Week 9: Randomness

Originally today's event was supposed to be telling stories with wacky, random pictures, but we decided to let it go... Hahaha!

Instead, we spent some time making a list of simple, useful/slangy phrases in various languages: Japanese, Chinese, Korean, Spanish, German, and Italian!

The rest of the time was kind of an open conversation, but most of us were gathered around one member who was learning the Korean alphabet.

We also talked about some cultural differences in going out and paying. Like, when a group of friends go out to dinner for someone's birthday, who pays the bill? Do the friends pay for the birthday person's meal? Or does the birthday person treat all his/her friends? Or does everyone just pay for his/her own share? Of course, this also led to the question about who pays when a couple goes on a date.
We learned that for weddings in China, the groom's parents generally pay for everything!

Week 7: Early Turkey Feast

...without the turkey. But we did have a lot of other yummy food at the potluck tonight! Homemade pumpkin pie, pad thai, mashed potatoes, fruit, "healthful" cookies, etc.~

We ate and talked, talked, and ate some more. Although there were probably enough seats for everybody to sit (despite having to use several as tables for the food), everyone mostly stood in groups and chatted.

We had a guest from the International Peer Group program come check us out tonight, so maybe we'll see more international students at our future meetings!

Thanks for coming out tonight!
There will be no meeting next week due to the Thanksgiving break. See you week 9!

Week 5: Half and Half

Happy Halloween!
We forgot to send out an email for this week, sorry!

Because of midterms, today's meeting was basically just an open conversation night again. We had movies playing in the background if anyone wanted to watch, but it seemed like most people were simply catching up with each other or meeting new people.

Towards the end though, everyone stopped conversing and started watching The Man from Nowhere together. Gotta go back and watch the beginning some time!

Week 4: Open Convo

Most people are probably having upcoming midterms, so tonight was just an open conversation night. After a short reminder about Queen Mary, everyone pretty much just talked among themselves and enjoyed the snacks (maple cookies!). Conversation night certainly may be the simplest activity LXP can set up, but it's also probably the best way to get to know the people you've met so far and learn about languages and/or cultural differences.

Thanks to those who stopped by! Good luck on all your midterms~

Week 2: Strings of Things

Today we played a language concentration game! We split into two groups, and within each group we went around saying words/phrases in different languages according to the given topics (food, useful phrases, clothing). Of course, it wasn't that simple... We also had to remember and repeat what the people before us said, so in the end we had these long strings of words.

Eventually, our game just turned into various conversations, and we spent the rest of the time talking, snacking, and watching funny videos.

Hopefully you'll remember some of the new words you learned today!
See you next week for pizza and movie night!

Have a great summer~

Sorry I wasn't able to update everyone on the last 2 weeks.  Hopefully everyone is taking care of their finals well.

Week 9, we had the Duan Wu Jie where we ate Zong Zi and learned new vocabulary to make our own story.  It was a depressing and funny story, but a story nonetheless.

Week 10, we went over to Steelhead's Brewery for $5 pizzas.  It was surprising, but we ate it all.

I just want to take the time to thank everyone who came out to our meetings, making new friends, and learning new things.  I would also like to thank the staff members of LXP for sticking around and making an awesome year for the club, for the members, and for me.  It's been an honor being the Web manager and historian of LXP.  Have a great summer everyone and see you around campus next year.

-Trenton

Conversation Night - Technology

Hey everyone, thanks for coming out last night and joining us in our discussion of modern day social networks.  I've heard a lot about twitter in the past, but last night was the first time I actually saw what it actually looked like.

We looked at other social networks both chinese and english.  Afterwards we got a bit into watching videos off of Youtube and reading posts off of Engrish.com and the Fail site.

Next week, we'll be changing our room.  Most likely back to HH 224, so be sure to look out for e-mail and facebook to see where it will be at.  Not sure what we're doing exactly, but I heard something about eating and dragon boat.  Hope to see you all back next week.

-Trenton

Conversation Night - "What's in a Name?"

Hey everyone, thanks for coming out last week for conversation night.  It was good to see some new faces, I hope we keep getting more new members.

Last week, we played "2 truths and a lie" where everyone guesses which one is the lie.  We get to learn interesting facts about each other.  The main event of the night was to learn about what our Chinese (or other native language) name means.  We had a lot of help as many people knew what their Chinese/Japanese/Vietnamese name is.

This week, we will be having drinking games in the same room as last week. (sorry, no alcohol).

-Trenton