How To Protect Minority Languages

There used to be lots of minority groups and they used to speak their own language. However, fewer people speak those minority languages nowadays. Moreover, a few of them, Cornish and Manx, are almost dead.



On the other hand, speaking of Welsh, it is reviving gradually and the number of the speakers is increasing, being encouraged to study by schools. For example, all school students in Wales study Welsh at school for 12 years as the first or second language. In the past, Welsh used to be regarded as kind of like a vulgar language and people refused to speak it or were forced to stop using it. In this ways, the language was likely to die. However, there are about 600000 welsh speakers at present and it's increasing. The picture of Britain on the right shows what percentage of the population speaks Welsh. You can see it's a lot!



How can we encourage other minority languages to revive like welsh? There are some ideas;





・Making minority languages subjects (first of all, teachers teach students histories of minority languages or something like that to give students interest in the languages.


・Giving people a lot of information about minority languages, using the mass media.


・In the place where a minority language was used, the language should be used on sign boards and prochures and so on with English subtitles.




A language is not just a language to communicate, but has its history and culture and something special that can't be shown in another language. So, we need to cherish our own language and to be proud of it, and also to help to keep other minority languages:)

Girl's School in Britain

Eton college and Harrow school are the most famous boy's school and many graduates from these go to Oxford university and Cambridge university. Speaking of girl's schools, Roedean, Cheltenham, Wycombe Abbey, Benenden are famous.
Then, I'll introduce Roedean.



Roedean (an independent day and boarding school)


・Location

Roedean is located just on the eastern edge of Brighton. The founders of the school, Lawrence sisters, established the school there because of the idea that “where the air is healthy and all schools succeed."


・Students

Roedean is a school for girls aged 3-18 and for boys aged 3-11. So, its lower school, muddle school and sixth form are just for girls. International students make up 45% of the community, with girls coming from over 30 countries, notably Nigeria, Hong Kong, China, Canada, USA and Russia.


・Subjects (Middle School, age13-15)

There is a lot of choice which students can take. For example, Business Study, Drama, French, German, Greek, Latin, and so on. It can't be in Japan. We never have that much choice. So, it seems interesting! Students there can study what they want:)

After Graduation

Some of the graduates go to Imperial, some are Cambridge, LSE, UCL, MAnchester, Oxford and so on. Oh, excellent:)YY

The Geography of the UK

• The Location of the UK

The United Kingdom consists of England, Scotland, Wales and Northen Ireland, and is located in Western Europe.

• The Size and Population of the UK

The size of the United Kingdom is 243,610 sq km. (Japan is about 38 sq km.)

It's the 79th biggest country in the world.

The population is 5961,113,205. (Japan is about 130,000,000 people)

It's the 22nd larggest population in the world. It means the population is much larger, compared to the size.



I have an image that the UK and Japan have something in common. For example, both are islands and small countries, but are dence with people and also well developed. So, I'm interested in the UK and really hope to visit there!

Upper Class


Upper Class is the highest class and consists of royal family, aristocrats, politicians, captains and so on. they are rich and high class, so their life is paticular. What they do costs a lot. For example, the sports they play are polo and something high class. New Paper is Guardian or Telegraph. They take special education and speak with the received pronunciation. And they go to high class universities like Oxford and Cambridge. Anyways, whatever they do is high class.



Upper Middle Class


This class consists of senior bankers, top businessmen, lawyers, doctors, CEOs and so on.





Middle Class


This class consists of teachers, office workers, and so on.
According to an article of BBC, "the middle class are the worst type of class because they are the only ones who actually care what the other classes think of them."



Working Class


This class consists of skilled works like carpenters, sales clarks, engineers and so on and unskilled works like waiters, labores and so on.

People belonging to each class think their own class is the best and they like their life style. And they sometimes criticize the other classes. I wonder what the class system in UK is good for and why it keeps existing .

British Music

About UK
I have many good impressions of the UK. For example, its long history, fashionable people, beautifull and historical buildings and cities, and so on. In my opinion, the UK is the cutting-edge of the world and actually many countries have been influenced by the UK.

Music
I'm especially interested in Brit.Pop and there are many musicians who I likeY The UK has produced a lot of great musicians. Needless to say, the Beatles from Liverpool is the best well-known band. Their songs are so great and won't never be old. Many modern artists in the world have got many influences by the Beatles.

Weezer
Weezer is my favorite British band. The band consists of 4 people and sings rock songs. Their songs are kind of similar to the Beatles' ones. one of their popular song is "Buddy Holly" and it's my favoriteY Their songs make me relaxed and I love it!

