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On
the surface, the International Poetry Ambassador Program
is simple. Ambassadors, on a voluntary basis, spread
the word about Poetry, the English language, Vocabulary,
VoicesNet, our Quarterly Poetry Contest, our Poetry
Forums, our Literary Journal, our member poets' works,
and more.
At a high level, though, the potential benefits of
this program are astounding:
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An International
Poetry Ambassador will do the following:
| Contribute
some of their poetry into a special pool of poems that
are available to all International Poetry Ambassadors. |
| On
a regular basis, get others around the world to read
VoicesNet poetry to others and keep a count of your
efforts. We will eventually reward top Ambassadors down
the road based on their efforts, but that is secondary,
we mainly want people here who are interested in getting
people to read and write and also in getting the word
out about VoicesNet.com and the many things that we
have going on here. |
| Contact
Media (newspapers, websites, schools, libraries, etc.)
in your Country to get press and the web URL for our
VoicesNet programs listed in their publications, websites,
boards, etc. Also collect and submit to us any email
addresses for our master media email list where we will
email announcements from our programs. |
| Get
some of our articles from our Literary Journal and poems
from our Ambassador Portfolio published to other Net
Ezines. |
This
will be an exciting program. This is just the beginning.
We will have people reading and writing poetry everywhere.
Increasing
Literacy around the world this way is a great thing!
We will
work with you in coordinating your start in the program
and answering any questions that you might have.
I have
noticed that little children, when learning a language,
do so much better when they are looking at the person making
the sound or sounds that they are trying to learn. Sure,
children, once they learn to read, learn constantly from
the exercise of reading, but those who don't know the language
learn a lot by watching and listening to a teacher at the
same time. You see, the viewer sees the words being formed
by the teacher; doesn't just hear them. This is easy for
me to see. Try teaching a young child to repeat a word without
looking at you and then when they have trouble with a challenging
word, tell them to look at you and try it, and they will
usually correct their mis-pronunciation right away as soon
as they see you, the teacher, pronounce the word at the
same time they are hearing you speak it.
Recently,
one of our international writers indicated that part of
their education system has problems because English is only
taught through reading and writing and not through talking
and listening (including, of course, visual observation
during the listening process).
This
made me think more and more about the Poetry Ambassador
program.
I want
our Poetry ambassadors to go out and get people to READ
POETRY in English to people from all around the world who
are learning the English language and who are also learning
about POETRY.
I think
that we have an unbelievable opportunity here with VoicesNet
to have a huge worldwide impact through our Internet efforts.
We are
a site and organization that was founded around poetry,
and we have had thousands and thousands of readers and writers
of poetry visit our site since January of 2002.
By getting
people around the world to read poetry to other people,
I believe that we can inspire many to learn the English
language and the craft of poetry. I think this can have
many benefits.
The
joy that many get out of reading and writing poetry is the
first true gem that our Poetry Ambassadors will teach to
others.
Better
education, which occurs when you learn the English language
better also means less reliance on others economically for
an individual and for groups of individuals. That is a great
thing. The English language has become the international
language, especially when considering economic factors in
life.
Increasing
one's individual abilities to read and write is a great
thing.
If you
are interested in becoming an International Poetry Ambassador
for VoicesNet, then please fill out the form below and we
will be in touch with you soon afterward.
Currently,
we have 37 International Poetry Ambassadors at VoicesNet.com.
Jeff
Humphrey
Founder
- Editor in Chief - Contest Director
VoicesNet.com
- The Voices Network
Click
here to see the Ambassador Rankings and Scoring System
