September 22 was our eleventh birthday. Although we did not really celebrate it, we received the best birthday present ever: we had a chance to welcome our new organizer, Nóra. If you want to witness how she brings fantastic new vibes to our club, join us on any of the TAKE FIVE Thursdays.
The fifth session of the spring season was organized at Vault 51, a gamer bar in downtown Budapest, which definitely has a nostalgic feel with its uncanny resemblance to one of our former regular venues. We have set another record with a total of 25 people in the room throughout the night. The last time we reached the same number was more than two years ago, in the March of 2020. After a year-long struggle with low attendance, cancellations and online sessions, we were thrilled to have such a big group in our club. As usual nowadays, we had a chance to welcome visitors from abroad. Besides our recurring members, there were new people from Ukraine, Germany and even the United States, which means that we had a native speaker on board again!
As you know, we like to reflect on current issues. This time our game section revolved around the elections. The groups were asked to form their own ‘wacky’ party and give a short campaign speech. In the end, we cast our votes and dropped them into a nice ballot box made by Balázs. In all likelihood the rest of our sessions will be organized at the same place, but you will find all necessary information either here or on our Facebook page.
TAKE FIVE opened its doors in the fall of 2011 and has gone an incredibly long way ever since. Over the course of ten years, the little group of enthusiastic university students turned into a major biweekly event with people from all around the world. TAKE FIVE has been here for a decade to provide a venue for language learners as well as foreigners seeking new friends in Hungary. With nearly 200 sessions behind our backs, we celebrated our birthday with an extraordinary event at Muzikum on September 23rd. Besides some of our regular activities, we amused our guests with fun quiz games to revisit a few milestones down memory lane. We would like to thank Szilvia Liska for the wonderful photos, and also our faithful members for choosing us every second Thursday.
After a seemingly endless period of stagnation and mild despair, the club is finally coming back to life! This Thursday we had the opportunity to welcome not only long-lost old members, but we had a number of new people in the house as well, including three international students. The topic of the night was ‘gaming curfew’, a regulation to limit children’s screen time in China. It was a one-in-a-million chance that one of the new visitors turned out to be straight from China, so she got to share her first-hand experience with us. We can’t wait to see everybody again!
If you want to become part of the unadulterated TAKE FIVE atmosphere that used to fill the room before the pandemic hit, don’t hesitate to join us two weeks from now. Please find the latest event on Facebook to make sure you receive all the important updates.
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We had a fantastic time on Thursday at Nehru part. This was the second ever picnic style session in the history of our club. The introductory section revolved around music, but we also brought back some old favorites, such as … Continue reading
Last Thursday was the second session of the spring season, and we were delighted to see that nearly 20 people joined us again, with a number of newcomers on board. In case you are a TAKE FIVE veteran, you may spot two new items in the room. The first one is a digital clock, and the second one is our brand new feature: the word of the day. At the beginning of each session we select somebody to say a random word which will later serve as an overarching theme for the night.
This time our session revolved around the topic of health and diseases, as we always like to reflect on current issues. In the game section, for instance, the groups were asked to come up with a ‘wacky’ disease for which they offered possible treatments, too. Combined with our word of the day, we had two variants of the “rainbow disease”. By the end we were struggling with breathing problems as we returned to our all-time favorite: Scattergories. Join us next time to become part of the fun!
This summer we decided to inject some authentic real-life experience into our regular intensive English course. Since the third session of TAKE FIVE coincided with our course, the students left the classroom for a night and joined the English club, where they mingled with the crowd and had a great time. Meanwhile, we marked another long-awaited record of 22 attendees.
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Ladies and Gentlemen, allow us to present to you a fine selection of the professional photographs taken at a special event celebrating the 5th birthday of the TAKE FIVE – English Language Club. All the credits go to Szilvia Liska.
Ah, how soon the summer goes by. You just blink one – because the darned sweat got into your eyes – and another one (damned blinding sunlight, I can’t open my eyelids, my pupils will disappear) and it’s gone. But don’t worry, TAKE FIVE will resume soon on the 22nd of September! Don’t forget, it will be a special occasion:
The name of the club is TAKE FIVE, so you can imagine what the fuss is about. There will be a special topic and everything. And speaking of topics: the Topic Hat is about to run out, so we look to you to help us! If you have an idea, don’t hesitate to send it to one of the organisers.
Until then, you have a choice: you can read the brief summer summary, or if you have the time, why not read the longer, creative writing approach featuring the dystopian apocalyptic future.
