2010年1月13日水曜日

Reflection


I learn about UK in this semester. The most interesting thing that I study on this course, the class system of the British society. The class system of UK is very rigid. it is clearly different from other societies' class systems. The most surprising thing that I study is that the upper class is only 1% in the Britain. the image of "upper" in Japanese is very different. I imaged "upper class has a lot of money, of cause, but if we work very hard, and we have a big success in our business, we can join the upper class people. However, I realized that the "upper class" in UK is higher than that I imaged. They have a lot of money, and they do not work hard, because their job is "protect the their property and continue their genealogy". They have a big power to the government of the UK, and they also speak beautiful English, because they take a education that is different from the people of other classes. Therefore, if people of other classes work really hard, and they can get a lot of money, they can not join the upper class, because upper class people have a blood from generation to generation. It is really traditional and interesting system in UK.
    
     
The Universties of UK is also interesting for me. There are two famous ancient universities in UK. The Unversity of Oxford and The University of cambrige. these universities have long history, it is more than 800 years old. This two universities have many similarities and same points, for example, the collede system, boat race and so on. The traditional universities have a lot of interesting events, system, and buildings. I was really surprised about many things about these ancient universities.
    
    
I studied UK has great, traditional culture. It has very long history. I think it is great, because people learn the history of thier own country form dailylife. I think that we should learn the mind that the people of UK value the old things and tradition.

2009年12月16日水曜日

The languages of UK

The maun language of UK is English. 70% of peple in UK speak English. However there are some minority languages in UK.


For example

●Welsh
●Scots
●Gaelic
●Manx
●Cornish

but Manx and Cornish has died out.

Welsh


Welsh is spoken by 19-20% speakers. This is a branch of the Celtic languages spoken in Wales.

There are speakers of Welsh in Great Britain, the United States, canada, and New Zealand, but the number of speakers are not so many. In 1991, the the number of Welsh-speaker was about 19 per cent. however, in 2001, the number rose to 21 per cent. This result is good thing for the minority language.

The reason of rise of speakers is that the primary school
has a education program of welsh. the TV program also
help thet, so the number of speakers aged between 3-15 rose.


In the south, There are not so much Welsh-speakers, but
in midland, Welsh is spoken more naturally.




reference:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Welsh_language
http://users.comlab.ox.ac.uk/geraint.jones/about.welsh/
.

2009年11月25日水曜日

Girl's school


The famous girl's schools in UK are Cheltenham, Roedean, Benenden, Wycombe, and Abbey school.
Wycombe Abbey School
Wycombe Abbey is one of the most famous independent girls' schools in Britain. Since 1896, the Wycombe Abbey school has been forefront of girl's education. The founder is Dame Frances Dove.
It is boarding school.
"'You're always with your friends''
"Less time commuting to school and more time doing something more interesting!"
This is the reason that Wycombe Abbey school is boarding school.


Club
Aerobics/ Fitness /Training (UV up) /Athletics /Kickboxing (over 14s)
Badminton /Life Saving /Ballet /Polo
Basketball /Riding /Climbing/ Rifle Club (over 14s)
Dance Club /Rowing /Fencing /Sailing
Football /Self-defence/ Golf /Street Dance
Gym Club /Squash /Hockey Club
Judo/ Swimming/Karate /Trampolining

Computer club /International cinema club
Flying /Caledonian Society (Calsoc)/ Green society
Orchestras/ Choirs /Choral Group
...and more
There are a lot of clubs and societies in Wycombe Abbey school.

●Curriculum

English/mathematics/chemistry/Physics/Biology
History/Spanish/German/French/Classics
Geography/Drama/Religious Studies/Music
Physical Education/Design Technology/ICT
History of Art/Art and Design/Economics
Government and Politics/Critical Thinking/PSHCE