TEXTBOOK/WEB Absolutely British The Occult and Other Scary Stuff The First Americans Out and About / Hawaii Spotlight on School / Canada
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ABSOLUTELY BRITISH Rule, Britannia! Rule, Britannia! Britannia, rule the waves! Britons never, never, never shall be slaves. When Britain first, at heaven's command, Arose from out the azure main, This was the charter of the land, And Guardian Angels sang this strain: (Chorus) The nations not so blest as thee
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Must, in their turn, to tyrants fall, While thou shalt flourish great and free: The dread and envy of them all.
God Save the Queen God save our gracious Queen, Long live our noble Queen, God save the Queen! Send her victorious, Happy and glorious, Long to reign over us, God save the Queen!
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ProjectBritain.com – A resource of British http://projectbritain.com
Exploring Britain on the World Wide Web +
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The Internet is amazing! Of course one can get lost out there. Some pages are way too boring or difficult to read. Some pages are just trying to get you to buy all sorts of Oxford Observ stuff. But blimey, some pages are brilliant! http://OxfordObservationsblogspot.dk One website is from Woodlands Junior School in Tonbridge, Kent. They evidently did a project on Britain and collected information about everything you can think of. It looks as though some of the pages were made by the teachers and some by the kids. All of the pages are clear and easy to understand.
It’s got everything! Some of the topics you can click around in are: Customs & Traditions Etiquette Superstitions Royal Family Daily Life Glossary – Check out blimey.
h Life and Culture in the UK by Woodlands Junior Læser
A to Z
vations
Introduction to Britain
Daily Life
Læser
Food
Royal Family
Weather
London
Calendar of Events
Tourist Information
Union Flag
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Queen's Guards
Symbols
Superstitions
Money
Pubs
School
Glossary
Folklore
Customs & Traditions
Etiquette
Government
Transport
American/ British words
King Arthur and The Knights of The Round Table
The Sword in the Stone
The Knights of the Round Table
The first sign that Arthur was special was in connection with a special sword that was embedded in an anvil outside St. Paul’s Cathedral in London. The sword was engraved with the words: “Whoso Pulleth Out This Sword of this Stone and Anvil is Rightwise King Born of All England”. Many tried to pull the sword from the anvil, but 15year old Arthur was the only one who succeeded. Finally Arthur was crowned King of England.
Arthur married the lovely Guinevere. Her father, King Leodegrance of Camilard, gave them a round table as a wedding present. Knights were used to competing with one another to be the best. Perhaps that is why Arthur decided to use the round table when his knights were gathered for meetings. That way nobody actually sat at the head of the table, not even Arthur. That was brilliant!
The legend of King Arthur is a favourite of the British. It tells about how his father, King Uther, turned Arthur over to Merlin, the wizard, when he was a baby. Merlin took Arthur to be brought up by Sir Ector out in the countryside. When Uther died, no one knew that Arthur was actually heir to the throne. Many local leaders called themselves kings and wanted to rule after Uther.
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The Code of Chivalry Chivalry is a set of ideals or rules of behaviour that we associate with knights. Among the virtues knights aspired to have were: honour: to have high moral standards honesty: to always tell the truth and never cheat or steal valour: to be courageous, especially in war loyalty: to remain faithful to one’s friends, principles and country. Chivalry is the basis of good manners in Western society.
Merlin Merlin was a good wizard or sorcerer. When Arthur was a boy, Merlin was his teacher. When Arthur was king, Merlin served as his friend and advisor. Some tales say that Merlin lived life backwards. That meant that he knew all about the future.
GB – Who’s Who? There are so many famous Brits that it’s impossible to keep track of all of them. Here are a few – old and new – for starters.
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ot to ) has g (1962- standd r a z Eddie Iz the funniest full of of er. He’s ing to v be one e s n eth edia up com and has som topic you s y e n is a r t p bou sur t just a u o b a y sa k of. can thin
Queen Victoria (1819-1901) ruled Britain for nearly 64 years – the Victorian era. Some associate it with prudishness, but it was also the beginning of Modern Times.
