Reflections on this semester

I learned about UK in this semester. I had been to UK two years ago. So this class remind me of the lovely memories in UK. UK have great traditional culture, background, and society. I really want to visit to UK once more.

In this class, we learned about British class system, educational system, university, and language. I could get much interesting information. The most interesting for me is British class system. When I went to UK, my hostfamily told me about class system of UK. My hostmother said me “ Class is still a staple part of UK for us.”. British class system is very different to other country.

I really enjoyed this class, and this class improved my English skills. Thank you all of my zemi friends and Simon.

Minority languages in UK

There are some minority languages in UK. I researched about Welsh.

The Welsh Language

Welsh is a one of the Celtic language. Welsh is closely related to Cornish and Breton. Cornish is spoken in Cornwall. Breton is spoken in Britain. There are about one million native speaker of Breton a century ago in the world. However a native speaker of Breton shrink by half of a native speaker of Welsh today.

History

At the beginning of the 19th century, 80% of people in Wales spoke Welsh, but during the century, English became the main language of some areas of the country. At the start of the 20th century, the Welsh language was spoken by almost half the population of Wales.

Number of speakers

The population of Wales is about three million. The total of Welsh speakers currently estimated to be around 20 ％of the population. The people who can speak Welsh increased to around 80,000 in 2001. Chirdren study Welsh in school of Wales. Welsh are used in trial, TV, and radio. 37.7% of children between 3 and 15 years old in Wales can speak the language.

The sound of Welsh
Sentence of Welsh start usually a verb. Welsh don't use j, k, q, v, x, and z. Welsh use ch, dd, ff, ll, ng, ph, rh, and th as an alphabet instead.

Legislation

The Welsh language Act 1967 assured the right to use Welsh more widely in court.

Benenden School

The British school is compulsory from 5 to 16. The school system is made by different sections: Nursery, Primary school, Secondary school( and Sixth Form Centre) and college or University.

The 2 systems are the State schoolsm, and the independent schools( or public school) whad is called private school of Japan.

Benenden is one of Britain's top public schools. Benenden is a full boarding school for about 530 girls aged 11-18. Benenden was founded in 1923. The school is situated in a beatuiful rural position in Kent.(→map) The mixture of Victorian and more recent buildings are set in 224 acres of beautiful parkland. The schooloffers a full balanced progam with a wide range of extracurricular activities and popular weekend program. All girls are prepared for GCSE , AS Level, A level and university.


School Aims
Benenden school aims is to develop pupil's potential to the within a happy and caring environment.

Boarding
All students are boarders at Benenden. There are six boarding Houses for 11-16 year olds .

Fee
Current fees stand at £9,350 (about 1,350,000 yen) per term.

Famous Alumnae　

・Anne, Princess Royal

Her father is Philip,Duke of Edinburgh, and her mother is Elizabeth.

The Weekend Program

Students can enjoy their weekend. Benenden offers exciting weekend program. There is always something exciting happening. Students are able to try new activities.

Chocolate Fountain parties, Canoeing, Mountain Biking, Theatre Trips, Jewellery Making, Crazy Golf, Windsurfing, Socials with Boys' Schools, Overnight Camps, Archery, Discos, Team Building and Outward Bound pursuits, Target Frisbee, Shopping, Rock Climbing, Visit to the Rare Breeds Centre, Dinghy Sailing, Kite Making, Swimming, Mini-Golf, Duke of Edinburgh Award Scheme, Volleyball, Visit to Hampton Court, Picnics, Rounders, Drama, Tennis, Trip to the Tate Modern, Bond-theme Social, Cookery, Outings to the Cinema, Camping, Ice Skating, Card Making, Dry Skiing, Trampolining, Museum Visits, Soft Toy Making, Young Enterprise, Clay Pigeon Shooting, Circus Workshop, Abseiling, T-shirt Painting and many more......

Subjects taught
Dutch, Portuguese, Ancient History/Classical Civ, Art and Design, Biology, Chemistry, Chinese, Computing/ICT, Critical Thinking, Dance, Design and Technology (DT), Double/Triple Award Science, Drama/Theatre Studies, Economics, English Language, English Literature, French, Further Mathematics, Geography, German, Government/Politics, Greek, History, History of Art, Italian, Japanese, Latin, Mathematics, Music, Other Subjects, Physical Education, Physics, Religious Studies, Russian, Spanish

Tertiary Education in Britain

I researched tertiary education in Britain. There are two famous universities in UK. Oxbridge:University of Oxford, University of Cambridge are old universities in Britain. Teritiary education in Britain is different from Japanese university.

University of Oxford

The Universtiy of Oxford is situated in the city of Oxford. Oxford has no clear date of foundation, but it is said that Oxford University is built in 11 th century.
There are 38 colleges and six permanent private halls.

May Ball
A May Ball is a official dance party which is held in Oxford and Cambridge at the end of the academic year. They are dressed. ticket prices are around 20000yen to 30000yen.

The British Class System

The British society has some groups of classes. Class is the important part of the British . British society is considered to be divided into approximately three groups of classes - the upper class, the middle class, and the working class. Each class has unique characteristics.

●Upper class
The upper class is highest class in British society. The family of upper class still pass on wealth from generation to generation. And they enjoy a dominant position in society. They lived in stately homes.
The new upper class is much more culturally invisible. The modern upper class close social contacts. The upper class is largely made up of wealthy families.

●Middle class
People of the upper middle class have honorable jobs like lawyers, doctors, and politician. They can get a high salary. People of the middle class works as teacher, president of small company. They are not so rich.

●Working class
People of the skilled working class have some technical skills and knowledge for their job. They works as technologists. Unskilld workers are not educated well. They doesn't have skills. They are working as cleaners, porters, porters...and so on.

●Under class
They doesn't have any jobs, house, and status. They are homeless.


In this way, there are big differences between the class in UK.

Location and Size in the UK

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is located off the northwestern coast of continental Europe. It is an island nation in Western Europe . The UK lies between the North Atlantic Ocean and the North Sea. The UK comes within 35 km of the northwest coast of France.The total area of the UK is about 245,000 square kilometres. The UK lies between latituades 49° and 59° N, and longitudes 8°　W to 2°E.

The UK is made up of Great Britain, Northern Ireland, and Numerous smaller islands.

City of Bath

A city of Bath is my favorite city in the south west of England. Bath became a world Heritage Site in 1987. A city of Bath was founded by the Romans as thermal spa. In the 18th century, under GeorgeⅢ, it developed into an elegant town with neoclassical buildings such as Queens Square, Circus, and Royal Crescent.

There are some historic landmarks liks the Roman Baths, Pump room and Bath Abbey. You can try the hot Spa water at the fountain in the Pumproom.