User:Christopher Crossley
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I first started to use Wikipedia when I was rummaging around the net a few months ago when searching for something about the former German Democratic Republic, a.k.a. East Germany, whose air force operated Soviet-built aircraft during the Cold War. Just out of interest, I searched for an article about the Luftwaffe and found that it needed a wee bit of work. Considering that the Luftwaffe has been one of the most powerful air forces in (military aviation) history, even if it did have to support one of the most brutal regimes in (world) history in waging war, I felt that, as an aviation buff for more than 30 years, I wanted to expand it.
Once I had finished it, though, I wanted to put my knowledge of French and German to good use. With the aid of handy online dictionaries, I therefore translated the entire article into French [1] and then set myself an even greater challenge by translating it into German. However, in this case, I decided to split up the original English article into two for the German Wikipedia, and, even then, I decided to restrict myself to the period between 1910 and 1945. Hence, in the German Wikipedia, there are two articles, whose titles can be translated into English as “History of the Luftwaffe 1910-1939” [2] and “History of the Luftwaffe 1939-1945” [3].
My profession is teaching English as a foreign/second language, and has been so since the summer of 2001 after I completed one of those TESOL certificate courses at my local adult education college in the county of Kent, England. In October 2001, I came to the city of Wuhan, the capital of Hubei Province, in the People’s Republic of China to teach English and, apart from an eight-week “break” when I was back in England, I have been here ever since. Very soon after coming to Wuhan, I met the woman who was to become my wife – lucky me! We married in June 2002, and she gave birth to our first child, our daughter Kelly, in April 2004.
I came to Wuhan to teach at a new private English language school for one year, but ended up staying two years before moving on to a public-sector primary school for another one year. It made quite a change to be teaching English to 8-11-year-old kids exclusively, but I enjoyed that experience very much. I have now moved on from there, though, because, since 1 February 2005, I have been teaching English for Academic Purposes (EAP) exclusively to Chinese college graduates who are specifically intending to go to the U.K. to study for a graduate degree there, so it is my job to help these people gain the skills that they need to participate fully, such as speaking in seminars, which Chinese students are not really used to doing, since they have more or less become accustomed to passive listening and note-taking during those kinds of activities during their first degree studies. (Hence, I am not really teaching ESL any more as such, but the students’ grammar does need fine-tuning a wee bit!)
As a trained and experienced ESL teacher, I know – and say to people – that they should try and make things as simple as they can when speaking a foreign language. Recognizing that people, who are themselves aviation enthusiasts and may be learning (or have learned) English as a second language, may (!) want something simpler to read about the Luftwaffe, I therefore “translated” the original article for, and subsequently submitted it to, the Simple English Wikipedia [4].
I have not just studied French and German, rather I have studied Spanish in the past, but the last time I used any Spanish was in 1984 when I did my “A”-level examination (and, unfortunately, did not pass it!), so I reckon that I won’t be doing any translations for the Spanish Wikipedia! (On the other hand, a Chinese ex-classmate on my MBA program in Scotland did immigrate to Spain to live with her Spanish husband, so I reckon that she could translate articles about China into Spanish!) I also indulged in Esperanto between 1989 and 1990 and even managed to gain a pass in a GCSE examination! There is, I notice, an Esperanto Wikipedia, though it may be a while before I even try to translate any articles into Esperanto! I’ll probably look at the linguistic-oriented pages about Esperanto in the English Wikipedia just to get refreshed. (Are there any Esperantists in Wuhan, by the way?!)
After I had completed all those articles about the Luftwaffe, I could not help but notice that the one about the French Air Force (the Armée de l'Air) was somewhat thin on the ground. I have now included three articles about the history of the French air force from its earliest days to the end of empire in Algeria in 1962, namely Armée de l'Air (Part I: From birth to "Torch", 1909-1942), Armée de l'Air (Part II: Fighting for Free France, 1940-1945) and Armée de l'Air (Part III: End of empire in Indochina and Algeria, 1939-1962).
Though 1962 was, of course, 43 years ago, I still do intend (when I can find the time!) to include some information on the modern-day French air force in parallel with articles already existing about other air forces. However, I have noticed (something I am good at doing!) that not even a stub exists on the Spanish air force, the Ejército del Aire. I wonder if this has anything to do with the fact that it has not had to fight a major war since the end of the Spanish Civil War in 1939! However, I take this as a challenge, so I'll search for something on the net about the Spanish air force and write about it for Wikipedia in the future.
UPDATE: 25 JUNE 2007: Since I last managed to write anything here, Wikipedia has been periodically blocked, then unblocked, then blocked again, then unblocked again by the Chinese government. Indeed, Wikipedia was blocked by the Chinese government for up to a whole year at one point, such is its sensitivity about certain articles written about their country. I am writing this update within hours of discovering that Wikipedia has been unblocked again, so I had better hurry in case anything happens! Anyway, I am still teaching EAP at that school I mentioned above, and I plan on remaining in China for at least another couple of years before moving back permanently to the UK with my good lady and my kid (pictured above - the little one has grown a wee bit since 2004!).
I am pretty much busy with both my work and my study, since I am studying for a master's degree in education by online/distance learning, and, all being well, I will be awarded it at the end of 2007 (I have only one assignment and the project for my present module to go!). If I really can find the time, I will endeavour to contribute more articles and/or edits to existing articles to Wikipedia. User:Christopher Crossley 10:41, 25 June 2007 (UTC)
UPDATE 2: 17 APRIL 2008: Once again, I have an opportunity to add something barely minutes after discovering that Wikipedia has been unblocked again - and yet, a few weeks ago, all access to U.K. university web sites had been blocked from China owing to the government's extreme sensitivity to foreign reporting of a tragic event in the southwest of the country that left at least 19 people dead. At the end of last year (2007), I finished my Master of Education degree in Applied Linguistics, although I am still teaching EAP at the school I mention earlier and will remain there for another year until at least August 2009. As for my little girl (pictured above), she turns four in just four days from now! User:Christopher Crossley 12:24, 17 April 2008 (UTC)
