Meetings 2022/2023

Meeting 19th October 2022

We were happy to discuss cultural differences, gestures or body language people from around the world use in their everyday lives.

SO MANY CULTURES!!!
SO MANY GESTURES
SO MANY QUESTIONS!!!

Materials worth watching / listening to:

ENJOY!!!

Meeting 3rd November 2022

GAMING: eSports@@@

Guys What’s becoming more and more POPULAR these days hmmm, is it really so tough to answer the question I don’t really think so … It’s GAMING & eSPORTS, isn’t it

On this day we listened, watched and talked about the development and popularity of multiple player video games based on competiton Are they only fun & entertainment OR can they also have some other IMPACT on our lives We tried to check it out by ourselves

By the way: the topic turned out to be sooo broad and interesting that we’ll continue to explore it more Next Time

Materials worth watching / listening to / reading:

ENJOY!!!

Meeting 16th November 2022

Pac-Man@@@ Game popular in the 1980s

Super Marios Bros, Space Invaders or Pong: sounds familiar Today we continued talking about the world of games: we explored the REALM of video games produced & launched over the last decades, discussed in more detail benefits & drawbacks (pros / pluses [+] & cons / minuses [-]) of computer gaming and talked about our own Personal Experiences related to the topic

Materials worth watching / listening to / reading:

  • Seven video games that changed the world | BBC Ideas

ENJOY!!!

Meeting 14th December 2022

BINGE WATCHING@@@

What is MORE popular : online streaming platforms, traditional TV or perhaps cinema er… maybe short-form online video hosting / sharing services like TikTok and YouTube … What are the current trends among poeple TODAY we talked about the APPEAL of Netlix, the arguable DECLINE of traditional television and discussed if we still like to go to the movies and see films on the big screen. Aaa and yes: we also touched upon the mysteriously sounding „binge watching”.

Is Cinema Really Dying Out???

Materials worth watching / listening to / reading:

ENJOY!!!

Meeting 21st December 2022

Finally the time has come to the most festive and joyful time of the year (according to many of us) which is We just couldn’t skip the topic during our meetings either – after all, there’s so much to talk about: our dream GIFTS, shopping madness, CHRISTMAS TREE decoration, GIFT-WRAPPING presents, INDULGENCE in food, FAMILY & FRIENDS gatherings, Christmas travelling, Santa Claus and many many MORE

Materials worth watching / listening to / reading:

  • Fake or real: What’s the best tree to have at Christmas? 6 Minute English

and many many MORE HERE

ENJOY!!!

Meeting 28th December 2022

To speak #SLANG# or NOT to speak #SLANG# – that is the QUESTION

Crib, swear down, beef, bruv, play hooky … – what the heck are these in sentences like „he was doing an exam and didn’t want anybody to crib the answers from him”, „It was Tommy who jumbled up the report, not me. Swear down!”, „What’s her beef with me? I’m always nice to her!”, „What’s up bruv?” or „Hey, Jim and I are playing hooky from school on Friday, do you want to come with us?”

What’s the Language like in Real-Life Situations??? @@@

Recently there was a lot of hype around youth’s most popular words of the passing year. Hence the topic of today’s meeting was SLANG used by young people in the UK or US and English native speakers in general. We’ve learned what slang is, what some of the words used in everyday / informal speech are and we’ve also seen how different the language taught in class can be from the one spoken by commoners on the streets. Now hopefully, while being in an English speaking country, it will be easier for us to understand people chatting in a cafe, socialising at school or selling our favourite veggies at a local greengrocer’s. As we all know „fear makes things look twice as bad as they are” so let’s NOT run away terrified on hearing sb’s speaking slang but embrace & learn it!

hmmm???@

And Yep! From now on we definitely prefer silver when speaking, even if some slang comes to our ears

Materials worth watching / listening to / reading:

ENJOY!!!

and Last but NOT Least:

Meeting 4th January 2023

Online Communication @@@

Memes, gifs, emojis and viral videos … I’m sure most of us have at least once shared a meme or a GIF online! Why do we do that? Would you like to find out more about these tools and the mechanisms behind using them? What is more, did you know that memes are said by some to be closely connected with genes , at least the term is! Would you like to find out how? I assume being INQUISITIVE is an INHERENT (=essential, deep-rooted) characteristic of a human mind (be it younger or older)… Hence, this time we delved into Online Communication in Social Media. HOW do we communicate OR on things on the Internet HOW and WHY are memes spread online Can WE control it in ANY way? HOW to make our messages GO VIRAL In the meeting we tried to answer these Qs and the like.

