We must begin by saying sorry to those of you, if there are any, who have been wondering where we have been and why we have not written anything for so long. So here we are - sorry!
One fairly good excuse we have for temporarily abandoning Make London Home is that we have been very busy with a new venture called Blabmate. Pop along to www.blabmate.com and you will be able to see what we have been up to. Getting this site built has been expensive and time consuming. We got the idea of a website that made it easy for learners of English to practise with a native English speaker whilst we were living in Moscow. There were not many native English speakers there and learners were keen to meet me and others. Skype is a marvellous thing and so are the other variations such as Google hangout. Since there are about one and a half billion people around the world learning English we thought that online video learning must get bigger and meet a demand. But we didn't want to be a school. We just thought we would make it easy for online teachers to find learners and learners to find teachers.
Things have evolved. Now we have native and non-native teachers advertising on the site. Many are qualified TESOL teachers and some, who are native English speakers, just provide conversation practice.
We have a lot more to do to improve the site and make it easier for learners to find their perfect teacher and teachers to find their ideal student. Things like an App and lots more revisions to the design.
Anyway, we are based here in lovely London and life here goes on despite the drumbeats of terror. Those of you who have followed our postings here know that we love London because it is home to every nation and religion under the sun. We hate the idea of grouping and discriminating people on any basis at all and we know that most people here get along well and don't want to mock other peoples religion or lack of religion. Our view is this - if you would feel uncomfortable saying it to someone's face, don't hide behind a cartoon or newspaper. Attack the high and mighty where they abuse their power - fine. And if someone abuses you, forgive them, for they know not what they do. Remember Ghandi. And Nelson Mandela and Martin Luther King who said we must have non violence or non existence. Yes, can we please spread this message along. Non violence or non existence. Peaceful protest. We must love one another, or die.
