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