Couple First Meet as Online Avatars

Pre discussion questions

Do you know about meeting people as avatars?

What would you look like as an avatar?

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A woman is going to marry her younger lover 18 years her junior. The first met as  AVATARS in a virtual reality game.

Fiona was 39 when she met 21-year-old Patrik on Second Life. Second Life is an online virtual reality world where users create characters. These characters are known as avatars. These avatars socialize with strangers.

Fiona, who lives in Australia, picked an avatar called Phoebe because she believes lookes like her in real life.

After joining the site she hit it off with the character called 'Sareth.’ Sareth was actually Patrik.

In real life, Patrik is a telecom technician from Sweden.

Patrik and Fiona lived 24,000 km away from each other.

Remarkably they started dating online and building a virtual home together.

But they did not talk in real life until one year later. They met in April 2008 for a quick tour of Stockholm Sweden.

At the end of their trip they declared their love for one another.  

"It's great how we met, it always raises eyebrows."

Fiona was working for an education company when she first discovered Second Life. She joined the site to see on if it was a site her employers could use.

But soon she loved the game. In the game she was enjoying being on virtual beaches, talking to strangers.

She was interested mostly in Sareth, because he made her laugh. And he really liked her too.

Initially, the pair talked in groups but after a few weeks they'd sneak off to private spots on the beach and chat one-on-one.

Slowly they spent more and more time online. They would log on each day to see how the other person was despite the eight-hour time difference between Sweden and Australia.

"We didn't talk about our ages until a year later, but it didn't matter."

Second Life users can 'build' homes and Fiona created a house - which Patrik was always in.

Fiona decided to take the plunge in 2008 and organize a face-to-face meeting.

Fiona said: "They told me to see if I liked him, because once I met him I would know if I really liked him."

When she arrived at the airport, she was immediately excited to be with him.

She said: "He looked like his avatar. We started chatting – and didn't stop."

At the end of their four days, Patrik asked to visit Australia.

He flew 40 hours to see her in July 2008. And they continued their online life, but visited a real beach this time.

And in May 2009 he moved to Brisbane permanently.[1]

Try to guess the meaning of the words in bold and match them with their closest meaning from the choices in the right. Some of the answers are very close and have similar meaning. The meaning of these words is how they are used in the reading. Some of these words have different meanings in the dictionary depending on how they are used.

 The answers are below the table.

A=4, B=1, C=8, D=5, E=2, F=7, G=3, H=6

Some example sentences using the new words or phrases from the meaning of how they are used in the reading to help you understand better.

1.      It was a blind date, but they hit it off from the first meeting.

2.      One of the most remarkably beautiful places I have see is the Grand Canyon.

3.      When we got married we declared our love for each other.

4.      The government’s decision to make smoking illegal has raised eyebrows all around the world.

5.      Initially, I found the yoga class hard, but now I am good at it.

6.      I did not want to stay for drinks after dinner, so I sneaked off without telling anybody.

7.      Despite the cold weather, we still went exercising outside.

8.      I took the plunge and signed up for the Korean language class.

Some questions using the new words/phrases. Try to use the words/phrases in your answer.

1.      Can you understand how Fiona and Patrik hit it off?

2.      Do you find this way of meeting someone remarkable? What other remarkable stories have you heard?

3.      Have you ever declared your love to someone? How would you declare your love to someone?

4.      Would meeting someone this way raise eyebrows in your culture? Why?

5.      What was your initial feeling when read the title for today’s reading?

6.      Describe an animal you know that sneaks around a lot?

7.      Would you marry someone despite them coming from another country?

8.      What is one of the biggest plunges you have taken?