E-Concussion

Thanks everyone ! so nice to have you in my life.

Next round host schedule :

3/12 James & Leo
3/19 Joyce & Peggy
3/26 Amy & Carey
4/2 Shavia & Sharon

by the way , please email your group plan of orphanage to me before 3/13
Thanks a lot

Cheers
Carey

Vocabularies:
severity 嚴格;嚴厲;嚴肅[U] 猛烈;凜冽;嚴重
be indicative of 指示的;表示的;象徵的;暗示的[F][(+of)][+that]
Styrofoam 聚苯乙烯泡沫塑料
Oval 卵形的;橢圓形的
Rectangle 矩形,長方形
porcelain 瓷;(總稱)瓷器[U]
glistening 閃耀;反光[(+with)]
murky 黑暗的;陰鬱的
cardboard 硬紙板,卡紙板[U]
rattan 藤;藤莖;藤林;藤杖
nibbling grass 一點點地咬(或吃);一點一點去掉[(+away/off)]
gallop away (馬等)疾馳,飛跑

Winter Trip Sharing:
James: The fragrance of plum blossom is his most impressive memory… Finally, he realizes the song~不經一番寒徹骨，焉得梅花撲鼻香！（撲鼻： to assail襲擊 the nostrils鼻孔）

Peggy: 1. The echo of EConcussion-sion-sion is her most unforgettable thing. (Maybe we should yell out our club name every time we go to the outdoors.)2. She also pointed out we spoke too little English this time. We should speak more English to maintain the spirit of Econcussion!

Carey: She did so much for us but she didn’t have time to say sth. about winter trip(How about taking turns being the accountant when we take trips.)

Leo: 1.Long driving... 2. Beautiful veiw and flowers 3.cold weather and water. 4. Traffic jam @@"

others... sorry! I forgot to jot down others...
Maybe you can find time to add your part in it^^...

Brainwashing：洗腦
Villa：別墅
Crab：螃蟹
Grass, lawn：草地
Free fall：自由落下
Gloves：手套
Towel：毛巾

Buzzing: a low droning or vibrating sound like that of a bee.
Fly into a rage: 暴怒
Glowing: rich and warm in coloring: glowing colors.
Addiction: 沈溺;成癮;上癮;入迷
Desperate: Having lost all hope; despairing.

The gathering information on 1/9 is as below:
7:30-7:40 Reading
7:41-8:00 Explaing new word and phrases
8:01-8:10 Do two short test
8:11-8:30 Draw your ideal home , (have to mention location and as more information as you can !)
8:31-8:40 Take a break
8:41-9:30 Divide into 2 group and share your ideal home.
(Or you could share two topics:
1. If you were a richman, what kind of things you want to collect?
2. If tomorrow is the last day of the world, what do you want to do the most?)

Looking forward to seeing you on Wed,
Carey & Sharon

Gathering on 2nd Jan 2008 Happy New Year
Hosts: Shavia and James

7:30-8:00 Test for revision
8:00-8:10 Marking and discussion
8:10-8:30 Story chain
8:30-8:40 Break time
8:40-9:10 Reading articles
9:10-9:30 Free talk ( the topic is what is your ideal lover or life partner like?)
Please prepare in advanced.

The procedure on 12/19 as below:

*We are in Paris!
7:30~7:45 Article reading and find the answers
(Five minutes for reading, rest of the time try to find out the answer)
7:45~7:50 please design one day trip in Taipei that you suggest.
7:50~8:00 Work in pairs; discuss your ideas with your partner.

* Fill the blank game
8:00~8:10 Fill the blanks to complete the articles.
8:10~8:30 Check the answer and discuss it
8:30~8:40 Take a break
8:40~8:50 Write the topic about “The event that you proud of the most.”
8:50~9:30 Divide into two group then share it.(Each one gets 8-10 mins to share)
*If you can, pls prepare it in advance.

Looking forward to seeing you on Wed.
Carey & Sharon

This week's hostesses will be James and Shavia, below are the procedure on this coming Wed:

7:30~8:10 Quiz

8:10~8:30 check the answer

8:30~8:40 take a break

8:40~9:20 Joke time

9:20~9:30 winter trip

This time we are going to share some jokes or something funny. Please search some jokes or just share with us something interesting and funny. Each person will have 8-10 minutes depends on the members of the gruop.

James and Shavia

Dear all:
After gathering I think E-concussion get ahead , we can discuss something serious and we can share our own experience of manage money that’s great ,we can learn from each other. There are some good idea from my group let’s see.

Louise :
1. Set your own goals.
2. You have to know why you do this, because that can let you remind yourself and go for you goal sustained.
3. Use free time to make more money
4. Open a HSBC account that is suitable for money management.

