newly met today, it was a pleasure getting to know you.
Huge thanks to @RonP for keeping up with all the corrections and thank you @Takashi for your grammar insight.
I am so excited to see everyone next week same time - I believe it would be then in the Venus room.
For those who prefer Thursdays, I can be available after 11.30am EST. Let me know for sure so that we can talk to the moderators to add these sessions to the schedule/excel sheet.
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Thursday next week is fine for me.
In general, I’ll try to keep Thursdays free as we already have the Arabic meeting on that day - so that would work most times. The other days can change though… I may be able to join you on some Wednesdays, so if that day is better for the majority, just take that one 
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I don’t like signing up for a bunch of new sites or downloading a bunch of new apps unnecessarily either, but Discord is really great! It goes beyond just the freedom to chat whenever you like and the ease of seeing someone on the voice channel and jumping on to chat spontaneously. People are a bit confused when they first join, but the more they get to know the interface, the more they like it. It would really be best for you to see for yourself how cool it is. I’m sure the attendance for these Zoom meetings will dwindle over time, but Discord is a place you go to chat whenever you have free time and want to relax. It’s nice that it doesn’t come with any pressure that leads to a resistance to learning. Instead, you get involved in fun activities on Discord and end up practicing languages without even realizing that these games are also a way of learning.
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I can only do late afternoons/evenings or weekends, so Wednesdays at 9:30 won’t work for me.
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@TomekP how soon on weekdays in EST time zone can you be available? @Rina can you give me a time range in EST as well please? Maybe we can organize a chat for the afternoon 
11:00 am EST, it’s 6 pm CET
@Zeina-AR-DE-FR-EN it really depends on the day and what I’ve got already planned there… As for the 2 mentioned Wednesdays, I could do:
18 November 1000-1200EST / 1500-1700 UTC
25 November anything between 0400-1200EST / 0900-1700 UTC
@TomekP I think you got the times wrong there… 1100 EST should be 1600 UTC and 1700 CET, if I’m not completely wrong?? Last time I checked, the time difference was 5 hours between EST and UTC, so it’s 6 hours between EST and CET…
@Alesia I’m already on your channel and got to know Discord a little bit, but I’m really not sure it’s the right place for things like these language group meetings. Sure everyone can meet and chat in the voice channels, but zoom (and also skype) does - in my opinion - have a different functionality and is better suited to this kind of thing. Also, I only have Discord on my mobile phone, but I think most here prefer the computer or Laptop … Well anything with a bigger screen… For these meetings. And it’s also easier to write in the zoom chat during the meeting when on a Computer. If I did that on my phone I wouldn’t be able to see the video screen anymore. … Don’t know in how far discord would work like this on a computer and if it offers all the same functionality Zoom or Skype offer. I use it more like a normal chat app like WhatsApp, mostly, and I really don’t enjoy WhatsApp calls at all.
I’m also doing regular language lessons via italki on Zoom and Skype and the functionality that comes with those 2, like screensharing or replacing your background, is simply something I wouldn’t want to miss anymore. Also, it is a somewhat more private environment, which can also be an advantage. I think my teachers wouldn’t be too happy about people dropping into the class and leaving again just as they like, even if it were a group class. So, Discord is probably better suited for a more casual chat, I think.
And last but not least, I really don’t think attendance to these meetings will dwindle because of the environment we use. The people know when and where the meetings are held… And if somebody wouldn’t want to attend anymore, I don’t think it would make much of a difference where these meetings were held.
Discord sure is useful in some ways, but I don’t think it’s the best choice for everything
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@Rina I am excited that you will be able to attend on those Wednesdays. 
But since the 18th is 2 weeks away, I think arranging a meetup earlier, at a more convenient time, would be a good idea as well.
So, let’s wait for @TomekP to confirm his availability. We can decide on a final day/time from there.
Anyone else who wants to meet up at a different time, please let me know.
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I’ve been on Discord for awhile now and spend most of my time on language servers. It’s given me an opportunity to use languages that I wouldn’t have been using hardly at all during this time.
If you have meet-ups on Zoom, you still get to use your languages, but only at set times and for me the extra burden or remembering the time, saving the zoom link, making sure I have nothing else planned, and possibly pushing myself to attend because that’s my only chance that week, are all things I don’t have to deal with on Discord, which is a huge relief! I love being able to show up whenever I feel like it and always seeing someone there. You also end up with lots of native speakers happy to help learners who even offer free classes, rather than just a bunch of learners amongst themselves.
I use my computer for all apps that have a desktop version, including whatsapp and Discord. It makes it much easier to type long messages! On Discord, you chat in one of the text channels while on Voice/Video Chat. You can get the video to pop out and have it in another window or, when you click to go to the text channel, it’ll float the video of whoever’s talking, so you can see them while you type. Since Discord was designed for gamers, it can of course do screensharing too.
If you’re annoyed by learners coming and going whenever they liked during a planned activity, but you can put a limit on how many or which users can get on VC to avoiding a bunch of random people getting on who have no idea what’s going on.
But the thing about Discord is that it only really works, if you have enough members to create a language environment that’s always active. That’s why it’s much better if as many of us as possible come together in one place.
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Just choose a day and time that is most suitable for everyone and if possible, I’ll join you
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May I ask you, which other language servers you use? I tried two, because I was curious about the lessons people offered there, but they weren’t exactly what I expected…
Ahhh thanks for the explanation, I didn’t know Discord could do those things, too
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There was one that I very active in, but I didn’t like the people who ran it. They did give me some good ideas though, so I’m hoping to incorporate those into my server. The hard part is starting from scratch and getting to where you have enough people that it essentially runs itself.
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Hi everyone!
If you all would still like to meet for German chats in the future after November 8, you all can have them in the Venus Room and add the meeting times in a Venus Room Google Doc schedule spreadsheet that I will publish in a few days. Everyone can meet at 2 or 3 times a week on different times to practice German.
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