Online discussion

Today Carmen and George showed up and after chatting for a while, we did an online discussion about travel. It turns out that both of them have been to Thailand and the Philippines and have had a chance to practice their English there. They mentioned that the standard of English in the Philippines is pretty good and that the people are very warm and relaxed. George also said that he would like to go to England because of its great history - he admits that he's a bit worried about speaking to English people though! Hopefully the practice he is doing here will help him iron out any little problems that he might have.... When we finished the discussion I asked the two of them whether they found it useful or not. They said it was a bit odd being in the same room and using instant messengers to communciate, and I have to admit they've got a good point there! I pointed out that they could use the transcript of the session to check for any mistakes they might have made, and to analyse their conversation, but it's still not quite the same as actually speaking to someone, I guess...