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Visitor Information Notecard

Our Mission
We strive to provide an educational yet fun and interesting environment for English learning and teaching. Our members have the chance to be part of a living community surrounded by others who are learning, teaching or simply interested in speaking English with people from around the world. We believe learning should be a way of life instead of a struggle to achieve.

Cypris 4 Principles

Share
After joining our family, members should find ways to share what they have learned or done in Second Life. Tell us where you have been, what you have seen. Show us your safe toys, clothes, avatars and gadgets. Sharing promotes communication.

Respect
Second Life is very different from real life, but it is real for many of us. We all come from different cultures, different backgrounds and with different reasons for spending time in SL. We might not understand each other but we both have the same goal, to learn or teach.

Respond
Share your opinions about Cypris. Let us know what you think. Help us make this community a better place for you. Your feedback is what makes Cypris so great. Your opinion matters the most. Help each other with learner/teacher feedback. Communicate mistakes and successes.

Be Active
Speak. Talk. Ask questions. Say something. We are not passive learners, we are active! In order to improve, we must practice. To practice we must participate. To participate we must SPEAK! Less text chat and more voice chat. We are here to help our members improve their ability to communicate in English.

Website: http://cypris.ning.com/
Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/cyprischat/
YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/user/CyprisChat
Group: Cypris Chat
Island: Cypris Village

WELCOME!

We're all so happy you could join us here on Cypris Village island. Here is some information to help you enjoy our community.

What is Cypris Village?
Practice Times
The sim is FULL!
English Village
Getting Around
Become a tutor or chat host
Rules

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What is Cypris Village?
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Cypris Village is home to the Cypris Chat group; a small international non-profit community for English language learning. The purpose of our group is to provide a virtual social networking and meeting place for people looking to SPEAK English rather than study it. We hope this community will foster friendships far and wide while at the same time providing a fun and safe environment for English language learning.

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Practice Times
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Practice Times sometimes attract more than 20 avatars to the island. Unfortunately, a group this large becomes too difficult to manage during a Practice Time. For this reason we limit the avatars who are able to attend.

1 tutor or chat host
7 non-speakers
12 learners
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20 seats

Sorry. No reservations. Please do not IM asking for a seat. We will not reply. It is first come first served only. Tutors, hosts and officers may always attend because they are able to set their home to Cypris Village. Cypris Villagers may set their home to English Village.

Everyone is welcome to use English Village for Practice Times also. We may be moving some classes to English Village in the future.

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The sim is FULL!
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We're sorry. Sometimes there will be over 20 avatars on Cypris Village island. Please try English Village. We cannot increase the limit of avatars on Cypris Village. Our tutors can only help a maximum of 12 learners, and also more than 20 avatars causes too much lag on the sim. You'll simply have to wait or come back at another time. We hope you can understand our commitment to providing a quality learning experience.

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Become a Tutor or chat Host
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Would you like to help the group? We are always looking for nice people to volunteer a little time to help make the group a nicer place. Here are a few things you can do to help:

Be a Chat Host (non-native or native speaker). Volunteer a couple hours to be available to practice speaking English. That's it. Others will join you for a conversation. No need to prepare anything. If you are there, we'll advertise and bring you people to practice with.

Host a Discussion Time (native speaker). The tutor is available to offer help for two hours. After answering questions for 30 minutes, the tutor forms a theme or topic for further discussion or study. This is not a planned lesson but does have a central theme in order to practice or learn something new.

Host a Lesson Time (native speaker). These are planned lessons that usually follow a two hour schedule; 1 hour of chat and study, 30 minutes of activity, and 30 minutes or more of group travel in SL. These Times are mainly for real life teachers or tutors wishing to learn how to teach in SL.

Anyone can be available for to Host a chat and schedule a time on the schedule board hanging from the clubhouse in the middle of the sim. Just click on the board and choose "Schedule Time" from the drop-down menu. If you make a mistake, just IM Professor Merryman. The board will send a reminder IM 60 minutes before your scheduled time. Also, the scheduled time will delete itself 24 hours later so if you wish to continue the next week you will need to schedule it again.

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Rules
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--We all follow the mission and principles of the group.
--Using voice is our number one goal. We discourage the use text if possible.
--If someone is having trouble with voice or using SL, we will try to help, but we will not interrupt practice times.
--Tutors and hosts will be consistent and on time: 30-60 min for study, 30 minutes for activity, and 30-60 minutes for activity or travel.
--Other schools or teachers are allowed to advertise their school or activities.
--Teachers can give private lessons using our materials.
--Everything we create is open source and free. Make it and give it away.
--Officers should have Cypris in their picks.
--Cypris members are encouraged to donate lindens to help reach the monthly land tier fee.
--Any major changes in the community require a vote from the officers or possibly the group.

We strive to provide a low lag, "grief" free island. We are constantly monitoring sim performance and patrolling for avatars who may not suit our community.

We will eject and possibly ban avatars for the following:
*If we have three complaints about an avatar causing trouble.
*If an avatar is asked three times by an officer to stop doing something which is considered by others to be bothersome.
*Any actions deemed as "griefing" according to the Second Life wiki. http://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/Grief and here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Griefer

Be respectful of cultures. Arguing of religion, politics, sex, war, or otherwise controversial topics may be considered disrespectful and grounds for being ejected or possibly banned from the community.

We try to be as open and friendly as possible but require these rules in order to strike a balance between cultures. Thank you for understanding this difficult undertaking.

If you have any further questions please feel free to contact Professor Merryman, Mystie Slade or stop by Cypris to find out more.

See you at Cypris!