Reflection

A lot of things, which we learned this semester, were very interesting for me. Britain is a historical country, so I had plenty of things that I had to remember. Although there were many things I needed to learn, I enjoyed getting new information about Britain.

The thing I had most interested in is class system in Britain. I knew about it a little bit as I learned it before, but it was a good opportunity to study more in this class. I think we took the longest time to work on about class system. It means there were a lot of things to know and that we felt. I had a good time to discuss what we learned in the class. I have never thought that the class system still exist today. I was surprised that the job people get is depending on their class. We Japanese have a chance to apply for any jobs, but British people have a wall of classes. It should not be so. People should have equal chance to get a job. I also learned it was very difficult to advance their class, but women could do it by marriage. I couldn't believe that. It is like discrimination.

Now I have strong interests in Britain, and New Zealand too. I went seven countries since I entered this university, but I have never been these two countries. Thus I really want to go there to find out the culture we learned.

Minority Languages: Welsh

There are about 5,000 to 7,000 languages in the world, and many of them are minority language. Welsh is one of the minority languages which is spoken in Wales.



Wales has strong Celtic culture. Almost all Celtic languages have disappeared, but Welsh is still used. Until 1825 about 80% of the population spoke Welsh in Wales. However, the number of them decreased during nineteenth century, because many people moved to South Wales from England and Ireland. Furthermore, Welsh people moved to the cities where fewer people spoke Welsh. There was a fact that children were punished when spoke Welsh at school. It should not be true!



In recent years, Welsh has become more popular. It is now spoken as a first language by more than 20% of the population. And also, it is studied as a second language in schools in Wales. As I told you before, Welsh is one of the minority languages, but Wales receives money to keep the language. There are television and radio stations with Welsh program.



I thought Welsh is similar to English, but I found Welsh national anthem, and realized it was totally different from English. These are lines of it with English translation below.







Welsh
Gwlad! Gwlad! Pleidiol wyfi'm gwlad; Tra mor yn i'r bur hoff bau, O bydded i'r hen iaith barhau.







English

Homeland! I am devoted to my country; So long as the sea is a well to this beautiful land, May the ancient language remain.






References;
Michael. V. (2006) InBritain, 21st Century Edition

Cheltenham College

There are four famous girls school in Britain. We learned them in class. These were the lists of girls' schools.

・Roedean
・Cheltenham
・Wyoombe abbey
・Benenden

However, I found that Cheltenham College is not a girls school. It is co-educational school.

Cheltenham College, located in Bath Road is one of the famous school in Britain, and it is historical school too. It was established in 1841, and it was the first of all the major public schools of the Victorian period. There are about 600 students who are 13 to 18.

There are 20 departments in this college. Almost all departments are there. It can't be at NUFS.

Art & Art History
Classics
Design Technology
Economics & Business Studies
English For Foreign Students (EFS)
English & Drama
General Studies
Geography
History
ICT
Mathematics
Modern Languages
Music
Physical Education
Politics
Religious Studies
Science
Biology
Chemistry
Physics

You can check a typical day of the c0llege life here. The time of a period is 45 minutes, which is the best time to concentrate on the class. To be surprised the tuition of this college is 6,945 pound per term. It is so expensive because it is about 1,000,000 yen in Japan.

There are so many club activities in Cheltenham College too. And students join the activity on Monday and Wednesday. The clubs can be categorized in four groups, Sports, Academic, the Arts, and Service. You can also find here what clubs are there. Girls Hockey team seems that a strong team in this school.

References;

http://www.cheltcoll.gloucs.sch.uk/cc/home/

Universities in the UK

Students in Britain go to university like we go. According to Life and Story (2008, P18), about 40% of students go to university, which is smaller number than Japan. Students choose their major first, and then apply to universities. University students study only their major subject and there are no general classes. Students have to take A Levels, which is a test for entering university. It is like center exam in Japan. It is very important to get good score on it. There are two famous university called Oxford and Cambridge, and we say them Oxbridge for short. I will mention the basic information of these two universities.


The University of Oxford is built in 11 century. Since it is so long ago we don't know who set up this university. This university is a public school, and it is the oldest university in the English-speaking country. That's why it has so many histories, and there are many famous people who graduated that school. There are about 20,000 students there, and 25 students became a prime minister of Britain and 6 students become a king before. This university is ranked as second highest university. Students are so intelligent.


The University of Cambridge is built in 1209 by the chancellor, masters and scholars of the University of Cambridge. About 18,000 students are studying there. This university is also public school, and the second oldest university in the English-speaking country. 81 students (At the time of OCT in 2005) awarded Nobel Prize. There were also Japanese famous students before.

Class System

We can say Class System is very common in Britain culture and history. It used to be more important element of British life before. Everything what they did was related in class, so people always had to concern about their own culture. It still exists today. We can mainly divide three kinds of classes, which are upper class, middle class and working class. There are many differences in the class, such as greeting, way of speaking English. Fortunately, women can change their class by marriage. These are the differences between the classes below. I'm going to focus on two classes, Upper Class and Working Class. It is interesting to see how those two classes are different. It is like heaven and hell.

Upper Class
People who have a lot of money and power usually can be the upper class. Their coherence is also related the upper class. These people are very wealthy, and they normally become a politician, lawyer, military, doctor, judiciary and boss of a company. These people drink wine, listen to Bach and watch BBC2. These are not allowed to do in the working class people. Because many of them have coherence, there are many people who support Conservative Party.


Working Class
This class can be divided upper working class and lower working class. People who are in the upper working class usually have skill. That's why they can work as an electrician, engineers and a carpenter. Unskilled people in the lower working class become a cleaner or help labors. They don't drink wine, but beer or gin. They watch CH5, and support Labor Party.

References;

Nicholas. A (2000) Contemporary British Society (3rd Ed.) Warde

Location of Britain

Here is the location of Britain. I think it is almost accurate. The UK is located in latitude 60°N, 50°S. Its longitude is in 1°E,-10°W. I found those figures from this website. You can get the latitude and longitude when you click the place you want to know. In this connection, Japan is located in latitude 45°N, 25°S. As for longitude, it is 147°E, 127°E.
Next, I will tell you how to transfer to the other EU country from the UK. There is a high speed railway, called Eurostar. It is opened on November 14 in 1994. It connects London, Lille, Paris, and Brussels. The top speed of it is about 300km. Eurostar through the Channel Tunnel when you get other Europe countries, and you can go Paris for about two hours with about 30,000 yen from London.

United Kingdom

I've never been to the UK, but I learned about UK when I was freshman, so I know some British cultures and history. They were very interesting, and they were sometimes a little bit complicated for me.
I know Great Britain is consisted of Scotland, England, Wales and Northern Ireland. And there were many problems between those regions in the pass. It is a little bit complicated for me, because there are so many important people, such as Queen Elizabeth.
When I went to Australia as a school program of school, I had a host family who are Irish. They told me some histories about the UK, but I couldn't understand them all. However, I'm sure that the UK had a big effect toward many countries, including Australia and Japan. I would like to know about such histories more.
I want to go the UK before I graduate this university. I want to visit Big Ben. I think it is the one of the famous place in the UK.