Joyce:
Almost spend all the salary on food, recently Joyce spent a lot money on moving and Joyce said she will do house keeping after listen to our advise.

Peggy:
The most expense of Peggy is entertainment, now she does house keeping every day and next time she wants to try record her expense by sort.

Amy:
Set percent of your salary ex. 20% in credit, 20% in insurance, 30% in invest and 30% in daily expense.
Amy’s goal
1. save unnecessary payment
2. learn how to invest
3. earn more money

Paul:
Paul divide his salary into three accounts, he also set a limit of his expense, now he have fund and insurance.

Carey:
Income-save=expense

Dan: He has to pay tax to USA and Taiwan government. The most important is he will get benifit from USA government after his retire. I'm not sure for how many percent. But he's surely to take reward from government in the future.

James: He invests stocks in a small amount. But he will do some homeworks to take care of these stocks. He always search some companies which can invest for a long time. He thought environmental protection stocks are good to have, so he invests these companies which industry are about environmental protection.

Jeff: He invests in stocks,too. But he choose to invest in big company, like 台塑、台電 etc...Those stocks may not have big range, but they are quite stable. If you save money to invest it and also keep for a long time, you will indeed get a big reward.

Michael: His mother bought an investment chit for him. So he can save money and also got safeguard. If he wants to go abroad for further study in the future, then he can use this amount to make his dream come true.

Shavia: She said it's good to have HSBC account, it gots many benifit. You can appoint five accounts when you transfer, it won't charge any fee. Lots of benifit. You can save more money through this account.

Leo: He wants to invest in real estate, but he think it's too high now, not the right time to invest.(complete it later)

Sharon: She invests in fund. When she gets her salary, she will take out regular amount in fund first, then think about how to make use of the rest money. She also suggest us if we want to invest fund, just open an internet banking and an account of fund, so that you can have more discount. Mostly you can have 30% discount.

********************************************************
Next round's host
12/12 Peggy . Joyce
12/19 Carey . Sharon
12/26 James . Shavia
1/2 Amy . Leo

Thank you all
I'm so glad that I have E-Concussioners
I have a wonderful and unforgettable birthday party
I love all the game you arranged to me and enjoy the time we get together. Wish every E-concussioner can do everything they want and achieve their own goals.


Love you all

Happiness Carey B

This week’s hostesses will be Carey and Sharon, below are the procedure on this coming Wed:
7:30~7:35 reading test
7:35~7:45 check the answer
7:45~7:50 reading test
7:50~8:00 check the answer
8:00~8:30 find the mistake and fill the blank
first 15 mins, let’s do this test
rest 15 mins, let’s check the answer and discuss the content
8:30~8:35 take a rest
8:35~9:35 free talk time
This time we are going to discuss about “How to manage your money.” Any skills or method you can share with us, and if you don’t have any skills of how to manage, you can even share any experience by your friends or relatives or any articles you read before. Please prepare it before you come to econcussion. Each person gets 8 mins to share.

Carey and Sharon

Game Time (You know me)

7:30-7:50 Guessing Words (JY)

7:50-8:00 Number Game (Sharon)(The game we played in the trip)


Grammar and Reading
8:10-8:30 Common English Errors (two groups)

8:40-9:00 Short Prose (two grouops)


Presentation
9:00-9:30 Please prepare 3-5 minutes sharing about this trip.
For example:
What impresses you most? What you suffered most?
What we can do next time?
What we shoud notice in a trip?
Anything you feel and think about the trip is fine.
Please think even write them down before coming, thank you!!!

Thanks everyone gave me such a unforgetable trip
I will remember our smile forever and ever
It's shows no matter how poor situation we are , we all can handle it
and smile face it.

Thanks a million
You enrich my life

Carey

It's so hard to come back to reality...
I want to cry sitting in front of my pc when I recall all we did in the three days.

Again, crazy e-concussioners...
Thank you for the things you did for this family, which makes life so colorful and unforgettable...


;P
Joyce

Dear E-concussioner:
This Wed.'s host are Leo and me
And this time we want to introduce "Top spoken business English Errors"
We will handle this handout within 2 hours.
It's really useful and worthy for everyone, so please preview it
I will send it to your by e-mail


Hope see you all on WED.
if you can't join us this time, please let me or Leo know.

Carey
03-SEP-07

Dear all,

The following is our schedule.
And I sent you the handout for grammar, you could print and bring it that day.
And this time's grammar is simple, so we will test you the grammar we have learned last two gathering.
And I also sent the Green Island plan by James, please take a look as well. We will discuss it in the coming gatherings.


