Twitter: A Global Converstation Starter
Posted by: Dan
The global concept of the Internet is something most of us have already experienced. We’ve visited an international website with foreign characters on the screen. Maybe we’ve sent an email to a friend studying abroad for a semester or even chatted with someone from a foreign country. Yawn… that’s so 2003! Flash forward to 2010. This weekend I experienced a new level of global communication on Twitter that was anything but ordinary.
We recently added a new puppy to our family. After conducting our research for “Top Family Dogs” and “Top Dogs for Kids,” we couldn’t help but notice an unfamiliar name popping up on our list, a breed of dog called Vizsla. A Vi-what? Never heard of it. Turns out this peculiar breed from
Hungary was the perfect match for our family. We found a local breeder and picked out our new family member, a beautiful female Vizsla puppy named Harper. After bringing her home, I shared our excitement with the world of Twitter. I posted some pictures and people in my localized Twitter community had questions about Harper, specifically what kind of dog she was.
I tried my best to explain to my friend Collin how to say the name of our rather difficult to pronounce pup, “
@CollinTrent She’s a Vizsla… pronounced Veeshla. Possibly one of the coolest, unknown breeds out there.”
So… communicating with my friend who lives within a 20 mile radius. Fun and meaningful, but nothing out of the ordinary. This past Saturday, March 6th, however, I received what’s known as a Twitter mention (where someone directs a message at my Twitter user name by typing
@danwagoner before the text of their message). The message, from
@pytey, simply said, “@danwagoner viz(sh)-lah not veeshla ;).”
Not knowing who @pytey is, but appreciating the correction, I responded, “@pytey But the “i” still makes a long “e” sound, correct?”
He responds, “@danwagoner hold on, getting the wife and sister-in-law to do an audio clip :-).”
Conversation with a stranger on Twitter, still nothing too wild and crazy happening here. Then I get his next response on Twitter. The message had a link to an audio clip:
Click here to listen.
At this point, I realized my communication was taking place with someone who lives in Hungary, the very country Vizslas originated. Now that’s pretty amazing! Turns out he is a Vizsla owner and was interested in finding other Twitter users out there talking about Vizslas.
With Twitter recording
10 billion tweets last week, the number of people around the world using this social media tool is staggering. It can be argued that the power of this tool is still relatively unrealized. @pytey
get’s it, he used the searching power of Twitter to find a single comment I made over a week ago that opened the door to dynamic global communication.
What are you interested in? Want to find others interested in the same topics? Even better, want to connect with people interested in the same topic in a specific area of the world?
Try Twitter’s advanced search. It includes a list of operators showing you how to narrow your search to be as specific as you want. For example, I searched “Vizsla near:Indiana” and found
this tweet from
@gweckers:
“has a cute, wiggly Vizsla pupper hanging out at her place for a few hours! “
Try it out! You may find someone in Hungary who is mispronouncing an English word. :)
2 Comments 
Posted under: global communication, Hungary, social media, Twitter, Twitter Seach, Vizsla
Welcome to the small world of vizsla owners! It was fun to make the recording with my sister, you should have seen us giggling around. Give a cuddle to Harper from us here in Budapest. Pytey, Jude and the three naughty vizslas.
Excellent post. That's a great story. I have to admit that, I am still learning the best ways to use Twitter myself, stuff like this reminds me that it's worth it. While it seems silly at first, as though everyone is in one room screaming at the top of their lungs, there is still a great power on having that many people in one room. Thanks for sharing!