Thursday, June 5, 2008

People to Share the Dream with...

This is my dream! I always dreamed of making the English magazine when I was in high school and even at university. Things always kept me busy all the time just like my name (Netting) - messy Netting.

Now I am almost 25 years (in this raining June) and l think it is a good time to turn my dream
into reality. I have worked for a year, so many things I've learned and seen in this wonderful world that I'm on.

Last month, I had been working on magazine outlines, emailing to friends, teachers and the volunteer that I've known who I hoped that they might be interested in this magazine matters.
And I also made telephone calls to many friends and teachers asking for ideas about the possibility of making this happen.

Below are the feedbacks that I got from people who are sharing the dream with me and the club.

Gai and Pap: They are wannabe-cartoonists, they will be responsible for the English Crazy Cartoon part.

Bob: He is interesed in 'village life' part since he is from a rural farming family in Surin province.
He is happy to share his childhood story about life in paddy field. Bob also has been writing a novel in Thai, so he is sort of a wannabe writer and reporter for us.

Geng: He is interesed in Buddhist meditation, trying to find the meaning of life - why were we born? Last summer he had participated in meditation session at one of famous forest monastery in Khon Khaen. He will be willing to responsible for 'Conversation with Monks'.

Michael Bush: Friend and ECC volunteer
'Hey Netting, Do you need help? If you have something in mind for me, let me know, and also how much time you think you'd need from me. I'd love to help, but time is short these days!'

Tou: friend from Social Development
'Hi my sister, Thank for invite me jion in English Crazy Magazine. I have many information about "Local Wisdom" issues but no able to write it in English, I must practice it for along time because my E word didn't enough to write it. I think if I finished Mekong School program i may be may write it with your Magazine. I think we have a co-work toger further. Best wishes,Tu'

Michael Anderson: the founder of Volunthai.com
"hi netting, i'm a little busy right now finishingfinal exams, but i will be happy to help you with yourmagazine this summer. i can help with editing and sendyou an article per issue. keep in touch, michael"

Meaw: from Costa Rica
Hi, My name is Meaw , I am from Nonkhai. I lived in Germany in 2002 and also
I took that chance to visit a few countries around I am currently living in Costa Rica,
trying to set up www.uvolunteer.org with my partner.I've got your post from a friend of mine. I always have interest in writing as much as I like travelling around the world.

I have always kept my journal. I always think to myself that there are a lot of things and places on this small earth that lots of Thais wouldn't have chance to see, and I really want to share that with them, especially once I know that it is for younger Thai students who have interest to learn English. I will be very much appreciated if you can provide me with more specific detail about the journalist part. Thank you and looking forward to hear from you

John@KSR: the editor and webmaster from Khaosanroad.com
'I will add this to my site for you... '

Rob: the co-founder and project manager of Thai-dragonfly.com
'Hi Netting, Your continuos success in everything you do continues to amaze me, I think that this magizine is a fantastic idea. I will forward this mail on to people who I think may be able to contribute. One of my friends in particular lived in Thailand for four years and now studies creative writing at Bath University in England so I have a feeling that he might be interested in writing the one about "missing Thailand".

Also, I have a friend who is in Thailand right now and is going to be visiting Ubon very soon. I was already planning to ask you if you'd be able to welcome him to Ubon and show him around, introduce him to Eli, Aiden etc etc. He may be interested to help you with the paper too, I have no idea but I know that he's a young, clever guy who doesn't drink and enjoy life. Please lemme know, Thanks and hope to see u soon, Rob'

Charlie: a friend of Rob, who is now a writer for a magazine in Vietnam.
'Hi netting, my name is Charlie, I am a friend of Rob Donnellan. I understand you are looking for writers. I life in Saigon and I write for a magazine here, if you want an article I wrote on my first impressions of Ho Chi Minh city let me know. Also if you want articles on particular stories in Vietnam or places get in touch. Could also send me details of your magazine, I'd like to know what its all about. Yours Charlie'

After this emails, I did answer them back. I will post another feedbacks later on. Thanks for your reading and your time.

Sunday, May 18, 2008

Staff Wanted for Our Magazine

If you think you are small and the world is big and you would like take achance and make a change into this small part of the world. Then comewith us and become part of our team.

We are now urgently looking active staff for our magazine positions asbelow:We look for persons who has ENTHUSIASTISM, CREATIVITY, PASSION for writing and RESPONSIBILITY.

REPORTERs: We need a group of people who love writing and are willingto spare their time with writing for us. Reporters will be mostly writingfeature stories. Interview people for the magazine. Be questioning andhave interesting new angle to present to the readers.

COPY-EDITOR: This position should be a English native speaker or even aperson who is really good at English and know a lot about English grammar.Know well about Thai or Isaan context is perferable!

CONTRIBUTOR or COLUNMISTs: We need persons who are willing to sitand write good articles for us a story per 3-4 months.

PHOTOGRAPHERs: We need sort of persons who love photography andhave a unique style of putting a story through the camera lens. If you owna camera will be desirable.

GRAPHIC DESIGNERs: We need people who are able to operatePhotoshop, Illustrator or PageMaker and help design the cover.

This first issue will be an TRY OUT version. You never try you never know!The magazine will be in photocopied hardcopy.If you are seriously interested in becoming a part of our editorial team,please look at the magazine outline in the previous post.Be the change that you want to be!Thank you for your time.

Netting and the crazy crew!08-1072-2714

Why English Crazy Magazine?

