Accent in the UK

Yesterday we had a linguistic class.

First we tried to find where Glasgow, Liverpool, Leeds and Newcastle are in the map. Then we listened to  four listening in the class with four different accents. The first one was Yorkshire's. Oh my god, we have been living here almost 3 weeks, but we didn't identify it. When the man said the motto, we all felt so composed!!The county motto is: See all, 'ear all, say nowt; eat all, sup all, pay nowt: and if thou ever does owt for nowt, always do it for thissen. When we listened to it, the blanks we should completed heard like single letter like 'c', 'e'. The most horrible accent is in Glasgow,which is in Scotland. How terrible was that you should listen to it while you had no idea about it. It is like Germany!!! How an English language hears like Germany!

Accent is really horrible! Yesterday was the worst day in the university.

However, thanks to that lesson about accent. It let me know that people would classify which class are you belong to by your accent. The most beautiful accent was the Queen's accent in the past which is adopted  by BBC. Changes always exist. Now days on TV, you can hear different accents when the compere speaks. The accent relives now.

I think it is a good phenomenon! It makes the word live and vivid. Can you imagine a world just has one single accent. I can! It is horrible!!!

A visit to Edinburgh

Last Saturday we went to the capital of Scotland, Edinburgh. We went there in one day. Our host family were so surprised on the answer we replied when they asked us how about the trip in Edinburgh. Our answer was just so so in Edinburgh. And they thought that it was unbelieveable to have a trip in Edinburgh in just one day. We just went to the castle, what's more, we didn't enter in it. We just did shopping on the Prince Street. Bev said that we wasted money to Ediburgh, so I decided to learn something about Edinburgh.

Unitl the late 18th century, Edinburgh consisted, almost exclusively, of what is now known as the Old Town, which is the area where you'll find the Castle, Royal Mile and Grassmaket. There are the old town and the new town on the two sides of Princes Street. The new town was built to try to encourage the wealthy to stay in the city while not to leave for London. As a result, it did work. In 1822 King George IV made his historic visit to the city. By then, Edinburgh was already Britain's most important financial city outside London, and, due to its neo-classical architecture, was known as 'the Athens of the North'.

The most famous palce in Edinburgh is Edinburgh Castle. This most famous of Scottish castles has a complex building history, the oldest part, St Margaret's Chapel, dates from the 12th century; the Great Hall was erected by James IV around 1510; the Half Moon Battery by Regent Monton in the late 16th century; and the Scottish National War Memorial after the First World War. In the castle, you can see the whole life the rolay family lived in.

Then here comes The Rolay Mile. The Royal Mile runs down the East shoulder of this once active volcano and this is what gives the Rolay Mile its distinguishable geographical location. It was 325 million years old ago duiring an ice age that the immense pressure of moving glaciers craved out its profile. The Royal Mile is actually more than a mile by 107 yards. It starts at the Castle entrance to the gates of Holyrood Palace. From the Castle esplanade which leads into the Royal Mile as you walk down the hill travelling East there are several steets which conncet to make up the Royal Mile. Castlehill, Lawnmarket, High Street, Cannongate, and Abbey Strand which leads to Holyrood Palace.

Finally, let's talk about Holyrood Palace. Founded as a monastery in 1128, the Palace of Holyroodhouse in Edinburgh is The Queen's official residence in Scotland. Situated at the end of the Royal Mile, the Palace of Holyroodhouse is closely associated with Scotland's turbulent past, including Mary, Queen of Scots, who lived here between 1561 and 1567. Successive kings and queens have made the Palace of Holyroodhouse the premier royal residence in Scotland. Today, the Palace is the setting for State ceremonies and official entertaining. During The Queen's Holyrood week, which usually runs from the end of June to the beginning of July, Her Majesty carries out a wide range of official engagements in Scotland. The Investiture held in the Great Gallery is for Scottish residents whose achievements have been recognised in the twice-yearly Honours List which appears at New Year and on The Queen's Official Birthday in June. King George V and Queen Mary held the first garden party in the grounds of Holyroodhouse and the tradition has been maintained to the present day. Each year, The Queen and The Duke of Edinburgh entertain around 8,000 guests from all walks of Scottish life during Holyrood week. How wish that I could attend that party!


There are much more interesting places of rich history which are not covered in this passage. Edinburgh is quite an old city with rich history. What a pity that I didn't have a good visit in it. I wish I have an another chance to vitsit Edinburgh angain!!

My great host grandfather!!!

Can you imagine that a 79 years old man could do wing-walking on a biplane and bungee jump, make parachute jump as well as climb a cliff in a day?!  It is my host grandpa, Jim Ellis Beech, that did the four stunts when he was 79 years old in one day!!! I was shocked when I heard this news! It is unbelievable, but it is a fact. He did it.   

 These photos are from Mind Body and Sprit Magzine and Hello Magzine.     

There is a poet wriiten by Bev for her Dad.

THE UK'S FITTEST DAD

I sat and thought and thought all day,

Who's the fittest in the whole UK,

Olympic runers or TV stars,

Still my thoughts ran near and far,

MY DAD's the fittest of the kind.

