 Thank you everyone for joining us again. I know we were not here for a few days, but we are back my name is Ashley and I'm here with VOA learning English science and technology writer and expert Brian Lynn Want to say hi. How are you? Hello everybody good glad to be here. Thanks for having me this morning Of course. Yeah, thank you for joining us for your first and definitely not last time So yeah today we are talking about some of the top video calling apps That people around the world are using right now for learning for the job and just for keeping in touch with their friends and family So with about a quarter or one fifth of the population right now under some sort of stay at home Guidelines these apps are kind of Exploding with activity. So Brian, could you tell us a little bit more about the story and what you looked into? sure so in researching the topic I think I came to two basic conclusions. The one is How much these services have grown in the last you know in the in the past weeks and months Just how many people are using them now and also how many of them are out there? I mean, there's a lot more than I even knew about there's a lot of Major ones that you know about but there's a lot of smaller ones and most of them Don't cost money or very little. They're easy to use you can use on desktop on on a device your mobile phone whatever so and also, I think that As you said because so many people now are looking for some way to stay in touch With family. They're also being required to stay in touch with their work Some people are using these for the first time. They've never even used Maybe anything beyond Facebook and so I tried to Take a few of the main ones and kind of give a description of it the advantages of them over other ones We took a look at some that people would use typically for work One of those is slack. I know a lot of people in the tech industry are using slack every day in their jobs even if they're not in a Office that's thousands of miles away. They could be in the same office, but they're using it to communicate through chat screen-sharing that kind of thing and Then on the other end of it there are the ones used for social either with family or There's even a group a group App which is made for kind of a more of a party atmosphere so it could be hundreds of people virtually and you know music and Comedy those kinds of things and that was called house party. So that was interesting too something I didn't know existed, but it's really grown in the last In the last little while too so Dr. Jill could you show us the the list of the apps that we looked at or that Brian looked at There we go. Sorry. You were saying Yeah, so these are the ones You know the main ones we looked at and kind of what we what we thought would be good to do was get Some comments from people who are you know our users and people who are out there Obviously we're using zoom today. So we're familiar with us. So are they But as I said, there are other ones out there. So we kind of wanted to get a conversation going maybe as to what they've used what they like Skype is another one that's very big and spent around for a long time For some reason zoom has really taken off in the last and in doing research for the story I found that There were pretty good reviews with zoom as far as quality video quality overall reliability of the call making it through the entire time as compared to sky. In that regard, so but it would be interesting to get people's opinions about what they're using. Obviously, another use would be for educational use either On a one to one basis or in the classroom situation. So maybe people have Experience with that as well. Yeah, so this is our, our first question. If you guys want to Practice speaking or typing, we will get in touch with you. Again, as we said, you can Go to the participants box and then raise your hand if you have A response. And so the question is which of these services do most people, you know, use. So the slide, but just before this listed like zoom Skype duo, which I've never heard of house party teams and others and a lot of people just use like what's up still as well. Exactly. Yeah. So whatever, you know, there might be things on there that are even popular in certain countries that aren't on that list. So that's would be interesting to find out. Yeah, you can. Can you hear me. Yes, we're going to answer the question. Okay. Okay. Regarding to your question. Actually, what are my, my experience. The most I should have to say the most common to the most common Half we are using now in the sky. But now this day, I mean, is the during maybe at least During the this month, this month, most of my friends start using zoom for the community case for the meeting because compared to sky, how to say the screen, the The community case is better compared to sky. There we support for some feature we can, for example, you can see you can mute me or unmute me. And then who can say and we can raise your hand. For example, is compared to sky. I think zoom is become more common. Sky but area for the person or for some, some, some, some meeting is only two or three people's sky is still more useful. And easier. So smaller groups is still popular. Okay. Compared to your question. So my, my answer is the most common is sky and the second for today is zoom. The team on the do I I don't hear before until today teams. Yes. Yes. What I'm understanding here is the Microsoft team. Right. Yes. Okay. I think it's Skype Skype and Microsoft teams are No, no, different, different. They're different. But I think they're owned by the same. Yes. Yes. On by the same for Microsoft. Yes. But the skies, I think more common and then zoo. Yes. This is my opinion, but I don't know how about the other And have you used Skype for also for work or business purposes or just