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On June 22 we gathered for the opening session of the summer season. As always, we prefer to leave our headquarters in the summer to catch some sunlight. This year we contacted Magvető Café, and booked a few tables to … Continue reading
TAKE FIVE is a place of ambivalence, setting the conflicting aims of raising hard-hitting issues in hopes of inciting heated debates, and at the same time providing an opportunity to chill out at the end of a grueling day playing one of our hilarious games. A bittersweet combination served along with sizzling grilled chicken and steaming tea, just to make the substantial topics easier to swallow.
In the past month our discussions have revolved around crimes, but not ordinary ones – acts that are unlawful from the perspective of jurisdiction, but far not so clear-cut when it comes to common sense.
Juvenile Crime – April 10th
Imagine the unfortunate case of a 10-year-old who finds a loaded pistol at home, and, having watched a few action movies instead of bedtime reading, he sets off to school armed just to show off. Things, however, go off the rail when he encounters his most hated teacher of all down the corridor, and, for some reason, he decides to put an end to the matter by simply pulling the trigger.
Embed from Getty ImagesAmong the flood of questions there are a few to highlight. What happens to the child? He has commited a premeditated crime, but was he fully aware of the consequences? Should he be admitted to a correctional institution or put behind bars? Is a reformatory enough to “fix” his mind? How can we be sure he would not pull the triger again once released?
We concluded that under no circumstances should children be imprisoned. The only feasible way is higher quality correctional facilities, and what’s even more important, children’s seamless reintegration into society should be ensured in the first place.
Copyright Matters – April 24th
“You wouldn’t steal a car. You wouldn’t steal a handbag…” You may remember the short anti-piracy ad before movies on DVDs. Those forty seconds convey the explicit message that stealing a car is no different at all from downloading a movie from the net. This is a logical nonsense in itself. When a car gets stolen, it is no longer there. When a movie is downloaded, however, the source file remains intact – we make a copy.
Embed from Getty ImagesThat’s where the problem of copyrights begin, as it is rather difficult to decide whether an author actually suffers a financial loss in case his work goes viral on the net without its users paying for it. Think of aspiring musicians who use Internet as a diving board into success! Besides discussing personal aspects in groups of two, and clarifying the current related laws in Hungary, we focused more on the above-mentioned approach.
I myself made attempts to challenge every point that supports piracy, but to no avail. It appears that all of the relevant industries somehow benefit from illegal downloads. Many people download a game only to try it out before finally purchasing it. Similarly, if someone falls in love with a song or performer, chances are that he will end up at a concert. Cinemas don’t seem to have run out of viewers either.
“Don’t make people pay for music, says Amanda Palmer: Let them.”
When we were arranging for the Copyright Matters discussion, Nóra posted a TED Talk which I promised her to watch. I must admit that this presentation has been one of my most cathartic TED experiences. Once you watch it, you will understand why. (English and Hungarian subtitles are available.)
Special thanks go to Zoli for helping us as a professional to put together the questions and provide background information for the copyright topic.
Having spent the third evening at CD-FŰ, we can say with certainty that TAKE FIVE has finally settled down. The perfect combination of hospitality, fine tea, tasty grilled chicken, and good music will definitely keep us around for good. Not to mention the genuine post-takefive experience, that is, a few beers (or cokes), and a nice chat with those who are not in a rush. But what has been going on within the walls of the club? You deserve a fair account.
Although the little room behind the bar was bursting at the seams, the first meeting was a great success with a light-hearted, yet fitting topic. The future of reading proved to be intriguing enough to last long and incite arguments of some sort. We discussed everything from e-books through education to private publishing. The following two topics, however, did not live up to our expectations.
a perfectly natural moment of our mentally clear fellow organizer
We seemed to find a solution for the problem of homelessness in twenty minutes. None of us supported its criminalization. In return, we came up with the idea that abandoned buildings, of which many can be found in and around the city, could be distributed to homeless people. As for The Olympic Debts, it turned out that only one or two of us actually keep track of the Olympic events, which made it difficult to go into depth with the topic.
It probably won’t be the case with the next week’s topic – Juvenile Crime –, which is undoubtedly of a more general nature. Imagine yourself in the place of a policeman who is fulfilling his duty in an elementary school and catches an eighth grader red-handed with a packet of white powder. What would you do? You have more than a week to think it over.
The famous Story Cubes. The blue “Action” pack is an edition with mostly everyday activities, while the green “Voyage” pack contains drawings for more far-fetched stories (especially when combined with certain recurring visitors).
No matter how the discussions go, they are always crowned with some amusing game. So far we have played Taboo and Story Cubes, but we are planning to bring back old favorites renewed, such as Alibi or that Activity-like game. We are glad to see that every single time at least one newcomer joins the meeting, what is more, they seem to enjoy their time despite the first… few minutes of embarrassment. Nothing is easier than blending with people in a language club like this!
Stay tuned as we are holding surprises for you outside of the scheduled sessions.
We were still assembling our YouTube playlist when two early birds arrived: Demet, the ever-enthusiastic German lady, and Michelle, a Spanish lady she had dragged along. It was fifteen minutes before 6. We would never have expected anyone to arrive so soon to the first meeting of the season.
A total of ten poeple gathered in the evening of February 27th to discuss the future of reading. We concluded that a gradual switch from printed books to e-books is inevitable, what’s more, we couldn’t come up with any serious arguments against it. The nostalgic feeling of smelling and touching the paper will probably not be sufficient for the books to survive.
We had some fun playing a new game called Story Cubes. It consists of 9 dice, each of them having different pictures on its sides. The task is to roll them all at once and improvise a story starting with “Once upon a time…”
Next week we’ll be discussing the problem of homelessness. See you soon!
TAKE FIVE — English Language Club 