The Plan of August 29

7:30-8:30 Grammar Time
1. Should
2. review Passive Tense and Present/Past Perfect Tense

8:40-9:10 Role Playing: Romeo and Juliet
9:10-9:20 review “Gettysburg Address”
9:20-9:30 Discussing our activities:
Fire dance show（every Friday night）,
Joyce’s Indian Dance Show on 9/1
Shen-Keng trip on 9/2
Sandy’s HuQIn Concert on 9/9
Our Green Island Trip 9/22-9/24


Joyce

Hey guys...
I just found a book that I bought from Singapore. The title is English Grammar and Usage. It is just suitable for Yenney's suggestion. I'll show you all the book in our next gathering. We can then discuss whther to do the practice as Yenney adivised.

Cheers

Shavia

The following is the dear Yenney's suggestions for us to run the club, Amy and I will try to use the way in the first session when we are the hosts. You also can use the ways to improve our learning quality, yes, we can make it!!!

-----------------------------------------

Tue, 24 Jul 2007 "Yenney Lai" yenneybegood@yahoo.com.tw
Sorry for the late response, Amy and Joyce!

From what I can see, the E-concussion is about being sociable, instead of getting concussion in English. It's still the best thing you can pull out for using English outside of classrooms; yet, merely chatting light-heartedly is not going to get you very far: it takes serious work and practices other than "spontaneous conversations" to acquire speaking skills.

Hard work: Learning English should be fun, but what is "fun"? I would like to think that the real fun is also what makes you really tired. It shouldn't be just pleasure, it's pleasure and a bit of pain too, to the degree that sometimes you don't know, and perhaps don't even care, if it's pain or pleasure that you're enjoying. For example, does not the activity of making a complete sentence always involve a sense of "torture"? Is not the intensity of reading aloud as well as understanding exactly what it means painful yet enjoyable? I've said this elsewhere: studying English is not just sitting there using your eye to go through words on the page; better to find ways to make it harder. If after 15 minutes' review you're still feeling easy and relaxed, then you're not getting anything out of it. An analogy may refer to bicycling: for whose who love it, a memorial ride is never without sweat and muscle aches.

Other than small talks: first, reading and writing help a lot; which is also to say, it takes deliberate designs to make your speech flow. I know a lot of people believe in "輕鬆 自然 直覺式學習," in "spontaneity"; I don't. Every bit of a good, natural-sounding and idiomatic English sentence is built on something "unnatural": we have to do "listen and repeat (CD跟讀)" numerous times to pick up linking and fluency of pronunciation; we have to look up in the dictionary and go through a few silly example sentences before we master the vocab; we have to be very patient when filling up those dull grammar practices in order to use it without thinking. That kind of philosophy that says "let's just talk, just hang out" does not suit us: we are adults who struggle to learn in a non-English-speaking environment; spontaneous learning is designed for small children who grow up in places such as Singapore.

I think the club in general is afraid of doing things that are difficult and demanding. My suggestion will be to add some "dull" activities, activities that will make you work, shatter your brain, cause you a concussion. The conversational part should remain, but can be down to 30 minutes and pushed to the last. This has a psychological effect: speech will come out after hard work, and after hard work it's time to relax.

Consider these two activities:

Speak grammar up (first 30 minutes): Has any of you got a decent grammar book? Photocopy a page or focus on one grammar point, and use your creativity to come up with different ways of drilling through speaking out. This is normally what I enjoy most when preparing for class. Remember some of my tricks? I still believe grammar practice is a much better way to warm up than chit-chatting.

Reading and thinking (1 hour): From the book I gave you, pick an article or an issue that interests you. Don't have to pre-read it, just do a close reading together on the spot. Stop every one or two paragraphs to discuss. Language problems aside, what should come into the discussion is what you think about what the article says. Most of the articles are very opinionated, and in contrast with the following ones. This is going to be difficult, and that may be a good thing for the club: time to challenge yourselves.

One last thing: form your own ideas out of my ideas. I'm not even a club member; I have just been being honest and telling you what I think about the club, but that doesn't mean that's the only way to get out of the bottleneck. Also, keep in mind that other club members may still prefer the easy way; then you just have to throw out the ideas and defend your own philosophy--which itself is a pretty good English activity.

All the best,
Yenney

廖佳樺 說：
Dear Yenney,
Thank you for your advice ...I hope I could find some time to do it.(I will try^^)
and also thanks for telling us your life time there. we all missing you badly^^
By the way, if you are free, would you like to also give the E-concussion some advice.
I am afraid that we must be face a bottleneck.I am thinking about using the book that Leo got from you.
But I don't know what is the good way to use it.
Everyone seems so busy, I don't know if we have time to read it by oneself.
Best regards,
Amy

2007/06/13 Club contents


Part 1: Detectives and Suspects game

Story: The most precious diamond ring was stolen on Wednesday night at 9:25.
Rules: Detectives have to to find out who is the real thief. They can think up any questions they’re going to query and they can also change the person they are asking.