David Beckham (1975- ) is a world famous English footballer, former star of Manchester United and member of the jet set.
John Lennon (1940-1980) was a musician and composer, first for The Beatles and then on his own and with Yoko Ono. He promoted peace and love, but was murdered
William o and Ka f Wales (1982 te Midd leton (1 ) finally, 982- ) after e ight ye courtsh ars of ip they ha , announced t d beco me eng hat while o aged n holid ay in K in Octo enya be marrie r 2010. They were d on Ap ril at Wes tminste 29, 2011, r Abbe y.
Sir Winston Ch urchill (1874-1965) w as a politician, a so ldier and an artist. He was Britain’s Prim e Minister during WWII.
Keir a for s Knightly core (1985 so Beck ham f your fa ) is a wo , Pira w of vour it a tes o f the es, like B n actress Carib end i famo tL bean us and K ike ing A rthur .
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Vintage Clothing
Go green in style - with second-hand clothing and vintage collectables. Have you got your own style, your own idea of what clothes appeal to you and how to wear them?
British blokes and birds with limited funds and a hang for personal style have found high quality alternatives to mainstream fashion. Why pay more when there are plenty of places to shop for second-hand and vintage scoops in London? Camden Markets and Bermondsey Market are famous flea markets where it’s lots of fun to go bargain hunting. You can also find charity shops like Oxfam, The Salvation Army, British Red Cross and Crusaid. So, rummage through the piles, spot the best buys, then mix and match to create your own funky, groovy personal style.
Not lucky enough to be in London? How about arranging a fashion swap party? All you need is a place to hold it, some blank cards, pens in three different colours and a non-transparent bowl. Groovy music and some snacks are a good idea, too. 15
STEP 1 Set the date and talk it up. Invite everyone you think might have some cool clothes.
STEP 4 Once everyone has arrived, it’s time for them to put their cards into a bowl.
Jody and Expensive, then Jody gets to take one thing from the Expensive pile.
STEP 2 Prepare space for three categories of clothes to trade: Cheap, Middle and Expensive. Decide on a colour for each category, for example red, blue and green.
STEP 5 It’s time for you to put on some cool music and get out the snacks. The snacks can be things your guests have brought or something you provide.
STEP 3 You will also need a bunch of blank cards and a pen or magic marker in each of the three colours. As participants arrive with the things they want to trade for something “new”, they put each item in the pile that suits it best. For each item they place in a pile, they get to take a card and write their name on it with the pen in that colour.
STEP 6 Now for the bowl. Mix the cards well. Have the person to your left reach in and pull out a card.
STEP 8 After Jody has made her choice, the bowl is passed to the left and the next person picks a name card. That person makes his/her choice – and so on until all the cards have been drawn and acted upon.
STEP 7 The person whose name is on the card gets to pick whatever they want from the pile that has the same colour as their name on the card. If the card says
STEP 9 If there is anything that is not spoken for, it is the job of the host/hostess to see to it that the leftovers are delivered to a charitable organization.
Manga Shakespeare Emma Vieceli is a comic artist from Cambridge. So far, she has created manga versions of two of Shakespeare’s plays, Hamlet and Much Ado About Nothing. How do the old master’s plays fare in this contemporary medium? Remarkably well – and perfect for today’s teenagers! Emma is a huge fan of Shakespeare. She studied literature at university, did her final thesis on Shakespeare, became an actress and acted in his plays and is determined to do justice to his texts – especially their sub-text or underlying meaning. Emma’s illustrations help the reader to understand the stories. In her mangas you will find the vital parts of Shakespeare’s original text. That will give you a feeling for the language in which he wrote. Emma’s illustrations fully make up for the text she has left out.
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Emma & Hamlet!
