April 2002 Issue
Internet Resource of the Month
By
Susan Marcus PalauDirector, Learning Center, Purchase College/SUNY
Email: Susan.Palau@Purchase.edu
The Place To Be Seen!
Was it Alice's Coffee House in the '60's and '70's? And Starbuck's, of
course , in the '90's? Well now that is the 2000's, the place to be, online at least, is Dave's ESL Café. How confident the home page sounds! This is
the site that not only will provide great English language courses but also a place to socialize (not unlike sipping latte in a club chair). "The ESL
Training College Provides the Finest English Language Classes". "The English Language Training College 'Where Friends Meet Friends". The
proprietor of this cyber-café is Dave Sperling and he introduces himself as "Dave Sperling Presents the One and Only Dave's ESL Café -
www.eslcafe.com - The Internet's Meeting Place for ESL/EFL
Students and Teachers from Around the World! Open 24 hours. How can an Internet surfer resist this! It is like being offered a menu of all the
coffees in the world. Drink on, lads!
The web site continues with a lengthy bio of how Dave conceived of the idea of starting the ESL Café. Moving further into the "backrooms" of the café,
one will see a job center for ESL/ESF teachers from all countries. Job listings, an expose of international job experiences, resume postings and a
Job Offered board, make this the perfect place to get one's career launched or enhanced. In addition, there is a special Korean Job Board and Korean
Job discussion Forum. Among the other forums for teachers are job discussion, teacher training, job links and other professional topics.
The students also have their own place to hang out in Dave's ESL Café.
Different forums offer them the opportunities to practice written English, and talk about family, health and fitness, pets and my favorite, the Strange
and Mysterious.
Lastly, there is a place at the café where students can practice their English pronunciation with lessons, exercises , games and a dictionary.
Like any good café owner, Dave will also sell you related products. The only empty shelf at the café was the "Idiom of the Week". Unfortunately it
was blank when I visited. But otherwise, this site has a rich, deep blend of many sites to help teachers and students of the English language.
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