Oral exam practice

partyatmygaff

I've just had this idea. Would anyone here be in favour of a voice server being opened for anyone doing the LC to speak to eachother in the language they're studying for?

There is a program called Ventrillo which does just that, you could create 4 channels for the main languages like a seperate channel for Irish, French, Spanish and German and we could organise a time and day that everyone could get on the server and talk to eachother in whatever language they're studying.

It would be a great way to help with vocabulary and accent, we could all learn from eachothers many mistakes.

What do you all think?

partyatmygaff

71 views and no replies?

Cmon no has said what they think about this yet.

seanbmc

Johnny Giles wrote: »

Nah.

Its a good idea like but I don`t think there would be much interest in it. Wait and see what others think,give it time

Richard Cranium

I seem to recall something like this taking off very shortly before the French oral last year. It's a very good idea I think- actual conversation is the best way to prepare for the orals, not rote learning of notes. Not enough people are panicking yet though it seems. In a few weeks you should get a better response.

Deirdre Davis

I have had great assistance from a native French speaker who can prepare a personalised document and CD for you to practise your pronunciation, focus on grammar and structure etc

<PM for email or phone> (Mod snip)

gemxpink

Yeah I'd be up for it.

gemxpink

Deirdre Davis wrote: »

I have had great assistance from a native French speaker who can prepare a personalised document and CD for you to practise your pronunciation, focus on grammar and structure etc

<snip>

Any idea how much she charges and where she's based?

monaghanmissus

Count me in...:)

Healium

Interested

partyatmygaff

Happy to see a lot of support for this. But we have a huge amount of votes without comments or suggestions. I think a good time to begin this would be mid feb / march. We could use a ventrillo server to host it.

BTW: This is partyatmygaff, I'm just waiting for my main a/c to be reactivated

Crow92

This is a Really great idea... Would the quality of sound be good though??

eVeNtInE

This post has been deleted.

kev9100

If this could be done properly, it would be a great idea. Who would organise it?

partyatmygaff

So does this idea have support?

As in, who here agrees to practicing their language whether it is Irish, French, Spanish, Italian or german at least every 2 weeks for the time being increasing as the oral exam looms.

Sound quality *should* be perfect depending on what system is used. There is teamspeak and ventrillo but they aren't exactly too text friendly for people that don't have a mic and want to practice conversation by text.


But I definitley don't want to use Skype because not everyone has Skype and most people wouldn't bother registering an account just for something like this.

There is a program called teamspeak which would work great for something like this. It's basically a server that you can split into different voice rooms.

When you log on to a server you are put into a main lobby and from there you can choose a room which could be split into Irish, French, Spanish and German. It's very easy to use, you just open the room and start talking. It's also very light and it takes at most 1 minute to install.

Before any of this is done we need to decide on a time that we can all use this server on.
I think Fridays at 5:30 pm would be a good time. That or sometime each wednesday.

If the idea catches on we can have some kind of group help type of room. We can make a room for maths for example where people can help each other out or a room for english where people can share ideas e.t.c.

But first of all we need to choose a time before we get ahead of ourselves.

monaghanmissus

partyatmygaff2 wrote: »

I think Fridays at 5:30 pm would be a good time. That or sometime each wednesday.

Fridays suit me ! Anytime from 5pm onwards..

kev9100

Fridays would'nt suit me tbh, although anytime after 6 on Wednesday would be grand.

partyatmygaff

Ok I'll open up a tally of sorts


Monday: -
Tuesday: -
Wednesday: 4:30PM - 6:00PM -
Thursday: -
Friday: 5:30PM -
Saturday: -
Sunday: -


Can anyone else interested tell me what day and time suits best? I will add it to this list and when we have a reasonable number of votes we can then choose a time and date.

*Note* Feel free to vote for more than one time and date (Anytime doesn't count :pac:)

Crow92

I'd be up for fridays 5.30pm

Coolmaster

Sounds like a really good idea alright :cool:

partyatmygaff

We need more votes before we can go ahead and pick a time.

Can you please state what time suits you.

Slugs

Any chance we could add japanese and Irish to the list?

monaghanmissus

Any time Friday evening or weekends...

Healium

Friday suits,but Wednesday doesn't....

partyatmygaff

Slugs wrote: »

Any chance we could add japanese and Irish to the list?

Irish definitley but I think Japanese may have to go in with other languages. Its not that popular as far as I know but if there's a good few doing japanese we can open a seperate room for them.