Emma Vieceli shares her thoughts about the place in the play where Hamlet is thinking out loud about his dilemma. It’s the speech where he says the famous words: “To be or not to be… That is the question.”
FACTS ABOUT MANGA Manga is the Japanese word for comics and print cartoons. Literally translated it means 'random or whimsical pictures'. Manga has become more and more popular since the end of World War II.
He's saying basically, 'shall I carry on living or shall I kill myself?' He's got so much going on in his head that he just doesn't know. So, I thought that he's having this angst; he's thinking about killing himself, so I've drawn this image of two Hamlets, one kind of killing the other one – bringing out what he's thinking by using the visuals. Manga versions of more than a dozen of Shakespeare’s plays have been created by different artists. Typical for them is that the story has been updated as to time and place. Hamlet, for example, is set in the year 2107.
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Banksy – a street artist with a message No street artist is as famous and infamous as the elusive Banksy. To some a genius, to others a vandal. Banksy is a mystery. His identity has never been established, and his face is obscured in pictures. Where Zorro wore a mask, Banksy wears a hoodie. The story about Banksy presumably starts in Bristol, where he sprayed walls, was expelled from school, and went to prison for petty theft. Rumour has it that one day when he was hiding under a car, he saw a stencil on the chassis. The stencil gave him the idea for a faster way to do graffiti and to make it more artistic. He then painted walls in London with policemen kissing, Prime Minister Churchill with a Mohawk, soldiers painting a peace sign. You’ll notice that his art has very clear social and political messages. As a sworn “guerrilla” artist, Banksy is an anti-capitalist. Nonetheless, admirers like Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt, who seem to collect his work, have paid him $ 500,000 for a piece of his work. A Sotheby's auction dealer has called him "the quickestgrowing artist anyone has ever seen of all time".
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What’s so funny? Humour is closely connected with language and culture. It can be completely mystifying to people from other countries.
Jokes based on misunderstanding Hotel Guest: Can you give me a room and a bath, please? Receptionist: I can give you a room, but you'll have to take your own bath. *************************************** Postman: Is this letter for you? The name is smudged. Man: No, it can't be for me, my name is Smith.
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*************************************** An Essex girl was driving down the A13 when her car phone rang. It was her boyfriend, urgently warning her, "Treacle, I just heard on the news that there's a car going the wrong way on the A13. Please be careful!" "It's not just one car!" said the Essex girl, "There's hundreds of them!" *************************************** Three tourists were driving through Wales. As they were approaching, they started arguing about the pronunciation of the town's name. They argued back and forth until they stopped for lunch. As they stood at the counter one asked the blonde employee, "Before we order, could you please settle an argument for us? Would you please pronounce where we are... very slowly?" The girl leaned over the counter and said, "Burrrrrr, gerrrrrr, Kiiiiiing."
Plays on the listener’s knowledge of British culture Sherlock Holmes and Dr Watson went on a camping trip. After a good meal and a bottle of wine they lay down for the night and went to sleep. Some hours later, Holmes awoke and nudged his faithful friend awake. "Watson, look up at the sky and tell me what you see." Watson replied, "I see millions and millions of stars." "What does that tell you?" Holmes questioned. Watson pondered for a minute. "Astronomically, it tells me that there are millions of galaxies and potentially billions of planets. Astrologically, I observe that Saturn is in Leo. Horologically, I deduce that the time is approximately a quarter past three. Theologically, I can see that God is all powerful and that we are small and insignificant. Meteorologically, I suspect that we will have a beautiful day tomorrow. What does it tell you?" Holmes was silent for a minute, then spoke. "Watson, you idiot. Someone has stolen our tent."
Puns Did you hear about the guy whose whole left side was cut off? He's all right now. ******************** You definitely don’t want to eat that chicken. It smells foul! pun /pʌn/ n [ C ] an amusing use of a word or phrase that has two meanings or words that have the same sound but different meanings; = play on words
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****************** Making fun of H-dropping How does a barber cut the moon's hair? Eclipse it.