Thanks for your interest in our upcoming magazine! The magazine will be first a try out version. I am not sure how it is going to work out, since not many students like to read English here. But I believe that we make it interesting and easy for them to read. It may out work someway. I just want to give it a try. By the way, you can read our magazine outline below. What do you think about it?

Last year, I graduated from local university in Ubon Ratchathani and last 5 years I had a chance to join a junior reporter workshop with Nation Junior Magazine, which is a part of Nation Multimedia in Bangkok. And now I already have 10 articles published with Nation Junior magazine and I also contribute my Isaan story online published with www.khaosanroad.com.At university, a group of my friends and I founded the English Crazy Club, which runs English camps for students in rural area of the northeast Thailand (www.englishcrazycamp.blogspot.com) and also a teaching project which welcomes volunteer all over the world to come teaching English in Isaan (www.learn2give.blogspot.com). Since we started our club 5 years already, we have learned a lot from many people that we involved with, we worked with many volunteers from different countries around the globe. We see more world from listening to their storytelling of their trips.
Currently I am partly working for the field station of Institute Nutrition of Mahidol University and a full time as a cultural interpreter for Sweet Mango Tours (www.sweetmangotours.com) in Ubon Ratchathani in the northeast of Thailand.I hope my story about can help you picture why we would like to produce this magazine and how I want it to be like. And that is how my idea has begun!

What do you think about our 'Magazine Outlines'?

ENGLISH CRAZY MAGAZINE [name can be changed]English Crazy Club’s Handmade/Online Magazine [Photocopied Magazine]

SLOGAN: Where your inspiration for learning English begins!/ Be crazy 3 times a day

CRAZY CREW MAGAZINE is published by English Crazy Club in Ubon Ratchathani. It is a handmade-local English magazine for young English students of Isaan to practice their English as well as improving their life skills in the changing world. It is produced by a team of young blood writers who study English and have a passion for writing and would like to encourage the young students to read English more. The language in the magazine is easy to read and not difficult to understand, it not only helps them to improve their English, but hopefully also helps them to look back into their history, appreciate their cultures, live the present wisely and carefully prepare them to look forward to the future.

Target group:
Liberal art students at Ubon Ratchathani University
English majored-student at Ubon Ratchathani University
Senior highshool students around Ubon and nearby province

Time of launching: 3 months per issueNumber of issues: 100-200 copies

Number of pages
: 25-30 pages

[Cover Story Theme] - sampling

July-September --- English must be ‘Crazy’
October-December --- Student’s Life
January-March --- Volunteerism
April-June --- Travel

COVER PAGE
Cartoon drawing of photo cover story

CONTENT PAGE
Photograph
Lists of feature and columns Lists of editorial team

EDITORIAL
Editor Talks – An overview about the stories in magazine
Letter to Editor – Feedback letter from the readers (wait until second issue)

FEATURES (depends on the cover story)

The Story of English Crazy Club
Free ticket to English camp
English Crazy Syndromes
Your Say – Why study English?
How did you get your English improved?

COLUMNS
Passport to Dream/ Walk of Lives [This is for English Crazy Reporter Team]
The Interviews people from many walk of lives about how hard it is to reach the dream and what makes them to be what they are today, like the road to success.

Travel Story – I’ve been there and done that… [Open to anyone] A fun, wonderful, memorable travel story that you can’t hide but want to share to people around you. A story can be from any part of the world. It could be a low-budget trip, hitch-hiking or backpacking trip or even visiting your own hometown.

Letters from Oversea – Diary Oversea- (I miss Thailand) - [Open to any foreigners]This column would be a story about a traveler who used to travel to Thailand and miss his/her Thailand days, recalling the old days, meeting up Thai friends and making good friendship with them, or even abouta culture shock during going back home and more…

Poem and Picture [Open to anyone]If you love taking photos and writing a poem, this column is for you. You will enjoy matching your poem toyour photography. If you only like taking photo, we also have selected poems for you to match, or we also have photograph to match your poems.

English Crazy Cartoon [Open to anyone]This will be a funny, crazy cartoon about Thai students learning English, which is based on our stupid mistake about studying English. If you are good at drawing and storytelling, this column is for you!

Volunteer Life/Gap Year experience/summer camps [Open to anyone] It is about a meaningful story of gap year traveler. Or it could be like a feature story of youth camps around Ubon.

On the way
This will be an interview with any traveler to Ubon Ratchathani, about what he/she thinks about place or people in the land of lotus, Ubon.

Life on Campus [Open to anyone] This would be about a story of one life living in a university. How can we make this story interesting? Let’s share your ideas with us.

Conversation with Monk (peaceful corner) [Open to anyone]Looking for a person who appreciates ‘Buddha’s teaching’ and would like to share those wonderful experience about Buddhism to the young readers.

Life in the countryside [Open to anyone]This column will be about local wisdom and simple lifestyle in the village of our Isaan culture, or it is old story which is kept in your old wonderful memory when you were young. And you would like to recall those experiences back to life by telling the stories to our young readers. If you have something in common, were born and raised in countryside, why not put a pen to a paper and write for us…

Farangs in the land of ‘Plara’(fermented fish)This will be a column for any farang who lives in the land of plara and would like to share their faraway-from-home experience in Isaan land to its Isaan young readers.

Crazy Jokes – [Open to anyone]It is Thai/Isaan that make sense English. Book for You – recommending books to readers (optional)Song - recommending songs to readers (optional)

FUN STUFF/QUIZ
Quiz – drawn from stories in the magazine
ECC Application

SPONSORS: English Crazy Bank and we are looking for more sponsors to come in the near future.