From the votes we have now, I think the best time to host this would be 5pm on a friday.

If everyone agrees with that we can have a test run sometime next week and we can work out the finer details from there on. We can have the first proper session next friday.

Who here is willing to test out the server sometime this week? I'm off from 11am on tuesday so that day would suit me. I need a good few people to test this out to see how much people the voice server can handle without getting laggy.

So who will be available Tuesday 4pm onwards to test out the server for a few minutes?

monaghanmissus

I'll help!

Do I need to download any software?

partyatmygaff

monaghanmissus wrote: »

I'll help!

Do I need to download any software?

You will definitley need to download software.


I think I've settled on a program called Ventrillo for the time being.

Some of you may know how it works, those that don't I will have a tutorial up here on this thread later today along with the server details e.t.c.

In any case here is where you can get Ventrillo (It's free)
http://www.ventrilo.com/download.php

As you can see it supports Mac and Windows so no one will be left out

I'll have server details later today.

partyatmygaff

The server is ready guys!

As of now we have 6 channels

Chat,
Irish,
French,
German,
English,
Spanish,
Other Languages,
Maths and Business.

If there is enough need for other channels I can add them easily. In any case the server is up now and I just have to start writing a tutorial on how to use ventrilo.

partyatmygaff

Leaving Cert Voice Server

Ventrillo

First of all download and install Ventrilo

http://www.ventrilo.com/download.php

What you need to logon to the server:
1: The name of the server = Leaving Cert
2: The servers hostname or IP address = 217.64.127.41
3: The servers port number = 5208
4: The servers password = boards

Ok now first things first, open Ventrilo and you will be greeted by the following screen. Start by making a new username (Use your boards.ie name)




Click on New and fill in all the fields required except for Work Dir that can remain empty. Fill in your username for phonetic aswell and you can set description to anything you like.


Now that you have a user made you should be back at the main Ventrilo screen and the new username you created should be in the drop down box beside User. Now it's time to put in the server details.





Click on new and set Leaving Cert as the name. Then fill in the rest of the fields (Except for default channel) from the details I have at the top of this tutorial in red. Then push ok.


Now all you need to do is push connect!



If all went well you should see the above screen, just double click on the channel you want to enter and you will enter the channel.

To talk just push Ctrl and talk into your mic.
To chat by text just click on the chat button.

Any questions about how to use Ventrilo just post them on this thread.

I will be on the server for a while today testing it out so if anyone wants to come give it a shot, you're more than welcome to come.

MayoExplosion

I'm in! Friday's good (after the mocks though!)

partyatmygaff wrote: »

As you can see it supports Mac and Windows so no one will be left out

Yay, somebody understands!

Dannloads

I'd be curious to join for the French one! Let me know what time/day

je serais bien curieux de voir comment ça marche; tenez moi au courant du jour et de l'heure...

D

Moshimoshi

Slugs wrote: »

Any chance we could add japanese and Irish to the list?

Seconding Japanese.

partyatmygaff

Can anyone who has tried the server give feedback?

I'm going to be on for a while today trying a few things out. Drop in if you feel like it.

partyatmygaff

2 people online now. The server is working, atleast fundamentally. I need a few more people on now to see how the server copes with more people.

Thanks

Dannloads

connected right now

partyatmygaff

Guys we need more people to get on the server to test it out! Someone log in, me and Dannloads are the only people online atm.

Healium

What happened with this?

partyatmygaff

No one bothered to show up two weeks in a row. I'm only in 5th year so I don't really feel too pressed to start preparing for my orals.

It was a lot of work and after all of that I only ever saw 1 person online and they weren't even a regular member on boards.

Healium

People will join now that the orals are so close

partyatmygaff

Well I have no problems setting the server up again if I see enough support.

Healium

You got my support

Slugs

partyatmygaff wrote: »

No one bothered to show up two weeks in a row. I'm only in 5th year so I don't really feel too pressed to start preparing for my orals.

It was a lot of work and after all of that I only ever saw 1 person online and they weren't even a regular member on boards.

Pre#s are in progress atm mate, you shouldn't be expecting any til at least next week.

partyatmygaff

We'll see anyway after the mocks.

Ruski

My German teacher invited in a woman from Germany for one week and we got to practice speaking with her. It was great. I haven't learned anything off and I realised that I could just wing it. Good buzz.