Lily Allen
Lily Allen is a singer-songwriter from London. she is 23 years old and debuted in 2006. Her single, "Smile" charted at No.1 in the UK. She is popular also in the US. (actually my american friend likes her too :D) Her songs are so catchy and the lyrics express her frank feelings. Anyways, she is cuteY I recommend you to listen to her songs:)

Why I like British Music
There are some other musicians who I like. The Ting Tings, Bjork (from Ireland) and so on. I like also Japanese music and American Music, but British music is a little bit special for me. the music videos are good, too! British music has something different from others. British musicians seem high leveled to me. It might be because they have grown up with good music in the traditional culture.

Blog Reports

All the blogs were interesting:) I especially liked Mitsu's one. It was fun reading this because there were a lot of information which I didn't know in it. So I know many things about Maori and Haka now! And the blog was so clear to understand and well organized with nice pictures and links:)

New Zealand English :)

About English
There are several countries where English is spoken as the first language. For example, The U.K., America, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and so on. But each country of them has its own English accent. Moreover, there are some more accents or dialects in each country. English is known as the global language and it’s true, but formally, English has many kinds of different accents. Then, I introduce New Zealand English.
Where did New Zealand English come from?
New Zealand was a British colony, so New Zealand English originally came from British English. However, New Zealand English is similar to Australian English in pronunciation because Australia is the closest country. Also New Zealand English has its original vocabularies with the influence of Maori language. In this way, New Zealand English was formed.

Features of New Zealand English
New Zealand English has features in vowel like Australian English. For example, the short-i of FISH, HIT and so on is a central vowel around[ə] or [ɘ] in New Zealander pronunciation. This sounds like a short-u. So, if New Zealanders say ‘fish and chips’, it sounds like ‘fish and chups’ to other English speakers. The short-e /ɛ/ of TEN, SEVEN and so on is moved to fill in the space left by /ɪ/, and is phonetically in the region of [e]. It sounds like a short-i itself to other English speakers.　Likewise, the short-a /æ/ of TRAP, FLAG and so on becomes short-e. The a/ai/ ay of TAKE, FAIL, TODAY and so on is pronounced ‘ai’. And New Zealanders sometimes don’t pronounce ‘L’ sounds. So, for example, they pronounce “bold” as “boad”. In this way, New Zealand English has many differences of pronunciation from standard English. So, it’s sometimes difficult even for other English speakers to understand what New Zealanders say.

New Zealander Vocabularies and American Vocabularies
The differences between New Zealand English and American English are not only pronunciation, but also vocabularies. For example, ‘bathroom’ (restroom) and ‘toilet’. American people think ‘toilet’ is too direct to say, so they say ‘bathroom’ or ‘restroom’. But ‘toilet’ is formal way to say in New Zealand. Next, when you go to a fast food shop and order something, staff asks you “here or to go?” in America. It means if you eat it in the shop or take it out. But, in New Zealand, it’s “eat in or take away”. There are more different vocabularies like cookie is biscuit in New Zealand, sausage is wiener, swimming suit is togs, ketchup is tomato sauce, eraser is rubber, shopping cart is trolley, mom is mum, soda (pop) is fizzy drink, and so on. To my surprise, "Sprite", soda pop, is called “lemonade” in New Zealand. Then, how do they call “real lemonade”?, In America, particular names of products are often used as thing’s names. For example, “Kleenex”, the product name of the famous tissue, is used as the word for tissue. In this way, there are many different vocabularies, when American and New Zealander talk, they may not understand each other.

What I Think about Different Accents
I was so surprised to know about New Zealand English. In Japan, we learn American or British English in school. So, I hadn’t had a chance to learn New Zealand English. I’m familiar with American English because I’ve learned American English for a ling time and was living in America for a year. So, most of my friends are Americans, my ears are completely familiar with American English. So, other English accents sound unnatural to me and it takes a little time to understand. Especially, when I listened to New Zealand English on youtube, I couldn’t understand what was talked about. It was totally different from American English. But, learning a little about New Zealand English, I got interested in different English accents and thought I wanted to be able to understand many different accents. Because it’s frustrated that I can’t understand other accents even though I’ve loved and leaned English for a long time. And I also thought it’s so interesting that each country has each English accent with influences of its own history and culture. Everyone thinks their English is standard and is proud of it. I think it’s a nice thing. So, I wanna visit many countries and learn many English accents and cultures directly.