Materials worth watching / listening to / reading:

ENJOY!!!

Meeting 18th January 2023

ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES @@@

, global warming, deforestation , soil degradation, loss of biodiversity , wildfires , drought, pollution of different kinds , fossil fuels extraction , resources exploitation, OVERpopoluation, OVERfishing, urban sprawl , fast fashion …

The list seems to have NO end … unfortunately … these seem to be only some of the biggest environmental problems we’re facing nowadays. No doubt – we NEED to do something about it! We have already started dealing with the issues but as usual there’s still a lot to be done! Today we discussed environmental problems & the environment protection and what we, as individuals, can do to support SUSTAINABILITY on our planet. We also talked about the matter globally – how it needs to be tackled on a corporate / governmental / industrial level.

What we know for sure is that we need to act TOGETHER in the name of our planet protection. This is our Home and we should treat it as one @@@ Planet Earth is the ONLY one we have @@@

TogetherForEnvironment @@@

Materials worth watching / listening to / reading:

Materials about the environment for Younger Kids

ENJOY!!!

Meeting 15th February 2023

BooksBooksBooksBooksBooksBooksBooksBooksBooksBooks

Most of us could agree that reading a good book can be a great REMEDY for a bad mood, stressful day or simply a useful tool to UNWIND. Therefore, today on our agenda we put BOOKS. To be more precise, one particular book that one of our participants read and prepared a presentation on: Great Expectations by Charles Dickens which PORTRAYS the life of lower-class people in the 19th c. England. It was also a good starting point to talk about literature further and think over which are the books that have SHAPED the world the way we know it today…

Materials worth watching / listening to / reading:

  • Five books that shaped our world | BBC Ideas
  • The soothing power of books – 6 Minute English

ENJOY!!!

Meeting 8th March 2023

Greek Heroes & Women’s Day – a NICE combination, isn’t it?!? @@@

We had the pleasure of watching one of our participants’ presentation on the Greek mythology. We could review the basic gods and godesses in ancient Greece, learn new vocab and talk about our favourite Greek hero. Jumping at the chance of it being the 8th of March today, we also had a nice chat about topics around women, gender-based streotypes & the importance of celebrating this day all around the world. We also checked it out ourselves if we tend to think in a stereotypical way about men & women – please test it yourself by solving the riddle by Mindspace (also available below).

Materials worth watching / listening to / reading:

ENJOY!!!

Meeting 15th March 2023

Festive Celebration of the World Cinema @@@

Since this week the Big Screen has been celebrated so joyously, we talked about Oscars 2023 winners too and the cinema in general. Do we like watching films? What kind of films do we tend to watch? Why do we find certain films worth watching and others not so much? How to talk about films? What is the purpose of the cinema? What can be communicated through films? And many many more!

Materials worth watching / listening to / reading:

ENJOY!!!

Easter is coming!!!@@@

Dear English fans , if you find the time in the hustle & bustle around Easter preparations just click and have a look at:

Meeting 12th April 2023

AI, Digital Minimalism i.e. Technology in Our Lives @@@

We live in a digitilised & „robotised” world – no one can really deny it. That’s why we decided to touch upon the issue. We had a nice talk about the evolution of AI, which in fact already started around the 40s of the previous century by Alan Turing’s theory of computation. One of our participants gave an insuightful presentation on the topic based on her reading of Penguin’s Graded Reader „Artificial Intelligence”. It was a good starting point to switch to discussing the common use of digital tools nowadays and to talk about our digital habits & their impact on our well-being, time management or socialising aspects. Should we take advantage of them with no limits or rather adopt a minimalist approach?!