Last night there was a big fight in our local fish and chips shop – a lot of fish got battered.
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This is an excerpt from a book called Mrs Joyce Hoover’s How Do You Do? – A Quick’n’easy Guide to Britain and the British. The thing is that there is no Mrs Joyce Hoover and although the book is partially based on fact, it is rather “tongue-in-cheek”. Tongue-in-cheek means that a person is pretending to be serious and sort of depending on the other person to not get the joke – at least not right away.
Julius Caesar, Norman the Conqueror, Napoleon, Adolf Hitler, Saddam Hussein … over the centuries many foreign tyrants have tried to invade and conquer this island of Great Britain. Tried and failed. Why? Because they weren’t polite. They didn’t say “Please”. The British on the other hand have always said Please before they colonized another country and Thank you afterwards. Which is why the sun never set on the British Empire.
Or at the end of the sentence: Bring me my bow of burning gold/Bring me my arrows of desire, please.
So if you’re a foreign visitor, you should use these expressions wherever you go
You must also use Sorry when the other person has made the mistake: Sorry, but those are my trousers you are wearing.
Excuse me Please Thank you Sorry Let me pay for this … and you won’t go far wrong. When you ask for something, you can say please at the beginning of the sentence: Please don’t throw me in the sea.
If you do something wrong, say Sorry at the beginning of the sentence: Oh, I’m sorry. I didn’t know you were married. You can also use Pardon me instead of sorry: Pardon me. It must be the raw cauliflower I had at lunchtime.
And you can use it when no one has made a mistake: Sorry, what’s the time? However, there’s more to being polite than saying “please” and “thank you” all the time, nice though that is. You need to know about British customs and manners. You’ll notice that the word “manners” has an –s on the end. That’s because there are lots of them, which apply in different social situations. You just have to learn them by heart and hope you get it right!
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Oxford Observ http://OxfordObservationsblogspot.dk
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SUNDAY, AUGUST 26TH
Oxford Observations OK guys – I have no idea of how to begin. This is my first blog, but I’m giving it a try because I can see that it will be impossible for me to write to you one by one. Please sign up for my blog. You can do that over there on the right (I think…). Oxford is amazing. Everything is so old, so full of history! I was on a tour yesterday and you wouldn’t believe how 24
many famous writers have gone to college here. More about that later… I want to tell you about one thing at a time and I have decided to start with the language. I thought that it would be more of a problem. I knew that some words would be tricky but people can hear that I’m American. They’re very nice about it. I haven’t made a fool of myself – yet. Yesterday I ordered chips. I just had to see for myself that they actually are French fries. Way out! Today I was treated to biscuits (cookies) and brew (tea!) after taking the lift (elevator) to the flat (apartment) of a mate (friend) I met in the tube (subway) when I was in London.
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FOLLOWERS with Google Friend C O NNE CT OK – I’m just showing off, and I’m sure that you can see
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where I’m headed. We know those words and even use
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them sometimes. I guess there is so much international
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communication that American and British are beginning to adjust to one another as far as vocabulary goes.
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Not so with pronunciation. For the first, they go way up and way down when they speak. Of course I’m generalizing. There are lots of different accents within
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Great Britain. They do seem to pronounce their t’s very clearly, though, like in writer. When we say writer, it doesn’t sound much different than rider. They also move the stress in some words, so they say HARass instead of haRASS and forMIDable instead of FORmidable. That can make it a little hard to understand. I know that you’ll laugh at me if I come back with a British
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accent, but I have to admit that I like the nice, crisp sound of British. You don’t have to worry about me going over to British spelling. That’s for sure. Why use all those extra letters when fewer will do the job? POSTED BY OXFORDOBSERVATIONS AT 1:21 PM
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"Whoso Pulleth This Sword of this Stone and Anvil is Rightwise King Born of All England."
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