Reflection on this semester

This semester is very good for me to know about Britain and I really enjoyed this class. I have studied about the UK last year, but I had a lot of things that I didn't know. So I could be interested in what simon told us, especially I enjoyed talk about university's lifestyle and dairy life because it is very different from Japan or my life.

In this semester I researched about various topics of the UK. It was not easy for me to research and write a blog. However I could know each topics deeeply, especially I was interested in class system and university in　Britain.

First, I was surprised at British class system, because there is not class system in Japan and British class was divided clerly. And the class have an influence each life. I think I want to experience each class.

Also, I was surprised at British university. To go to university we need a large money and high score of A Level. Of course to go to Japanese university we have to study a lot and need a lot of money, but British university is more than Japan in all respects.

I really enjoyed to learn about the UK and Ithough there are many things I don't know. I want to experience the UK's life. I am so glad to take simon's class. Thank you so much.

Minority Languages of the UK

There are some minority languages of the UK, for example Gealic, Manx, Cornish, Welsh. The common of these languages is that be spoke by people living in west coast. I'd like to introduce Welsh.

★About Welsh★

Welsh have been spoke by people living in west coast of Wales. Now only 19% of Welsh can speak own language. On the other hand, before 1870 90% of Welsh can speak it. The reason of the dicrease of the rate is that the government of British prohibited teachers from using Welsh as a medium of education. However, since the 1960s, thanks to the rise of Welsh political nationalism people hsve taken various measures to protect Welsh.

★Measure★

Now there are various measure to protect Welsh. One of the measure is that signs are given first in Welsh and then in English. Also BBC broadcasting offer the site to　learn Welsh by Internet for Free. Also, there are a lot of ways to protect Welsh, for example, television, radio, books, subject, festival and so on. I think television is very good way to protect, because most of people like young and old people watch the television everyday. Especially, TV drama which was made in Wales and cast speaks only Welsh is good way. If the drama became popular in Britain many people of all over the world pay attention to it such as a Korean boom iof Japan.

BENENDEN SCHOOL

Benenden School is one of the famous and rich girls school in British. This is leading boarding school, and gives students high education. There are about 520 students aged 11-18,and the school is located in the Kent countryside.

★GOAL★
This school's goal is that students should graduate school with their best possible score of GCAE, AS and A Level but also with a wide range of other talents and abilities, with the skills and confidence, with a close circle of friends to support them through the year ahead and with happy memories of their schooldays.

★SPORTS★
Students plays sports at least three times a week and the school competes against the another school or club. So the school offers excellent sports facilities like 8 lacrosse pitches, 12 all-weather tennis courts, a fitness suite, a sports hall, a multi purpose gymnasium, an indoor heated swimming poor, 2 squash courts and an athletics field with grass running track.

+subject of sports+
Aerobics, Athletics, Badminton, Ballet, Basketball, Croquet, Cross Country Running, Dance, Fencing, Gymnastics, Hockey, Lacrosse, Judo and Self Defence, Netball, Riding, Rounders, Sailing, Scuba Diving, Squash, Swimming, Tennis, Trampolining Volleyball, Windsurfing

http://www.benenden.kent.sch.uk/School%20Life/Pages/default.aspx

*UNIVERSITY IN BRITISH*

The education of university in Britain is called 'Higher Education'. The history of university's education passed over 900 years. There are about 150 universities and all universities except Buckingham University are public school. The university is divided into two groups 'Old University' and 'New University'.


☆Old Universities
The university which offer the education and study activity of the world highest level and have long history is Old University such as Oxford University, Cambridge University, Durham University and so on. There are about 20 universities. I'd like to introduce famous one of the old universities 'University of Oxford'. Oxford was fisrt university in the English-speaking world. The aim of this university is the front of center of learning, teaching and research. There are about 20,000 students and 180,000 alumni. Also over 35% (7,100) people of all students are from foreign country like USA, China, Germany, France, Canada, Italy and so on.


☆New Universities
The University which was established from 1960 downward and offer practical education of the occupation is New University such as the University of Stirling, the University of York and so on. I tell you about University of York. The university of York was founded in 1963. There are 11,000 students and over 30 academic depertments and research centers. This university offer students a high-quality academic experience, a strong commitment to student support. Also there are many excange students from Brazil, Canada, China, Japan and so on.



☆A Level
This is a test to enter the university, so students who want to go to university study 3 or 4 subjects for 2 years at Sixth Form to get high score. The higher you get, you can enter high level universuty.