Materials worth watching / listening to / reading:

ENJOY!!!

LET’S CELEBRATE IT EVERY DAY!!! LET’S CELEBRATE IT EVERY DAY!!!

A song for 2DAY 💚& for 2morrow💚 & for EVER 💚

22 April 🌐🌎🌍🌏🌐 EARTH day ‼️

  • If you feel like, CLICK on & watch Earth Day 2023 Tipping Points by American Museum of Natural History.
  • a nice phrase to remember: tip the balance, idiom (also tip the scales) = to cause a change, esp. in making something more likely to happen: e.g. Introducing new fish to the lake tipped the balance and made it very hard for the trout that were already living there.
LET’S CELEBRATE IT EVERY DAY!!! LET’S CELEBRATE IT EVERY DAY!!!

Meeting 27th April 2023

@Colours@Colours@Colours@Colours@

Languages abound in „colourful” expressions i.e. phrases where we simply use colours . When one’s jealous we can say they are „green” with envy, when a relative is the one causing problems we can say they are the „black” sheep of the family or we may call someone a „blue”-eyed boy when the person is treated with special favour. There are many many more of the kind. We also used the topic to talk about how colours affect us, what our favourite colours are & why OR what associations we have with specific colours?

Materials worth watching / listening to / reading:

ENJOY!!!

Meeting 17 May 2023

PERSONALITY, COLOURS, LANGUAGE

Today we practised colourful expressions, expanded vocabulary connected with colours as well as personality. Each of us has a unique character and specific distinctive personal traits, there are as many personalities as human beings on this Earth! Having read some text, we got to know nice phrases we can easily use in everyday speech to describe others. Do you know any busybodies, killjoys, wallflowers or maybe are you yourself a scrooge, go-getter, party animal or even a culture vulture … ?

Materials worth watching / listening to / reading:

ENJOY!!!

Meeting 7 June 2023

Summer holidays are drawing near … [hip hip hooray!!!] Jumping at the chance we talked about our favurite travel destinations, ECO-tourism & ECO-friendly travelling. What does it mean to travel eco-friendly and contribute this way to sustainable tourism??? If you wish to get to know the answers, just look into the materials below.

Materials worth watching / listening to / reading:

ENJOY!!!

14 June 2023

@@@ASSERTIVENESS@@@ASSERTIVENESS@@@

ASSERTIVENESS – over the last years it’s been a hot topic – important especially when it comes to our mental health. How to set one’s boundaries, express one’s feelings well with due respect for other people’s views & emotions??? ACTUALLY, it’s a skill, that is not that easy to master!!! How to build our assertiveness and learn to respond to unhealthy kinds of behaviour e.g. how to deal with passive-aggressive people & mitigate conflicts? By the way, do you know what hides behind the notion? Moreover, the omnipresent social media activity and people’s reliance on it, contribute very often to the weakening of our social skills & our sound perception of the surrounding reality. That is why, the issue seems to be even more important these days than ever before.

Materials worth watching / listening to / reading:

ENJOY!!!

22 June 2023

@@@”Blessed are the curious for they shall have adventures” – quote by the poet Lovelle Drachman@@@

At the beginning we were given a very informative & interesting presentation by one of our participants on „Women who Changed the World” – as agreed before, the club visitors, in the course of our sessions, were assigned to read a „graded reader” book of their choice and make a presentation on it. In addition, since it was our last meeting just before summer holidays we talked of course about holiday destinations & our plans for the upcoming 2-month summer break. We did a nice communicative activity with a very intriguing title „Holiday Confusion” and learned about „wanderlust”.

Materials worth watching / listening to / reading:

ENJOY!!!

@@@@Summer@@@Summer@@@Summer@@@Summer@@@Summer@@@@@

@@@@Summer@@@Summer@@@Summer@@@Summer@@@Summer@@@@@