2009年12月15日火曜日

Minority Languages in UK


I learned about minority languages in last week. I'm going to write about them here.

Most people think English have been used in UK but other language has been. It is Welsh language. It is also called Cymric. Minority people have been using it. But its language gradually have been declining. Another living language is Scots Gaelic. Scots Gaelic is spoken in north of Scotland. A famous alcohol drink in Scotland is whisky. The word of whisky come from 「uisce beatha」 of Scots Gaelic. 「uisce beatha」is said water of life in English. Then Scots Gaelic is also spoken in Ireland. Many Irish people speak the language. In the other hand, dead languages are Manx, Cornish. Manx was spoken by the Isle of man and Cornish was spoken by the Cornwal. They are called Celtic languages. Celtic language was spoken by Celts. How we revise these languages?


About Welsh
We talked about how we promote Welsh. For example, a government make TV and Radio program to promote Welsh. The way is realized recently. Next British government make a club since people study Welsh language. If they make many devices for promoting Welsh, people become to be interested. By the way, why English became to be spoken by Welsh in Wales? Because English people conquered and annexed Wales, English was spoken by Welsh. The history makes me sad.

Welsh is loved by many people. So some people tried to revive Welsh. The Welsh language society was established to protect Walsh in 1962. And Walsh and English were recognized as equality by Welsh language act in 1967 and 1997. Thus many people tried to revive Welsh. Then Welsh is used as official language.

references: "British Cultural Identities" http://www.eigo.be/cultures/globallanguagewales.htm

2009年12月2日水曜日

Westminister schools


I'm going to introduce one of school in UK. It is West minister School. Westminister is a day school in the center of London next to Westminister Abbey and the House of Parliament. It is a public school. Though the school is built in center of London, there have first class facilities for activity. So the school has a long sporting tradition and sports teams leave good record. And Westminister school only ancient school in London.

Then Westminister schools involve Westmnister school and Westminister under school.
Boys are admitted entering under school at seven years old. And they can go to main Westminister school at thirteen years old. Only girls can go to main school at sixteen. The schools have around 750 pupils. It is so many pupils.

Next, I'm going to write about activities. Many kind of activities are offered to all a key activity at Westminister to balance the school work of students. During the school year, the school organises some expeditions. In addition, some students participate in annual events such as PHAB. PHAB is one of events for physically handicapped people. So Westminister is a famous school as activities.

references: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westminster_School