☆BRITISH CLASS☆

There is class which is divided by economy and social position in British. First, there were 3 classes, Upper Class, Middle Class, and Working Class. And then, Middle Class were divided 3 classes, Upper Middle Class, Middle Class, and Lower Middle Class, so generally, British are classfied into 5 classes, and there is difference by each class such as life style, education, speech and so on.

＊Upper Class
The top of class in British is upper class. Royal family, aristocrats, politicians, captains and so on belong to this class. They have not only a lotof money but also high social status. They are succeeded their house from generation to generation.

＊Middle Class
-upper middle class

　lawyers, doctors, artchiect, etc.
-middle claas

　member of the Diet, manager, executive, grower, inspector, etc.
-lower middle class

　photographer, bank officer, real estate agent, secretary, etc.

They long to live in detached house, but detached house is too expensive for middle class people. So many middle class live in semi-detached house. Also they like high culture like classical music, ballet, and cricket.

＊Working Class

The job of this class is waiter, carpenters, fisherman, postal deriverer and so on. They live in terraced house. Also they like beer, football, and music-hall that is overall entertainment mixed with musical, skit and a comic dialogue by two camedians.

*＊About UK＊*

◇Location and Size◇

The United Kingdomm of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (the UK) is composed of England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. The area of the UK is 244,820 square kilometers. This is two-third of japan, in this connection, the area of japan is 377,835 square kilometers. The UK lies in between latitude 50°N and 60°N. Japan is in between 22°N and 45°N, so the UK is located in north than Hokkaido.

◇How to go to Paris◇


In 2007 the new big station 'St Pancras International Station' was built in London. There are many famous shops, in addition, in 2010 the 5 stars hotel 'St Pancras Chambers' which is right on the station will remodel into 'London Renaissance St Pancras'. The international limited express 'Eurostar' arrive and depart this station. The Eurostar takes you to Paris and Brussels. The top speed is 300 kilometers per hour, so it takes 2 hours 15 minutes to go to Paris and 1 hours 51 minutes to go to Brussels from London.

*DURHAM CASTLE AND CATHEDRAL*

The Durham Castle and Cathedral is the shrine of the Church of England, and famous for location of movie 'Harry Potter'. It was created at County Durham in North East England in 1093 and registered on culture heritage in 1986.

Every year over 600,000 people visit to here from all over the world. There are some attractions in Durham Cathedral; The Tower, The Treasures of St Cuthbert, The Undercroft Restaurant, The Cathedral Book and Gift Shop, The Story of Saint Cuthbert and Durham Cathedral in the Audio-Visual Display, The Monks' Dormitory and Building the Church Exhibitation. In addition, there are many routineservices and special events. If you go to England you should visit here!!!

*MY FAVORITE BLOG*

I like Hitomi's blog because her blog is very clear for me to understand. I can know easily what she write each paragraph through blue subject, and there are some pictures in each subject. I am interested in maori's culture so I can enjoy her blog.

* THE BIRDS OF ENDANGERED SPECIES*

I would like to tell you about New Zealand’s birds of endangered species. There are a lot of animals in New Zealand; especially you can see various birds such as Kiwi, Takahe, and so on because New Zealand used to be paradise for birds. However, there were more rare birds like moa, huia, and piopio before human arrived. Then I introduce Moa which is the most famous extinct bird in New Zealand. Moa is known to the biggest bird all over the world. It is about 3 to 3.7 meters tall and similar to ostrich. Moa is flightless bird, so it had very thick leg. There are 10 types of Moa and they had live until 1760s. As well as Moa, many of birds in New Zealand can’t fly because there were no human so it’s safe for birds to live in the ground. But when Maori came to New Zealand they hunt moa a lot to eat or make feather and ornament. In addition, European started to live with pets like dog or cat, and their pets kill not-flying birds. Also nature where birds live decreased. So, one third of birds which live in the ground died and 73 types of birds peculiar to New Zealand are endangered species. So today DOC has taken various actions to save these birds.

Then, I would like to tell you what DOC does. DOC is the Department of Conservation. They are the central government organization to conserve New Zealand’s natural and historic heritage for all to enjoy now and in the future. They have protected, reproduced, and breed animals and natures. For example they offer many opportunities on conservation lands to explore enjoy and be inspired. There are hundreds of walking opportunities and they manage marine reserves, and thousands of hectares of conservation lands and scenic reserves you can visit. Also there are 14 New Zealand’s national parks. There are 5 key conservation activities; working with threatened species to save them from extinction, managing and controlling the wide range of threats to native species and their eco-systems, caring for their New Zealand‘s marine life by creating and managing marine reserves and coastal areas, restoring damaged eco-systems through restoration projects and ‘mainland is lands’, looking after New Zealand’s historic buildings and sites such as old government buildings, former mining settlements. Then I tell you DOC’s activities of birds.

