7/18(Sat) Kat's Potluck!

[Luis Ko]

Luis,
You still can't come on Saturday???????????

darn it! i really can't go, unless there's a "second round" or, "third round".. XD

[Rock]

...
Bring beer and your beautiful cute wife.

Only if my wife is as beautiful and cute as Kooper's.

[Lawrencenz Cheng]

Participants of Kat's Potluck ( at Kooper and Gloria's home)

If I miss any lady or gentleman, or anything, please let me know, sorry and thank you.

Joseph
Shirley and her niece and nephe (海鮮煎餅十茶燻鷄)
Jessica
Rosie(lichi or pineapple)
Michael
Wendy and baby
Christina Wu
Johnie
Kat
Lydia
Kooper (watermelon)
Gloria and Polly and Polly's friend (how sweet 巧克力/芋頭奶凍蛋糕)(包子、豆漿)
Iris +2
Tina
Julian
Leon
Gavin (pizza)
Leo Chang
Catherine and Abby ( Thai Papaya Salads)
Lawrencenz (dishes for rock's beer and .....)
Steve (cookies or snacks)
Rock(beer and wife)

[Gloria Lo]

Rock, that's why you are so welcomed by me.



Luis, and everyone,
About second run, you can consider this
7/18（週六）晚上七點半，兩廳院藝文廣場，雲門四十週年紀念舞作---稻禾，戶外公演，免費入場。
http://www.cathaypublic.com.tw/cloudgate/?id=9

[Catherine]

Finally I get to speak on the forum. After a whole week's App Creator workshop, my computer skill had improved a little bit.
Gloria has been busy cleaning up her house this week. Even the fans look brand new!
Rock, we can finally meet your lovely wife!

[Rock]

Sorry, beer only, no wife.

[Gloria Lo]

Yes, I work very very hard to clean up.
Even I myself can hardly recognize it's my home.
We put away almost everything into the closet to make more space containing people. It's a bit like we are going to move.

HAHAHA

[Iris Wu]

Are we allowed to open the closets?
Thanks for your hard work, Gloria!

[Gloria Lo]

(Scream………………)
NO, Y O U C A N'T.

[Rock]

Many many thanks to Kooper and his beautiful wife, and Kat and her beautiful princess Lydia, too. The afternoon yesterday was wonderful. You guys are awesome!!

[Iris Wu]

Thank you, Kat, Lydia, and Kooper/Gloria/Polly!!!

Following are some notes from Synonym (group of words) game, for people who could not make it to the he potluck.
(I might miss something, please feel free to correct me. Thanks!)

Group 1: Stop: Quit, Cease, Halt, Discontinue

• Cease: “cease to exist”
  A dead plant has ceased living, and if you cease watering the rest of the plants, they will cease to exist too.
  You never cease to amaze me.
  Discontinued: (of a product) no longer available or produced.
  iPhone 5 has recently been discontinued.

Group 2: Break: Split, Shatter, Crack, Splinter, Burst

• Split:
  We split the bill. (Each one pays equally.)
  We each pay our own. (Each one pays his/her own part, not necessary equal amount.)
  Shatter: to damage badly; to cause the disruption or annihilation
  The end of his marriage shattered him emotionally.
  She shattered his heart..
  Crack:
  You are a tough nut to crack. After 10 years, I still don't know you.
  (a tough nut to crack: a problem that is very difficult to solve or a person who is very difficult to understand)
  It cracks me up.
  (to make someone suddenly laugh a lot )
  Splinter: (v.) to break into small, sharp pieces
  The edges of the wooden table had cracked and splintered.
  (n.)a small sharp broken piece of wood, glass, plastic or similar material
  The girl had got a splinter (of wood) in her toe.
  Splint (n.) a long flat object used as a support for a broken bone so that the bone stays in a particular position while it heals(固定斷骨的)夾板
  The doctor put a splint on the arm and bandaged it up.
  Burst: to break open or apart suddenly
  Tom was bursting to tell everyone the news.
  Much to my surprise Ben suddenly burst into laughter/tears/song.

