New Group – FUSION tai qi gong beginners

FUSION Tai Qi Gong combines two ancient methods for enhancing health and wellbeing - Qi Gong and Tai Chi. Qi Gong involves calming the mind and gently working the body in harmony with the breath. Tai Chi is a moving meditation, involving a sequence of movements and postures to enhance mental and physical wellbeing. Together and practised regularly (at least once a week if possible) they are proven to maintain and enhance health.

There is an existing FUSION (Intermediate) Group which has been learning these routines for over a year, and demand means a second group is now starting for those new to these disciplines. Only a basic level of general health is needed to get started, and the weekly Zoom classes cover a short warm up, some Qi Gong Exercises, and learning the Tai Chi 10 and the Tai Chi Yang Style 24 which is the World's most popular form of Tai Chi, practised by tens of millions of people. The latter has been adapted slightly to make it easier to learn and practice over Zoom, whilst retaining all of the proven health benefits.

Thursdays at 10:00 am for an hour.

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New group – Ancient Greek for beginners

Have you ever wanted to read the Odyssey or Plato’s Republic in the original Greek, but can’t because you don’t know enough Greek? This group aims to take the absolute beginner from zero knowledge to a working knowledge of Ancient Greek. A schedule of meetings will shortly be available.

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New group – Irish language for beginners

The group is for people with little or no knowledge of Irish

The first meeting will be on the 10^th August and thereafter on the 2^nd and 4^th Monday of the month at 5:00 pm.

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New group – Greek myths

The ancient Greek myths, as told by Hesiod and Homer amongst others, have inspired countless works of art over the span of 2,500 years or more. One of the joys of wandering an art gallery is realizing that, without looking at the information plaque, you can tell what a painting is about from your knowledge of the myths. But what is the enduring power of these tales?

This series of talks, beautifully illustrated with works of art, will explore the interwoven myths from the creation to the time of heroes. There will be eight talks in all, two each month on days to be set.

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New group – Spanish fluency – intermediate plus

This is a group for those who have at least an intermediate level of Spanish (CEFR levels B1 or B2). You can test your Spanish level (free, no email required) at Lengalia.

This starts with level A1/A2 (basic), then, provided you’re at level A2, continues to B1/B2, (then C1, if you want to challenge yourself). It includes audio clips.

Each session of this conversation group will be based around a theme. The emphasis will be on improving confidence and fluency in speaking Spanish. There will be some reminders of grammatical structures and suggestions for improvement of pronunciation.

The aim is to:

• Participate in guided discussions (with prompts, as required).
• Benefit from positive correction and vocabulary expansion.
• Improve your level of Spanish (towards B2/C1) by improving fluency, accuracy, and confidence.
• Enjoy speaking and improving your Spanish.

Wednesdays at 10:00 am.

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New group – German fortgeschrittene

Dieser Unterricht beinhaltet Lesen, Sprechen, Schreiben und Grammatikübungen.

Wir lesen Artikel, die wir online finden, Märchen und Bücher. Viel Spaß!

This class contains reading, speaking, writing and grammar exercises. We read articles we find online, fairy tales and books. Enjoy!

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New group – The Odyssey

Odysseus, king of Ithaca, has been away from home for twenty years, ten fighting in the Trojan War, ten lost at sea. After many adventures, he returns home to deal with 108 suitors, seeking his wife Penelope's hand in marriage. One of two major epic poems attributed to Homer (the other is the Iliad), it is one of the oldest surviving works of literature. Over 12109 lines, originally in Homeric Greek, the poem deals with themes of wandering, return and homecoming, guest-friendship, testing and omens. In this group, we will work our way through the poem (in English!), discussing the themes and characters.

Read the first 75 lines of Daniel Mendelsohn's translation of The Odyssey here. 

More information to follow regarding meeting dates and times.

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New course – English: the first 4,000 years – and perhaps a few more!

Why are Welsh and Bengali surprisingly similar? What do a newt, an adder and an orange have in common? Why did English suddenly become less like German in the 12th century – and could all our consonants eventually turn into glottal stops?

These are just some of the questions explored in English: the first 4,000 years, a popular IGO group returning for another journey through the extraordinary history of our language.

This year, there was so much interest that the journey has started a little earlier. A short pre-course, running until 28 September, takes the story even further back to explore what came before Proto-Indo-European (PIE), the reconstructed ancestor of a huge family of languages spoken today. Beginning with the Yamnaya and the peoples of the Caucasus and Lower Volga, it considers the importance of developments such as the horse and the wheel – and looks at the scientific evidence linguists use to reconstruct a language that was never written down. Perhaps English: the first 6,000 years might eventually be a more appropriate title!

The main course begins on Monday 28 September, with sessions held weekly on Mondays from 6:00 pm to 7:30 pm. It follows the academic year, drawing on the curriculum used by speech and language therapists, and traces the development of English from its distant origins right through to the rapidly changing language of today.

Along the way, the group will investigate how sounds and words change, how many vowel sounds English really has, and how infants acquire an instinctive understanding of language before they can even speak. At the other end of the timeline come tech acronyms, cyberpunk and the challenge faced by the Oxford English Dictionary in keeping pace with the language of programmes such as Love Island. Is our language progressing, or are we simply getting lazy? Will we ever stop swearing – and whatever happened to blasphemy?

Sessions alternate between history and linguistics. The history-themed sessions take place in weeks 1, 3, 5 and so on and are suitable for anyone interested in following the story of English. The even-numbered linguistics sessions go into greater depth and are more challenging. As the group leader puts it, if you think you could manage a good GCSE in Latin and another in German, you should cope. If not, you can simply follow the history sessions once a fortnight.

The pre-course is already under way, but members interested in joining the journey can find the full session plan here

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Quiz - August connections

1. In which century was Rule Britannia first sung? 17th, 18th or 19th?
2. Born in 1957 which snooker player was the first to earn £1 million from the game?
3. Maureen O’Hara the Dublin born actress was born in 1920. What was the title of the film set in Ireland in which she co starred with John Wayne?
4. In which century was Liverpool created as a borough? 13th, 14th, or 15th?
5. In what country was Mother Teresa of Calcutta born in 1910?
6. At which site, recently in the News, did Sir Bernard Lovell, born in 1913, develop airborne radar deployed in WW2
7. Mary Shelley had an August birthday first in which century? 17th, 18th, or 19th?
8. Spell August using the international words from the NATO phonetic alphabet, for each letter

Answers at the end

Blackberry gin

• 350g Blackberries, fresh or frozen,
• 150g sugar,
• 700m bottle of gin

Step 1

Tip the blackberries and sugar into a 1.5-litre sterilised jar. Pour over the gin, seal the jar and swirl around to dissolve the sugar. Store in a cool, dark place and turn the jar once a day for the first week.

Step 2

After two-three weeks, strain the gin through a sieve. Pour the gin into bottles, and label. The gin will keep its colour for a few months and will be drinkable for up to a year. Use the infused blackberries in a cocktail like a bramble, or in a trifle.

Quiz answers

1. 1740, the 18th century

2. Steve Davis

3. The Quiet Man

4. 1207, 13th century

5. Albania

6. Jodrell Bank

7. 1797, 18th century

8. Alpha, uniform, golf, uniform, sierra, tango