Tuesday 14 June 2011

Another Tounge

…when you learn another tongue, you learn the way another people see the world, the universe.

Samuel R. Delany, Babel-17


* found this quote in this blog
** maybe later I'll buy the novel
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Wednesday 8 June 2011

Korean Language & Usage StackExchange

Today I'd like to promote one website, a question and answer (Q & A) site dedicated to Korean. This is going to be a long long post, so I better put the link to the site up here: Korean Language & Usage StackExchange. Hopefully, a glance of the site will make you interested and come back here if you want to know a bit of this. ^^

StackExchange

Now, as a start, I want to talk about StackExchange. StackExchange is a collection of Q & A sites. It has wide range of topics, from arts, business, culture, life, professional, recreation, science, and technology. People can propose what specific topic they want to see. Once proposed, others can choose to support and participate them. When certain criteria fulfilled, the proposed topic Q & A established and the game begins.



Personally, what I love about StackExchange sites are they are all neat, organized and they have wonderful system. Let me list what I have in mind:

  • the tags
The search system of StackExchange is great. I think several factors come in to play, including the tags. The tags that we can use for questions are not freely created. There are set of tags previously defined and with enough reputation (will talk about reputation soon), people are granted access to create tags.
  • the votes
People can vote (both vote up and down) the question, the answer, and even the comment to question and answer. The vote will show our agreement/disagreement. The vote down can be used when the question is off-topic/irrelevant. 
  • the reputation
People get reputation by contributing to the site, when they get their answer/question voted or some time when the first time they do something in the site, and other actions. The reputation will be the key to open access to do cool things within the site. 

I think it's a great idea to help spreading the responsibility of maintaining the website. This way, the site doesn't rely heavily to a group of administrator to monitor the growth of the site. The community monitor each other. 
  • the badges
This is one of StackExchange's facility to keep participation fun. There are a bunch of badges to pursue and the badge name are quite cool, too. ^^


Korean Language & Usage StackExchange

The StackExchange for Korean is still in beginning phase, meaning it needs to meet certain criteria before getting established (the criteria is on the right top box, e.g. it needs to have 49 followers at least -- currently 11).

Community helps me a lot in learning Korean. They are one of biggest motivator for me to keep going (I know, I'm still a beginner, but still.. :D). So, when I thought this StackExchange is a gem, I want to share it. So, what do you guys think? Please join the site to make the site public! Please!

For you who never hears about StackExchange Q & A sites before, here are some of them that have gone public:
- English & Japanese and several other languages also in proposal stage
- apple products and android
- gaming
- cooking
- full list of the sites is here

I guess that's all from me now. 여러분, 감사합니다.  ^^

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