personally with people you Basically, I'm using Skype since 2004. I mean, it's long time ago. And I used Skype for work, but for personal. I mean, it's for social Social network. Maybe I'm using Facebook message or Bible or what's up sky is definitely for work. It's no other purpose. Yes. Right. Yeah, that was another thing I learned in doing the story in the research was that Facebook Messenger also had a huge increase in use during this time as well and also as we mentioned what's that so Typically, I guess that's what it is your, your, you know, you always have your phone and so if it's if it's someone who's in your contacts and you're already on Facebook and yet FaceTime or duo, which is the Android version You're probably more likely just to pull out your phone and do it that way. But for work. That's what I've heard Skype is still big but zoom just took off. Thank you. Okay. Thank you very much. Yes. Okay. Yes. Give me one minute. Here is just my, my opinion. Why sky is more people because it's not required the phone number. You can see if you install Bible, what's up the phone number is required over there. But come back to your, your, your opinion earlier is now people is just start using Bible or what's up because now Bible what's up they support for the desktop. I think it's for computer, not for phone anymore. That's why it's a Bible and what's up becomes more, more common. I was compared to sky my opinion is sky still better. Yeah. Okay. Thank you. Thank you so much. Thank you. I believe Kim Kim grow is next. Hello. Hello. Hello. How are you. Where are you calling from. And come and come from Caribbean. The Caribbean. Yes, I live in on the island. Very cool. Which, which island. Stop telling me. Oh, okay. The one of the islands. Yeah. Yes. Yes. The name of the island. We just, we just call it St. Bart's because we can't say the name. Correct. Correct. Correct. So what we were you going to answer our first question. Which of these apps do you most commonly use or those you know most commonly use Here on the island, a lot of people you zoom and skip. And how about yourself personally? What is your preference you to a you to. Okay. Brian, did you have and do you for those. So you've used Skype and you've used zoom. Did you also find there's a quality difference from one over the other. Do you zoom better with the video and that part of it or is it about the same for you in your experience. The teacher on the school, the my son. You kick. So now we know June just two weeks before we use Skype and we use the WhatsApp. But now, now just two weeks the teacher on the school of the my son because all of school stop now. The teacher fight the system. Think for every children, take for all of the children on the class on June. So we know just two weeks before we didn't hear about. Yeah, that seems to be a common experience now with people is they may not have even heard of zoom, and all of a sudden you're using it and whether you will go back to Skype, or not after this I guess that's the big question. And sky by the way to go ahead. Sky good to sky good to I do the sky 10 years ago with the job with my family sky good to. Yeah, I think that from also in the research I did sky is has also made some changes I guess since zoom came up to try to make it work to compete better with the service that zoom has now and I don't know if that's working or not but that they're trying I think to even become do some things that zoom does. Like, I don't know if you if any of you have used the virtual background part of zoom. And if that is available in Skype. I'm not sure. That's what I have. Anyway, you go to preferences and as a virtual background option and you can, you can even upload your own pictures and it automatically turns into like a green screen. It's kind of cool. Now that's been kind of a fun thing to that I found out and you know you people are, you know a lot of people are using zoom for work and so they're home and they're having their companies having a big meeting and so they're, you know, people are at home and typically it would be sitting at a desk or, you know, in a kind of other home setting and some of the people who are having these meetings are kind of it's kind of a running joke what background they have, you know, if it's a nice serene beach scene or if it's a superhero or a video game character it's kind of like every day they're waiting to see oh what's the background today. So it's kind of a fun way to combine you know if you're going to use it for work anyway it's kind of a neat feature to have. So I think we will take one more comment. Thank you so much Kim. Let's see. I think Dr Jill said, Mohammed, or sorry Hussein is next is this Hussein. Hi. Yes, hi, hi everyone. Hello. Hello. Hello. Good evening. Here is evening, I can know in America I think it's morning. Yeah, it's 815 in the morning exactly. No, yeah, here is 715. Great. So how about yourself with the, your use of video calling apps? Actually, I'm using Zoom since this quarantine times. Before that, I used WhatsApp but during this quarantine times I'm using Zoom because especially on Sunday service that we have. So since we cannot get in, so for Sunday service, we usually participate more than 100, more than 70 but it's available if we use it for 100 person also. So I usually use Zoom. Yeah, that's a common answer we're finding, both in this lesson and what Brian found as well I think. Yeah, what do you personally like about Zoom as compared to the other things you've used? I never used it before since it's a new application, is it new or maybe I didn't use it before. So for me it's good because for a big meeting, so for a small meeting you can use WhatsApp or like Skype for a big meeting like more than like 70 or 50% that we want to have a meeting. So I like this because every people can't come