Potential sites

I think a wealth of voyeurism can be yielded from Reddit.com. It is a general forum/news discussion site, but it features thousands of "subreddits," which are off-shoot communities integrated into the entire site itself. Popular subreddits (using the site's nomenclature to denote specific forums) include "/r/pics," "/r/funny," "/r/cats," "/r/gaming," "/r/geek," and so forth. (The naming mechanism is a partial URL -- one would say, "I like frequently r slash geek," which implies the URL is www.reddit.com/r/geek.) Subreddits can almost be seen as their own site -- one generally subscribes to them to incorporate it into their overall Redditing experience, and not everyone participates in every subreddit. That would be impossible, given the amount of discussion and subreddits that exist.

I am looking to pick a particular subreddit to watch, but haven't determined which one yet. I might look at the politics surrounding /r/worldnews (which forbids US news), /r/japan for Japanese culture and language, /r/geek for general geek culture, or /r/twoxchromosomes, which is a popular subreddit for women.

As I am active in some subreddits, I participate often enough to be considered an "insider" to a degree, but I may have to go outside of my comfort zone to participate in discussions that I am not always confident enough to join.

Reddit is general is extremely populated, and currently has an Alexa rating of 117, so I have no doubt I will be able to get a lot of generated and interesting data. It also is heavily digitally literate -- Redditors, by stereotype, tend to be geeky folk who are highly involved in the computer industry, video games, worldly politics and cultures, propagation of internet memes, and boasts membership from all over the world. I have total faith that I will find many points of interest through this site.

Meet the author

Greetings! My name is Teresa, and I'm a second-year graduate student, pursuing my Master's in English. I currently hold a B.A. in Languages (focused on Japanese and Russian), a B.A. in International Studies, and a minor in history. I have also flirted with studying Spanish and Mandarin Chinese.

Being a student of foreign languages, and having taught English overseas before, I am particularly interested in studying how technology, Internet, and other digital literacies affect language acquisition for English-as-a-second/foreign-language students. I find it absolutely fascinating how a person's understanding of a language (as well as a new culture) can be shaped by their exposure to foreign means of social networking, news outlets, imported goods and anything else that can be obtained through globally-connected digital media.

I relate to my experience in Viet Nam as the first taste to this aspect of ESL. Even though the country's government has regulated the Internet, and imposed purposeful blockages on certain sites like Facebook, that does not prevent its citizens from accessing such sites. Plenty of people I met could bypass the filters, and even their cell phones can easily update their Facebook statuses -- something that I find so deliciously defiant against their government. The prolific usage of cell phones also contributed to language learning, as I communicated with peers and students through texting in English.

When I am not obsessively immersing myself in school and studies, I enjoy baking and cooking, bicycling, running and participating in spoken word poetry. Sometimes, a good night involves pizza, wine, and an enjoyable first person shooter video game. I also have recently taken to watching football, as it is required while being the partner of a football fan during football season..