# Volunteer opportunities



## mkellogg

Hi all,

For anyone interested in doing a little work to help the site, there are a few tasks that you can do. If there are already project leaders listed for an interesting project, please feel free to contact them and ask if there is anything that you can do to assist!

Calendars:
To help people from other countries understand when we are on vacation, I thought it would be good to use the calendar feature of the forum. For instance, I found it quite helpful to know that there was a long weekend (ponte) in Italy this week. SilviaP's work on the Italian calendar told me that. (Thanks Silvia!) (People are also finding this calendar through Google. When I type "Italy calendar" into Google, it comes out on top!)

If you are interested in adding your holidays to a calendar, please volunteer. Here are the calendars that I have so far, and their volunteers.

Italy Calendar - SilviaP
Philippines - Lancel0t
Spain - Leopold
UK - Phillipa
France - Valerie
Romania - Doina
no volunteers yet - USA, Mexico & all other countries!

Calendar "to do":

add holidays - say if everybody gets the day off, or just government workers, banks, etc. (The best way to set it up is as a "recurring event".)
add descriptions - write a paragraph or two about some major holidays and what they represent and how they are celebrated in your country. Remember that these calendars are for people from other countries, so a version in English would be nice (but not required).
Verb conjugations
Assist me in creating verb conjugations on the main website.
(This project is "on hold" for now.)

Thanks!
Mike

P.S. I will edit this message as I get volunteers and new ideas.


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## Philippa

Mike, I'm happy to do the U.K. calendar thingy, if you like.


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## Leopold

I can do the Spanish one. Just tell me what should i do. I've found the information.


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## mkellogg

Thanks Philippa and Leopold!

I've enabled access for each of you to write in your respective calendars.  I also included a calendar "to do" list in my first post.  Adding the holidays is the most important aspect.  The descriptive paragraphs are optional.

Feel free to ask me any questions here in this thread.

Mike


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## valerie

I can do the one for France, if you like


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## Doina

Mike, I could add Romanian holidays if you let me know what to do. I'm in for the verb conjugation project whenever you say time has come for it.


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## Leopold

Two things Mike, I cannot add events. It says i have no permission. 
Should we add all the events as "recurring events"?
Thanks.


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## quehuong

Mike and volunteers for the project on FRN VERBS,

Please take a look at the excel spreadsheet and check the data.


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## quehuong

Irregular Verbs are difficult.  Are there rules for them?  Should we just have an index of irregular verbs and manually create a page with a table of conjugations/inflections for each verb?


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## mkellogg

Thanks Valerie and Doina.  I'll accept your offers and set you both up tomorrow, Friday.

Mike


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## valerie

quehuong said:
			
		

> Mike and volunteers for the project on FRN VERBS,
> 
> Please take a look at the excel spreadsheet and check the data.




Hello, 

Here is where I have arrived, based on QH Excel sheet and input. 
Basically, rules for verbs ending in -er and in -ir are described for simple tenses
EDIT: in my opinion, the actual status of the data in the file is:
- rules for verbs ending in -er are described for simple tenses. One doubt remains for verbs ending in -ecer and -écer, which will probably need their own rules, I'll check that
- Rules identification for verbs ending in -ir is done. Rules description is to be done. Some verbs lists have to be completed.

According to my verb bible (Bescherelle), there remain 45 cases of inflexion for other verbs endings, apart from être et avoir.

On the subject of which verbs use être or avoir as auxiliary, I suppose we will have to make a list, which does not seem to be very long. I'll do a draft

One doubt, though, Mike. All these rules are based on the assumption that the input from the user is the infinitive form of the verb. And I think I have seen you mention somewhere that you intend the site to be able to identify any verbal form and be able to translate it. I am not sure these rules will allow you to identify any verbal form, but this is perhaps a question of programming, what do you think?


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## vachecow

Wow!!!  Thats great!  Are you guys/gals planning to do irregular verbs also?


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## mkellogg

Thanks for your help on the verb project, but _please_, it is on hold for now.  By "on hold" I mean that I don't want you to work on it until I am able to do some preliminary programming first.  This will help me know exactly what I will need to ask you all for.

I do appreciate the enthusiasm though...

Mike


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## quehuong

Valerie,

I've just viewed the revised excel spreadsheet.  It's great!  But let's wait for Mike before we continue.


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## valerie

I also think it's wiser that Mike sees first what he would like to achieve and how this could be done. Anyway, I had a great time revising verbs   .
till next project...


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## quehuong

Valerie,

Would you mind giving me the ISBN of your verb bible (Bescherelle)?  Many thanks!


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## fetchezlavache

http://www.bescherelle.com/cat_detail.php?id_article=18


but the whole bescherelle.com site is worth it. just tested my french on tricky topics and barghhhhhh i failed a few times !


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## quehuong

fechezlavache,

  Nice website!!!


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## cuchuflete

Philippa said:
			
		

> Mike, I'm happy to do the U.K. calendar thingy, if you like.


Querida Philippa,

Is "thingy" a good example of 'gormless'?  I'm still having trouble with basic BE vocabulary.

Cuchu


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## mkellogg

I'm closing this thread.  I had hoped that it would be a good place for people to volunteer, but instead it has been hijacked.

Anyone wanting to volunteer to create a calendar should PM me.  Anyone wishing to continue other conversations should do so elsewhere.

Mike


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