So, for the short summary:
The summer went pretty well. After serious consideration and evaluating several options, we chose to have the first occasion in Muzikum. We had no idea that we would like the place so much that all of the summer sessions would be there. But we did and it was a good choice. We always had a summer themed game: a whacky summertime invention, a summertime cocktail or a summertime photo album that the members had to act out. Also, the organisers got in touch with their musical side, and after rewriting the lyrics to Walk Off the Earth’s Little Boxes, they performed the new version of the song titled Little Mushrooms. Towards the end most people must have been on holiday, as there were a bit fewer people than before. But that was never a problem, and we had fun nonetheless. All in all, it was a good summer to look back on, and now it’s time to look forward to the autumn (or fall for those who prefer US English) season. See you then!
(you can read the creative writing summary below the pictures)
The days of the scorch are gone. We get a few afterburns every now and then, but that’s about it. The long haul to the everlasting winter and soulless cold has begun. Say what you want about heat, but at least it has a soul. It lives, pulsates around you, and like most living things, it can kill you. But I’d rather die at the hands of something that at least gives the impression of life rather than just a passive destructive force, like cold. It’s not even destructive… it just forces out all life. Like darkness, it creeps up, non-threatening at first, but then you find yourself cornered into a small hole, and you know it’s gonna be over soon. Best you can do is hope, but all you can do is fend off insanity. Well, some can do it, anyway. Not all of us. But now’s not the time to reminisce. Now’s the time to try and do whatever we can. For whatever reason you can tell yourself. Tell it hard enough, you might just believe it.
We rounded up whomever we could find. As the deserts started freezing over, it became easier. Those that survived came looking our way. Of course we can’t stay long in one place – I can already feel the ground here getting colder and colder each morning. All life shrivelling up, becoming a frozen memento of what it once was. Soon that would be us. Unless we come up with something. If there is anything to come up with.
I was tasked with gathering information. Whatever information I could get my hands on: art, manuals, a kid’s drawing on a freakin’ fridge, a flyer for some club. I got some good stuff over the time. It isn’t much, but then again, my whole mission is crazy. It is meant to guide those that will come after us. The future generations, maybe the ones born during the fall, perhaps even children of the winter. You never know when you might visit for the first time. You never know how long you might stay.
This one thing I found, it’s really interesting. Reminds me of a world I used to know. Used to be home. It used to be warm there. It’s just a flyer, nothing fancy. Colourful background, mainly orange. It’s an out of focus picture of people sitting around a table, talking. Having a good time. Once there was writing in the foreground, but the powerful rays of the sun have seen to it that it become faded. All you can make out now are ‘IAK IV’. Although some say the first letter is a ‘T’. Whatever it is, it used to be a language club. During the days of the scorch it was quite popular.
I went down to the archives to find out more about this club. It was pretty much the same until, a few months ago, the name ‘Muzikum’ started popping up. Quite a few people visited the club. Their first meeting there went good enough. That place is pretty good. Dear Lord, back in those days you could go outside without protective gear. They must have enjoyed the sunlight and the warm. Letting it shine over them, heat their skin, fill them with energy. Like a loving caress. A warm hand running over you, yet untouchable. Before it became a strangling, burning grip… This club must have been doing something right. The second time they were at this new place they had even more visitors. I can’t tell much from these pictures, but it seems like they were acting out an imaginary holiday in three frames. Seems like fun. The organisers even rewrote the lyrics to a song and performed it. They also took imaginary trips to alternative universes, like a fairy tale or a superhero universe. How sweet. How innocent. Neither of those words mean much anymore.
Summer was a privilege back then, a time to rejoice and welcome the life it brought. We never thought we could have too much of it. After a while the sessions got homelier with less visitors, as if people were on holiday or something. Still, the club carried on and it looks like good fun. Sometimes they were inside, sometimes they could go outside. Their games are clearly of an era of hope. They always had something related to summer – a summertime cocktail, a summertime invention, summertime this, summertime that. I cringe from the phantom heat burning me just by reading about these.
Well, seems like this club had a good run. They say as the cold came, they moved underground. I suppose that’s as good an idea as any. Who knows, it might even make a difference. They might even carry on, keep humanity together with their English speaking and fun games.
I sometimes think that we won’t make it. More often than not, to be honest. I should be keeping hope alive, but… I don’t know. I don’t know if we can survive on the surface. It will become cold and unwelcoming. The rigid, uncompromising cold will take over, step by step, degree by degree. Those that are not frozen will have to endure for as long as they might, watching their breath billow away from them only to disappear in the chilly air. Just a puff of air, an ominous harbinger of what is to come. Of what will happen to all of us. Snuffed out by the cold, withering and alone, drained of all energy. At least in this club you wouldn’t be alone. If the cold’s about to get you, you may as well have fun and spend your time with a bunch of cool people. I guess that’s better.
I think I’ll go to this ‘IAK IV’ club or ‘TAK IV’ or whatever it was originally called. I need to have a look to see what would I find. If they are still there. Who knows, we may even see the sun again. But at least we’ll be together, no matter what.
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TAKE FIVE — English Language Club 