It surprises me to think of older retired people being bored or lonely and not volunteering. Not having a purpose in life. Not helping other people when they could. It makes me think about what retired people do and I feel like there can be no better activity to do than volunteering. That’s just my viewpoint though 🙂
Anyway, onwards to where I find the students I talk to.
A Melbourne Volunteer Organisation
I have two English language students through a formal volunteer organization in Melbourne. Before I got these two students, I had to complete some online English tutoring training and then pass a Police Check and a Working with Children Check (they’re adults though). I also have access to additional online training via this organisation. Each time I chat to these two students I have to create a little log about the contact. These students are immigrants based in Melbourne.
These two students I’ve helped for two and half years.
Conversation Exchange
My other students that I’ve met all around the world are via a website called Conversation Exchange. Although when I say all around the world, I mainly mean in Asia and North America (Canada and the USA). These places have the best time zones for me to chat too. I normally have around eight regular students I’ve met from there each week. I have a few others that I chat to less consistently.
Quite a few of these students I’ve chatted to for two and a half years.
Episoden
There is another website, called Episoden, which I find quite interesting. I could possibly meet students for regular sessions on this website but so far I haven’t done so. I mainly go on this website when I want to talk to random people all around the world. You get to chat to English students for eight minutes at a time – before you switch and talk to another student for eight minutes and so on. I mainly use this website when I’m bored or when I have a quiet day with my other students. I really like how this website is set up.
Journaling
I think I’m going to put an interesting journaling exercise at the bottom of my posts. This one I tried last night and it’s from the book The New Diary by Tristine Rainer
You journal and pretend you are talking to someone very wise. A guru. A wise man or woman.
Format is like:
Me: Should I eat chocolate ice cream?
WiseOne: Yes, you totally should, it’s delicious. It’s a great life choice.
But of course you ask far deeper questions about life. You don’t think too much about the response of the WiseOne. You just write what you think a wise person would say.
You can call your WiseOne whatever you want. And you can imagine whatever they look like.
I found it a very interesting exercise. It gave me some new insights.
Do you journal and do you find it helpful?
My setup I use for talking in food courts. The headset has an amazing noise cancelling microphone.
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