Suspect group: Leo, James and Shavia
In order to answer detectives’ questions we listed down a common schedule of
Leo, Shavia and James. And we chose Leo is the real thief. Below is the schedule:
6:00 ~ 6:50: Leo is at the office.
6:50 ~ 7:00: Leo went to the Mcdonald by foot.
7:00 ~ 8:30: Leo held a gathering with James and Shavia for dinner in the
Mcdonald restaurent nearby Taipei main station. And we sat at a table not by the windows.

What we ate: Leo – Big Mac(麥香堡).
Shavia – Spicy chicken burger(勁辣雞腿堡)
James - Chicken McNuggets(麥克雞塊)
And we all ordered Fries and Cokes.
What we wore: Leo – formal wear (white shirt and black pants and shoes)
Shavia – Brown dress
James – White and green striped Polo shirt and jeans.
8:31 ~ 9:00: We went to a pub nearby 美麗華 shopping mall by taxi. The fare was NT 300 and it took us 30 minutes to arrive.
9:00 ~ 11:00: We were in a pub called “Mos”, there was a costume party and the entrance fee was NT 500 each.

Which roles we played: Leo – a pirate
Shavia – a witch
James – Batman
hat we drank: Leo – ながしまice tea (長島冰茶)
Shavia – Fruit Punch
James – Deep bomb(深水炸彈)
After 11:00: We went home by taxi separately.

Part 2: Talking about everyone’s opinions about “Life”.

1. Wally: He thinks running his wine business is the most important things for the moment. It took him 2 years to prepare establishing his own wine company.

2. Leo: Leo told about his motto. That was “Do all the present works well and if he has free time, then think about his future”. He also shared his old and new jobs.

3. Joyce: She wants to experience as many things as possible in her life. She also told us that she hated some of her personalities, like impatient and prideful. She wanted to train her EQ.

4. Sharon: Sharon wants to be an individual travelle. She likes to travel around the world alone with less Chinese people. So she needs to earn enough money to accomplish her dreams. She is working in an environment protection company which produces corn-made plastic bags.

**New glossaries:
澱粉：amylum; starch。
釀酒廠: winery
分解(使腐爛)：Decompose
驕傲,自大: pride: (n.)
自助旅行:Individual travel
驕傲的,自負的,自豪的,得意的proud: (adj.)
類比：Analog
數位：Digital

Part 3: discussion
1.To invite new friends to join our club – Passed.
(Agreed by Leo, Shavia, James, Joyce, Zoe, Wally, Carey and Sharon.)
2.Decide who are the hosts in the following 4 weeks.
6/27: Joyce & Zoe
7/4: Shavia & Wally
(Joyce told us that she had a Japanese friend who is going to visit her. So after she checked with her friend maybe we’ll change the club time to 7/3 with her Japanese friend.)
7/11: Leo & James
7/18 : Carey & Sharon

Others:
1.We’re going to have a gathering in the bar with Yenney in 6/20 or 6/27. James will ask Yenney and then decide the date.

***********************************************************************
Detective group: Carey, Sharon, Joyce, Wally

We discuss the questions below:
1.What time and which place did you meet?
2.What kind of activity did you have?
3.What kind of transportation did you use?
4.Why you have this gathering and who hold it?
5.After the gathering, where are you going to?
6.How’s your feeling about the gathering?
7.How about your economy situation?
8.What seat did you have in the restaurant?

After query, we guess James is the real thief, because he have different gathering time from others, but we failed. The real thief is Leo.

Part 2: Talking about everyone’s opinions about “Life” and “Dream”

Shavia: She thinks learning is endless, and dreams of be a vocal in a band, she still keeping seeking the information about vocal or instruments class to fix her dream.

Zoë: She tried to face every thing genuine, and dreams of work around the world, can travel everywhere also work. and looking forward to learn architecture design.

James: James said “Never regret” is the principle that he obeyed, and dreams of travel around the world. And he also creates beautiful melody by guitar.

Carey: Carey said her belief is “Attitude is pretty important” not only in work conditions but also in life, and her dreams of be an ordinary people.

By the way, It’s so glad to have Shavia’s opinion about how to catch our dreams, she gave us some good advice such as try to try everything and chew over the reality as well. Thanks a million Shania ! and hope everyone can make your dreams come true.

**New Word:
詳細考慮: chew over
默契: an unspoken consensus