together and to share their opinions or the meeting that they have. Yeah, and with Zoom it's my understanding that it's up to 100 people. You don't have to buy the premium service, right? You can have up to 100 in the meeting, is that correct? I never used for 200 but this Sunday, yesterday we used for 75%. Yeah. So I'm seeing in the chat that some countries like Line is very popular in Thailand. May says people use something called Zalo or Zalo in Vietnam. Have you heard of these? Hussein? Line, I'm not using Line. So usually here in Indonesia is popular to use WhatsApp. So everyone use WhatsApp before I use Weiber. So nowadays majority of the people in Indonesia they use WhatsApp. So we cannot talk, I think more than 4% on video call. So I think that will be increased at the future or not, but right now it's very common to use Zoom. Okay. Yeah, thank you so much. So we will, I know there are some more people with their hands raised but don't worry we have many more questions and chances to talk. So Mohammed, Adriana and another Mohammed we will get to you. But first here are some key words that you used, Brian, in the article. And so for the viewers, if you follow the VOA Learning English page, you know that we write using kind of a limited vocabulary. We don't have a word book with 1500 words that we try to limit ourselves to, but especially with changing technology and all of that, we just simply do not have some of these vocabulary words in that word book, because it needs to be updated mostly. Brian, let's maybe go through these words and then for the rest of the questions throughout the lesson you guys can try to use these words if they're new to you. They are very useful when talking about this topic. It's interesting the first one on the list there chat because chat can mean, obviously, so the definition we have there is an informal talk with someone. And chat also historically has kind of a technology meaning because of chat rooms and, you know, chatting back and forth with someone online has been used for many, many years. And I think even in today, people will still refer to that function or that feature in the app as, you know, oh, can we do a separate chat can we go and chat in, in another room so in that sense it would just mean a more friendlier way of saying let's have a discussion, you know, right and away from the main discussion I guess in this case it would be, you know, taking it. Somewhere else. But it's also used in other ways. Just if someone is, you can even use it as, as a verb, as a verb or adjective chatty, if someone's catty they they talk a lot they like to talk they like to have conversations. Yeah, so. And feature, we've used this a few times throughout this lesson I think means a typical quality or important part of something. So, I believe it was Van was saying he liked the feature of being able to mute participants and unmute them and kind of have a little bit of control control over the quality of the meeting or conversation. Do you want to add anything to that or I'm trying to think of another, what would be a synonym synonym of feature. Another tool in a way tool yeah it's it's like a tool. So yeah what like what other tools are available in zoom or what other tools or what other things can you do with that app that would be considered a feature or an option, a little bit. Right. It's a word that we use quite a bit and I mean I use it a lot in the technology writing because a lot of times I'm writing about a new app or a new device when Apple launches their new phones or when when Google has a launch. And it's usually we're talking about the features that it has and sometimes it's hard to use another word besides feature so I'm using it quite a bit. For sure yeah there's not. We have both had trouble coming up with a synonym but tool works, but feature just has a meaning that is very closely connected to like new technology, I guess. Right. And screen screen. We're all looking at right now and probably spend a lot of time looking at these days. Right. Reliable is an interesting word that we also use quite a bit trusted or believed. And I think in the case of what we're talking about now and in the story that I did. So be, you know, it means, not just that it's a trusted app, or that, you know, we can trust using it but also that it, that it works that it works well that it functions, like it's supposed to that we can, when we open zoom and we use zoom that we can be sure that it's going to function the video is going to come on it's not going to be interrupted by anything so that. Yeah, so you trusted kind of two separate. Yeah, so you yeah it's reliable and like a security sense or you hear often like so and so is a reliable source of information, but reliable you can also say oh I'm sorry the Wi Fi connection here is not very reliable. It just means you don't know you can't trust whether it is going to work. One day or another so. Right. I think we've kind of already answered this next question. How there we go. So our next question for all of our participants is this how has the current world situation changed your use of video calling of video calling apps I guess we should say. How are you fine and you. Good good and where are you calling from. I'm from Egypt. Okay. I'm not sure if you have any question callers yet in this talk to us sessions. Um, so how about you how has the global pandemic changed the way or the amount that you use video calling apps to keep in touch with people. We use lots of a lot of time. But it is the first time for me to use the zoom. Zoom compare to the video calling apps you most often use. Yes, zoom is the quality in zoom is very, very good. With the other program. Okay, that's good to know. Brian, do you have any follow up questions or comments. Find it helpful now I mean if you know a lot of people