One example of their action is kiwi. Kiwi is national bird of NZ and there are 5 types ‘North island brown kiwi, great spotted kiwi, okarito brown kiwi, haast tokoeka, and southern tokoeka. However, there were 10 types before Maori started to live. The death rate of grown-up kiwi is 5-16%, and the rate of child kiwi is 98%. Recently, the main reason of decreasing of kiwi is dog. There is the case that a dog killed 500 kiwis. So DOC set up some facilities. One of the facilities is Kiwi encounter in Rotorua. They try to incubate and breed artificially and take back nature. At present, there are 75,000 kiwis.

Robin has also been protected by DOC. Robin live forest lands of New Zealand. There are 3 types, ’North Island New Zealand Robin’ ‘South Island New Zealand Robin’ ‘Chatham Island New Zealand Robin’. Above all Chatham Island New Zealand Robin is one of the most few populations in the world. On 1979 there were only 5 birds, but today there are over 200 birds through conservative activities. The life span is 6 to 13 years old. But Robin is not good at parenting, so young bird doesn’t grow up and become endangered species.

Lastly, I introduce Kakapo that is the bird of success case of DOC’s activities. Kakapo is known to the heaviest parrot all over the world. The average of weight is 3.6 kg. In addition, it is only parrot which can’t fly and nocturnal bird. Kakapo is 64cm long and lives about 60 years. However, sad to say, you can’t meet wild Kakapo today because all of them are protected and breed by DOC. According to the report of DOC there were only about 60 birds formerly, but now there are about 80 birds. Today, DOC has established ‘Kakapo Recovery Program’ to save it. They get 5,000 dollars to 10,000 dollars every year and have spent this money to buy the machine of artificial incubation.

In New Zealand there are a lot of attractive things not only these birds but also other animals, beautiful beach and nature, traditional culture, exciting city, and so on. I think it is important to live together each other. Also there are some animals of endangered species in Japan, so we can learn various activities of DOC. I hope we can meet these birds in beautiful nature in the future.

◇Treaty of Waitangi◇
　　　　~Te Tiriti o Waitangi~

Do you know Treaty of Waitangi? It's engagement between Maori and Britain in 1840 and it was written about what Britain would get to keep and what they would give Maori. However,there is a big problem in this treaty because of difference of language, and today they have fought about the problems.

The problem is mistakes of translation from British to Maori by Reverend Henry Williams. He had quickly translated the treaty into Maori the night before. It's so hard!!! In addition, He bought 4500 hectares by the Maori and was worried about whether he would be allowed to keep all of it. So He created some new words to put the ideas into Maori.

Below is an flaw treaty.

1.Maori consede sovereignty of New Zealand toBritish.

However, Maori couldn't undersatand correctly because sovereignty was translated 'kawanatanga' , but its mean is 'goverment' in Maori.

2.British admit and guarantee the right of Maori's land, forest and fishing. Only British can buy and sell land.

But it was translated that British guarantee the power of the chief to the land, and Maori accept that Maori can sell the land someone if British don't buy it.

3 .Maori get the equal right of Britain

It is ambigous because Britain didn't show what is the equal right of Britain in New Zealand, and writte duty incident to the right.

☆The Settlers of New Zealand☆

New Zealand is made up of various ethnic groups. Today, the population of New Zealand is about 4,300,000, and about 70% people of the population are European, about 15% people are Maori, about 10% people are Asian. What do you think who went to New Zealand first?

The first group that lived in New Zealand is Maori. In the 8-9th century they came from Polynesia by large canoe called WAKA. They hunt Moa which is big bird and can’t fly, so Moa extinct in 15th century. Also thought the population of Maori increased too much resource decreased greatly. As a result they started to fight between the tribe which was divided by place and Maoris’ traditional dance HAKA was appeared.


Then first European Abel Tasman arrived in1642. Over 100 years afterward James Cook came from Britain, and a lot of European stared to immigrate to New Zealand to get whales, seals, wood, and hemp and so on.

My first foreign country❤New Zealand❤

When I was high school student I went to New Zealand as language training of school. I like New Zealand because there are big beautiful nature and sea, pretty animals like kiwi and sheep, delicious foods like Hokey Pokey. So I would like to introduce about New Zealand.

There are a lot of nice sigthseeing in New Zealand, for example, we can enjoy history, beautiful sea and nature, hot spring, peformance of Maori, sporets, shopping, animals, and so on.

One of the my favorite places is glowworm caves in Waitomo. It's so beautiful!! Witomo is located central western in North Island. It takes less than 3 hours from Auckland by car. If you go to New Zealand you should go!!!!