Tuesday, 23 February 2010

Humour in Our Lives

After a quick survey, our next topic was unanimously chosen in our first MeetUp gathering: Humour.

During Shakespeare’s time, there was a common belief that everybody was controlled by four humours, which were MELANCHOLIC, PHLEGMATIC, SANGUINE and CHOLERIC. They were directly influenced by the quantity of certain liquids in our bodies (respectively black bile, phlegm, blood and yellow bile). So by 1600 it was common to use "humour" as a way of classifying characters.

Meetupspeaker Tania already posted something about that sometime ago, and as I felt that our discussions here should start with what makes us laugh, I decided to bring it back again and ask you, folks, what humour best describes you? Read the analogy below and tell us, which one you are.


Once upon a time four people were walking in the forest when they found a rock in their way. So the MELANCHOLIC, very disappointed, said: “it’s a tragedy, there is a BIG rock in my way! This happens JUST with me! And now what should I do? I’m going to miss my meeting, my life is ruined”. The PHLEGMATIC felt flabbergasted admiring the rock’s beauty; he sat down on it and started dreaming awake. He also thought about some BEAUTIFUL ROCKS that he had seen on his ife and it would be wonderful if his girlfriend were there as well. Then, he breathed deeply the plants smell around him and went away. The SANGUINE, who was oming very overjoyed with the forest fresh air and the beautiful plants that he was seeing, jumped over the rock; he tried to make some dance steps and went away elighted. For sure, in two minutes he had forgotten that INSIGNIFICANT STONE. In the CHOLERIC’S case, upon seeing that STUPID rock, he really got cross, cussing at people who could have taken care of the path and could have removed it. Very furious, he kicked it hurting himself; getting angrier for that, he kicked it again and, suddenly, had a great idea of how to remove it from the path.

Monday, 8 February 2010

WELCOME!

A new year has come and our MeetUp SpeakUP meetings are about to get started once again. If you're crazy about English, or want to keep practising what you have learnt throughout the years, if you're trying to improve your argumentative skills of if you're just looking for an excuse to speak speak and speak English for a couple of hours--this is your club!

No books, no homework, lots of games and discussions about anything we feel like talking about wherever we decide to go. Ask any of our participants, they'll give their words for it!

What are you waiting for? We are very close to resume our 2010 gatherings. Call Yázigi João Pessoa for further information.

See you soon, meetupspeakers!
Teacher Berttoni.