Group 3: Pull – Haul, Draw, Tow, Tug

• U-Haul: American rental truck/trailer company.
  Long Haul: Long flight.
  A long-haul flight across multiple time zones can leave passengers feeling jet lagged, sweaty and sore.
  Tug: to pull something quickly and usually with a lot of force
  tug-war, tow with a tugboat
  She tugged the cord until the plug came out of the wall socket.
  There is sort of a tug of war going on inside IBM.
  Tow: to pull someone's vehicle using a rope or chain tied to your vehicle:
  The damaged boat was towed to safety.

Group 4: Push – Propel, shove

• Propel: to push or move something somewhere, often with a lot of force; drive someone to do something
  A rocket propelled through space.
  Another argument to propel me to write may be that the very weight of Twitter followers and website traffic behind me ought to bring with it some sense of civic duty.
  The incident propelled me to move somewhere else.
  Shove (v.): to push someone or something forcefully and with a lot of energy
  The opposing player said something and Chris went over and shoved him.
  Push and shove: use your strength to get in, force yourself in; do everything in your power to get to the destination, to achieve goal etc.
  If you can't get through, you're stuck, push and shove, you'll get there quicker.

Others:

• Shed: to cast off hair, feathers, skin, or other covering or parts by natural process.
  Does your hair shed too much?
  Do certain types of hair shed more than others?
  Jinx: to bring bad luck to; A superstitious term meaning to give something bad luck or misfourtune.
  Don't jinx it!
  He hadn't got a bad grade all year, but by mentioning that to his friend he jinxed it.
  Tuck in: to fold or stuff something into something
  Please tuck your shirttail into your pants.
  When you make the bed, you have to tuck the sheets in.

[Kooper]

As usual, Kat and Lydia brought us another refreshing English learning gathering. The games were a lot of fun and very informative. We really luck out to have Kat and Lydia guide us.

I feel that Kat and Lydia truly know where our weaknesses are and have tried wholeheartedly to help us overcome them - through the potluck, previous two boot camps, or the YoYo meetings that they hosted or attended. For example, the verb groups that we drew yesterday contain many words that I shall know but I am not familiar yet. The practice of self-introduction, the mimicry of intonation and pronunciation, learning of the differences among synonyms and meanings of idioms that are commonly used by native speakers, error correction sessions with the attempt to recognize our fossilized errors … all of them point me toward areas where I least master. They were delicately designed and cater to my need.

Thank you Kat and Lydia for what you have done to us!

[Kat C]

Iris and Kooper, you're amazing. You not only work diligently on your own learning, you share your insights so generously with others. I truly admire that.

Thank you, and all Yoyos, for making Lydia and I feel so appreciated, when all we did was spending time in such a fun and friendly group. You're our Taiwan family!

Here're a few more tips I was going to share at the potluck but didn't get to:

(1) 5 minutes a day beats one hour once a week.

Research shows that learning language in relatively small chunks over an extended period of time (distributed learning) is more effective than doing large chunks of material at one time (massed learning). So whatever you do, use English at least 5 minutes a day! Don't underestimate how much the mere 5 minutes can get you. Most learners go days without even a word of English, and only "study" for hours when they go, "oops! I'd better get back to it." By then their English has gone rusty again.



I'll post some suggestions in a new thread on this.

(2) Tackle an area you're not familiar with.

You love sports, so you know lots of sports English. You watch American TV all the time but only one show or one genre. Then it's time you venture out! English is English life. People do all sorts of things and talk about them. I suck at math and any medical stuff, so my knowledge - along with vocabulary - really lack on those fronts. Go on to English sites with things you're least interested in. Once you know a bit more, your interest might grow too!


So there you have it. Thanks again to all. We really look forward to seeing you tomorrow!

Kat