# Suggestion: direct teaching button



## Encolpius

Good morning Ladies & Gentlemen, I have got millions of questions but I ask only 0,1% otherwise I would be banned for *flooding*, I have the feeling some members here could be a good personal teacher, how about a button marking a member is interested in *direct teaching*, that he welcomes personal messages about a specific languages. They could even make money for themselves and the WR, no? Thank you for your cooperation. Enco.


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## swift

Have you considered hiring a language teacher in your location?


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## Encolpius

No, I haven't.


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## Encolpius

I think the name, suggestion: [direct teaching button] is nonsense, I do not mean a complete teaching of course. Direct consultation maybe? Or a mini version of WR in PM?


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## Welsh_Sion

This may well be a non-starter with the moderators. 

I tried once to draw various local peoples' attention to an international language fair in Paris where I give a demonstration *(and free)* 'taster' Welsh lesson in French for 1 hour should they wish to attend. Notice the lesson is *free* - a taster of my native language. Anyhow, the mods removed the post - as they may do this one, too.

(And I think there's a clause in WR small print mentioning you can't publicise anything to make money on the boards ...)


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## Encolpius

Oh, yes, I agree the word, idea:  money was stupid, too. I just started to think.....you know....
But I have the feeling some members here are very eager to help (> 20 000 messages or so) so why not to mark them...


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## swift

What makes you believe that post counts are an indicator of desire to become someone's teacher for free? I am a trained language teacher (13 years experience). I have posted over 20k messages here, and I would not teach any language for free.


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## Encolpius

Please forget the word teacher and money.
My new idea is a red and green button you can turn on/off  when you feel like consulting in PM or like that.
I am not a [trained (language)] teacher at all and I can imagine a can teach someone for free. You see, we see it in a different way. 
And by the way what is this whole Wordreference about if not *learning and teaching. For free!! *  Do you see it in a different way?


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## swift

Encolpius said:


> Do you see it in a different way?


The core concept of the WRF is that they are an adjunct to the WR dictionaries. If you happen to learn something, good for you, but that is not their main purpose. 

Teaching requires methodology, a learning sequence, instructional design, learning objectives, evaluation, etc. Oh, and it's a job.


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## User With No Name

Welsh_Sion said:


> And I think there's a clause in WR small print mentioning you can't publicise anything to make money on the boards ...


Or, stated a bit more bluntly, the only person who is allowed to make money off this site and the thousands of people who contribute to it for altruistic reasons is the owner of this site....


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## Peterdg

User With No Name said:


> Or, stated a bit more bluntly, the only person who is allowed to make money off this site and the thousands of people who contribute to it for altruistic reasons is the owner of this site....


A little normal, no? Who invests his money in this site? Who pays for the servers, the software  and the people he employs to support this site? Or, do you think this site simply works for free?


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## DonnyB

Encolpius said:


> Please forget the word teacher and money.
> My new idea is a red and green button you can turn on/off  when you feel like consulting in PM or like that.
> I am not a [trained (language)] teacher at all and I can imagine a can teach someone for free. You see, we see it in a different way.
> And by the way what is this whole Wordreference about if not *learning and teaching. For free!! *  Do you see it in a different way?


The fly in the ointment with this idea is that the WRF forums are designed to provide a collaborative free service to support the dictionaries, which form the core purpose of the site. The administrator has always been adamantly opposed to providing free 'extra' services which people could reasonably be expected to pay for, because it undermines the livelihoods of professionals who do it for a living, amongst whom are some of our own members. 

There's nothing officially to stop members agreeing to respond selectively to limited_ requests_ for help privately - some will, some won't.  But whenever this sort of idea has been floated before, the feeling amongst the moderators has been that allowing members to _advertise_ that they do it is not something that we'd want to encourage. Quite apart from anything else, it could lead to the members concerned getting more requests than they really wanted but were hesitant about actually turning down.


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## Encolpius

Wow, that is all new for me. I really have not known the core concept is the dictionary. I never used it. So I have the feelig I have to find another site... or start my own one...


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## elroy

The main purpose of the forums is to support the dictionary, but the reasons people join the forums and participate in them are varied!  In fact, I would wager that the vast majority of forum members did not join and/or continue posting with the express purpose of supporting the dictionaries.  The forum is open to anyone who would like to participate and can abide by the rules.  That said, you will find that there are some restrictions in place that are informed by the forum's main purpose.  Many of the rules and restrictions that members often complain about are driven by the forum's main purpose, so while it may be frustrating to get no as an answer, if you consider the fact that the dictionaries are the forums' _raison d'être_, you realize that if it weren't for the dictionaries we wouldn't have these forums to begin with, so we wouldn't be able to do _anything at all_.  It might help to appreciate what we _are_ able to do than be resentful about what we aren't.  That said, the administrator and the moderators are always open to ideas about how to expand the forums' activities.  We have special forums that are not publicly accessible so they don't support the dictionaries.  I think your idea is interesting and worthy of consideration, so I'm glad you've put it forward for consideration!  My personal thoughts on this by participating in and reading threads, you start to get a sense of what members might be amenable to helping you out in private, and you might try starting by PMing one or two people and asking for help, and seeing where it leads.


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## Encolpius

DonnyB said:


> The fly in the ointment with this idea is that the WRF forums are designed to provide a collaborative free service *to support the dictionaries, which form the core purpose of the site.*





elroy said:


> The main purpose of the forums is to support the dictionary,



Can you be more specific? How can I support the dictionary and be  more useful (and of course have more fun for myself).


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## Loob

Encolpius said:


> Wow, that is all new for me. I really have not known the core concept is the dictionary. I never used it. ...


That's interesting, Encolpius, given that you're a very longstanding member of the forums (joined October 2006). I've wondered, from time to time, whether it wouldn't be worth making the relationship between the forums and the dictionaries explicit in the Mission Statement. It does help to explain quite a lot.


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