| Zoom |
July 9, 2020
|
| He had once studied on the web an English business course for a year. It was a course designed to study about business in English, like how to negotiate in business dealings, how to give effective presentations, as well as basic knowledge about accounting and finance, etc. All lectures were done online. It was five years ago. There was his favorite class in the course. It was a class to read business books and write essays about them. The teacher was a female professor whose specialty was English. She had lived in an English speaking country when she was young. She would give assignments every week to read a couple of chapters of the book that she asked the students to buy beforehand, and gave a question for the students to answer. The students had to answer by writing an essay. The course was titled "Business Book Club." He could remember that the first book was "Start With Why," although he couldn't remember the author's name, though. Another book that he read was Dragger's 'Management'. He forgot the other books that he read. For him, reading a business book in English was challenging. But he liked the class. He kept writing his essays. Every time, she chose one of the  students' essays and gave comments and advice about its structure, effective expressions and idioms, and so on. It was his pleasure that sometimes his essay was chosen and given comments about. After one year, the course was completed, and so naturally he had to leave the Business Book Club. He missed the class and the teacher. Five years had passed. One day he realized that there was an email that the organizer of the course sent him. They constantly sent him emails which had various advertisements of their current classes and contents. But this time, it was different. It was a notice of an online conference using 'Zoom'. As an online school, they offered a lot of learning contents. There were videos as well as textbooks. Students, like him, could access using a password, and watch them. For some English conversation lessons, Skype was used. It was the first time they offered him to join a Zoom conference. The email read that the teacher of the Business Book Club and one of the current core students would talk through Zoom, and any current or former student of the school could join as observers. He came to know about Zoom recently. Zoom became famous after the Coronavirus pandemic. Companies would use Zoom to have meetings with their workers. Friends had online drinking parties through Zoom. He had never used Zoom. He went to the Zoom website to get information, the web explained that a membership can be given for free, but in that case, the time limit is 40 minutes long. He had used Facebook a couple of times for online meetings, in that case after 60 minutes, the line was cut, but the attendants could start again as a new meeting soon afterwards. So, if he applied for the free membership, the line would probably be cut in the middle of the conference since it was planned for two hours. He had no idea, but anyways he downloaded the Zoom app and applied for the event. On the Friday night, he sat down in front of his computer ten minutes before the conference started. The notice from the organizer read that the attendants could access ten minutes before the starting time. He opened Zoom, and clicked the invitation mark from the school. Soon the frame opened. He clicked the starting button. Soon it required his name, he typed it in. Then his face appeared on the center frame, then it moved to one of the small frames which was lining up on the right side vertically. Some others also appeared on the frame. Some of them used their nicknames, some of their frames were black. Maybe they didn't activate the camera function. Looking at others' faces, he felt his feeling lifted up. When he was a student of the previous course, he didn't have any chances to see the other students. They had an online posting board that students could post freely. Because of that, he could find familiar names. He felt nostalgic. Soon the organizer's voice sounded that the attendants should choose 'mute'. He did. Soon the familiar teacher's face appeared and a guest appeared, and the conference started. It was for the first time that he had seen her in 5 years, she looked the same as before. The conference was led by two remote speakers: first the guest, whose essays were chosen as good examples. He reported about his experiences in the club, how he wrote his essays, and how the teacher gave comments. His way of explaining was precise and easy to understand. Sometimes, the teacher gave comments. The attendants, about 30 people, started to comment using the textbox on the screen to share their opinions. They might have gotten used to Zoom. It looked convenient. The guest used a Powerpoint-like presentation tool so viewers could know about his essays in detail, like how to change the expressions after her advice. After 40 minutes, he realized that the site wasn't closed. Maybe if the organizer of the conference was a pay member, the other attendants didn't need to be pay members. Two hours passed quickly. He expected a question time, but there wasn't. At the end of the conference, the organizer asked the attendants to turn off "mute" so that the attendants could give the lecturers a big applause, and everybody did so. It was a great experience! He was satisfied with his first Zoom experience. Although they were an online school, they had never held this type of event before. More than likely, it was because of the Coronavirus effects. Maybe they wanted to do something new in this current situation. Their attempt was very satisfactory to him. |
| |
*beforehand :前もって
*structure :構成
*mute :消音
*applause :拍手
*attempt :試み
*satisfactory :満足な