are obviously under stay at home orders to stop the spread of this virus. Do you You know what in what ways. Has it helped you in your daily life the way things are right now. I mean have you been using it for work purposes or are you using it just to keep in touch with friends or family. Do you use zoom for for work purposes or just for personal use. Yeah, I, I will use it in in work and in family, because it will help us to to communicate with each other. Are you working from home at this point I mean are you able to go to work back and forth or you have to work from your home. No, we didn't work because the virus go on. But we will come back to work. In June you said. We would come back to work new new. Okay, okay. Thank you so much for calling and please join us again on zoom. So issue had a question about a sentence is it okay if I threw that on the whiteboard. Yes. The sentences I usually chatty to friends on Skype. So in this case, you would use the verb form of this word chat, which is just chat. So chat can be now a noun or a verb. And chatty is the adjective form. Yes, but you can you can say I am usually very chatty with my friends on Skype, and that would mean you talk a lot. Yeah, but yes so chat is a verb chat is a noun and chatty is the adjective. We have another Mohammed who's waiting to talk as well, but yes. Hello, Ibrahim, where are you calling from. Ethiopia. Okay, great. A comment to make about how the current world situation has changed. How you use video calling apps, or do you want to tell us about which, which kinds you use. Yeah, just to say the word about the impact of the current environment and then the use of electronic ways of meeting. You know, now I feel like, you know, the time actually to leverage all social media. Like the sky. In other ways of communication. To update. Connect together. To share information in the times of lockdown. And we're just doing these things. It's actually there for us to pull through. And to continue to share information even currently. We're just holding meetings on Skype, because it's very difficult for us to meet a person. So that it made it easier actually to communicate. And all the electronic applications help us to work from home. Yeah, for sure. I, Brian, you can, you can weigh in as well, but I, I don't know how the way learning English would be functioning without all of these video calling apps and all of these ways that we can keep in touch with each other. Even like email is good, but it's like having like teams or zoom or a meeting platform where you can see people and actually feel like you are with them helps communication. Go more smoothly, I think so. Yeah, I think that's true. I think. It's, I'm actually trying to learn about the zoom. It's not actually. I think it's a new technology. Previously, I used to use Skype, which is not, which is not user friendly. But zoom is a lot easier for us to use it. And you can see like lots of participants. And as you, as you said, previously, you have like control over the participants. It's really important to just look like, you know, a virtual. Yeah, it's more than a virtual meeting. So this is like, we are the single person, right? So this is a huge opportunity for us to. Yes, for sure. And I liked how you used the phrasal verb to pull through. I think that's a useful phrase for our current world situation. So we are all able to pull through. It means kind of not just survive, but like make things work as we have with what we have. So yeah, thank you for your feedback and opinions and your English is excellent. You have very, very natural ways of speaking. Congratulations. An interesting question I think that comes up to with this topic is, how is this going to change things moving forward for especially in the working world. I mean, once people have kind of been forced to use these tools to work and to be able to function and the companies have had to make adjustments and employees have had to make adjustments is, is there going to be more teleworking going on do you think in the future because of what's happened now. Or, you know, I don't know if people maybe want to weigh in on that would be an interesting question. Yeah, if any of you do want to weigh in, as he said, Oh, there's another one. Yeah, maybe you have to explain that. To weigh in to. Yeah, Dr. Jill will type this in the chat to weigh in means to give your opinion on something who wants to weigh in on this question, for example, others. Dr. Jill's typing too quickly. Can you hear me? Yes. Yes, now we can. Well, congratulations because under quarantine, my routine has shattered. But one of the things that continue my before routine is your VOL learning English. I can hear it every day while having breakfast. The podcast or the podcast. Yes. Cool. We'd like to hear that. As I, it's something that hasn't stopped. Because, you know, I am not working now. Well, I think talking about the question. I think that the way we human beings are routine beings. So we are going to be at work in person after all this happens. When, when all this ends, we are going to be personal and in person at work, I think. So you think you're you listen, I couldn't understand the two questions at the same time. Sorry. I'm sorry. No, just going to ask where you're where you're from. I am from Uruguay, South America. Okay. Yeah. And the things I haven't, I haven't done video conference before. Only with Skype, but only for family meetings. But now we use zoom and Google meet. And this is for, for a professional for job purposes. No, I can't work because I am a lawyer and I do family law and the courts are closed family courts are closed. Okay. I mean, they are open, but only for very, very, very. How can I say urgent things. Well, we're glad to hear that you found the podcast there. And also, I don't know if you've looked at the website, but most, you know, all of those stories are on the website, but also much more is on our website. I know other videos and yeah, you, you've found it. I know that I visit the website too, because sometimes we have a four or five students group that when we could before we meet, and we, I go with a loudspeaker, and we listen to one of your articles. And after I ask questions, we answer that. And we have fun, and we learn. Have you been, have you been doing these, these groups on a video calling app yet? No, no, no, no, because, no, because we are not, I think we are not used to do that video conferences before. So now we interrupt until we can go in person to the library to do that again. Okay. Thank you so much for calling us again. Do you think I have a question. If this continues for many months, what will your work, would your work be able to become remote over a video calling app. I don't think so because to, to, I mean, they have to, to do an infrastructure different than we have now because for, for, for instance, for handing out suits, lawsuits, lawsuits, you have to, you have to do in written in paper. So you can't present work in remote files. Yeah, that changes like, yeah, security. I mean, you need, you need to, to meet to make electronic signature or whatever. You understand that. Yeah, I mean, I, I can, can I be understood in that. Yeah, we understand. Now, because it's difficult because I have never ducked in English about that theme. So it's kind of the vocabulary. Yeah, that's a problem. Yeah, electronic signature and all of that. Yeah. Well, thank you so much again and now congratulations for the programs and for I know my English I've improved because of your work. So congratulations. Well, you're doing great. Thank you. Congratulations to yourself. Good talking to you, Adriana. Good talking to you. Yeah. Let's see, we have one more question if we want to get to that before our time is up. And it's a good one, Brian, do you want to, do you want to? Oh, yeah, this one. Yeah, so in what ways have you used video calling to improve your language skills. I think there are a lot of opportunities out there for that, but maybe people can can share that I think it, as I said what I think would be a good idea is to have language groups where they could meet over like Zoom or Skype and on a regular basis just get that practice with conversing with someone on, you know, ideally. Come on, stop it. Who's doing that? Somebody didn't like that question. You presented that. But maybe Dr. Jill, do you know of anything like that? Are there language groups that, you know, that meet on Zoom just for the purpose of practicing and conversing with native speakers? Yes. There's a group called the mixer that's based at, and I think it's Dickinson University in New Jersey, and they have organized Skype exchanges for language learners for many years. Elizabeth, did you get the chance to see the latest question? How have you used video calling apps to practice your language skills? If I talk about calling apps, I don't use it too much because the calling is like, I am calling to people not learning English, except this. This is calling, I use an app to calling, to use a calling app to learning English. This is the only app that I use to learn English. Yeah, well, we are glad you join us most days. And yeah, I think it's a good use of everyone's time right now to meet up in a larger group. We used to do talk to us on Skype. We used to do that for many years. I think before I even started working at learning English. But that was just one-on-one. And I think it's, you know, it's a trade-off, Dr. Jill, if you want to type that in. It's a trade-off because one-on-one you can have more intensive practice with the teacher or just a native speaker. But when we have like on Zoom, we can reach more people. And even if you don't speak for as many minutes, you can still hear others practice and learn from them and learn from us hopefully at the same time. We define trade-off. Look at that. Exchange, maybe exchange one thing for another. Yeah, so they're, yeah. So the trade-off, maybe a benefit of one thing over another. Yeah, so what I was trying to say is that one-on-one Skype conversations in one hour's time, we could maybe talk to five people and reach five people. So the trade-off of using Skype is that we can't meet all of you, 66, 68 people. But the trade-off to using Zoom is that we unfortunately can't talk to all 67 of you. And that reminds me of the time we have to sign off. It's so fun talking to everyone. So there was a couple of questions in the chat. One was, what's the next appointment? And it'll be tomorrow the same time, Monday through Friday. And here. Yes. And Dr. Jill, you will be on with, I think, Anna Matteo. Anna Matteo tomorrow, yeah. And if she's busy, probably me. But hopefully it's Anna Matteo. And we had another question. Which way do you learn a new word? Can you help me? I should talk about that later this week. How to learn new words. Ways to learn new words. Yeah, it depends on the kind of learner that you are. But, um, yeah, we could get into that. And, uh, for, for Nio said, please make a group of learners where the pupils can practice. You're free to do that. You can, you know, as you're texting each other, if you want to set up your own Zoom calls, you can do that. But we're limited to just doing it this time because we have a lot of other work to do. This is my favorite part of our new schedule. So yeah, it's fun. Yeah. Well, so I think we should sign off now, but Brian, thank you for taking part in your first talk to us. You're welcome. It was great. And I'll be back. Yeah, we'll have, we'll have you back next week for sure. And, and thank you everyone who joined us again and we look forward to seeing you tomorrow. Bye bye. Bye bye.