His hobbies includes all sorts of sports,

The type young athletes now are taught,

His first is bungee, the jumping kind,

Off a bridge the rope unwinds,

He feels no fear at his age,

He could give up at any stages,

But now he wing walks on a plane,

This man by now must be insane,

Hundreds of  feet in the air,

He waves his arm without a care,

And now he jumps a parachute strapped,

To his back he is a brave chap,

Falling freely as a bird,

He must be fit, how absurd,

But on he goes, an absail now,

Down a cliff, don't ask me how,

Rope, boots and helmet cald,

If you ask me he must be mad,

But whilst he carries out these sports,

There's one thing deep in his thoughts,

They're all for charity, other's needs,

Other's benefit from his good deeds,

For whilst my DAD is the fittest man,

His family are his greatest fan,

Cos come July we celebrate,

His eighteenth birthday,

WE THINK HE'S GREAT!

Now he is 90 years old. He looks quite stong! He is quite healthy except that he doesn't have a good memory. He will ask you a question many times.

We had tea tonight together! You can not believe that he is already 90 years old. He can still eat pork. What's more, his mind is quite clear. He likes to show the old photoes to us and tell us the old things that he did. One of  the amazing things is that the Queen payed a visit to him, because grandpa was a trainer in the army! Wow!!! That is amazing. What a fantastic life my host grandpa has!!! Although he is quite old, he still has a clear mind. He likes to crack jokes,especially tease us. I thought that grandpa did't have a spoon when we were going to have dessert, so I asked him whether he wanted me  to get a spoon for him. He said yes when I got a glimpse of that the spoon was hidden in his big hand. Then we both laughed. So lovely that old man is. I like him very much!!

Wish him good health and a happy ending life!!

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                

Some differences between UK and China

Almost three weeks have gone. Time fies!!! Although I havn't experienced all the daily life in UK, I have felt some differences between UK and China.

The first difference is about occupation. In UK, many people will tell you their jobs proudly, such as a taxi driver, a cake maker, meanwhile they have great interets in it. We can say the reason why they choose those as their occupations is that they love their jobs. Unfortunately, peopele will not choose jobs so easily just because they love that kind of job. They will balance the interesting and the future development. People will place the future development at first, which means that the job should gurantee them to have enough income. The competence is so fierce that we should sacrifice our interests to insure that we can survive in the fickle world. We students will choose the major we are not interested in because of  the same reason. From the standpiont of deep, the real reason is the society. UK is a developed country, so his welfare is quite sound, while China is still a developing country. Thers is not perfect welfare. China should banlance all the contradictions. If China was a developed country, the problem might disappear.

The second is about reading. When I went to London, I saw a lot of people read books ot newspaper in the tube. It is really a goog habit. While in China, most of the people will not read when they are on their way. There may be some reasons. Firstly, the transportation system is the main reason. UK has a perfec taffic system, people can do some reading whitout worrying about jam on the way. While in China, there is  too much traffic, and the traffic is not sound, so we will worry about the time when we will arrive. And the environment is not quite good for us to do some reading in China. Secondly, it may be that the people love the literature better than Chinese people. There are so many famous writers and poets such as Shakespeare and the Bront Sister. In my opinion, these are the main reasons.

The last is about the languae people use in UK. One day night I was asked whether I wanted to have tea. I felt so strange, because it was time to have supper, what's more I was hungry, so I answered no. Bev also felt strange when I said no. At last I was so hungry that I asked Bev when we could have supper, Bev said that it had been already done, but you said you didn't want to have that. Oh my god, in the UK, tea has the same meaning like supper!

Those above are the things that I feel different between the UK and China strongly. Thanks to the oppotunity that Zhejiang University gave me this chance to attend this programme to have a visit in the UK, so I can have these feelings. It really boarden my horizon!!!

A visit to the department

We visited the environment department yesterday. A man wearing a big smile came to us and spoke to us when we were waiting for the professor. It was him, professor Roy Marchant, who just came form Kenya the day before yesterday.

Firstly, he introduced the department to us. Although it is a small department, it has 18 staff. It includes environmental economics, environmental management, environmental science and environmental geography. Taking environmental management as an example, it is quite a big engineering. If a river has been polluted, you should consider the whole system while not only the river to avoid unexpected side-effects. The answer surprised me when the professor was asked what would the students in this department do after graduation. It is quite different from that in China. The company will not take the major that you have in university important. There is no relation between major and job. You can choose to work in BP or go to work in a supermaket. It benefits the students a lot, because they can choose the major according to their interests. While in China, we will choose a good major which can gurantee you have a good job. As a result, people learn the major bur they do not like it at all. I think it is an important reason why there is no Nobel Prize Winner.

Then we discussed the problem about globle warming. It is quite interesting. Our opinion about the globle warming is that it is an natural phenomenon which appears in a certain period. The limit of carbon dioxide is an excuse to astrict the developing in China and other developing countries. What's more,  Copenhagen Conference and Cancun Meeting is a method to let the exceuse to appear more reasonable. While Roy showed us a graph which includes the globle average temperature changing in about 2000 years.

There exists a circle, but in recent years the temperture becomes higher and higher as well as the emission of the carbon dioxide. So we should take measures to reduce the release of  carbon dioxide, such as finding new energy, planting much more trees and so on. What I think is that the two opposite views both have quite good reason to support them, we actually can not define which is correct. So the environment department is very important. We should do much more research to find the correct answer objectively to the whole world.

Thanks a lot to the University of York for giving me so nice an opportunity to mind me to be independent and precise when I am doing the research, and to keep the sentence: Science has no borders. in mind forevre!!!

The Chinese New Year

We had an English Chinese New Year in Bev's home with our two best friends and the family. That is really fantastic! I will keep it in my memory for the whole life.

Bev gave the lucky candies to us when we entered the house to give luck to us. That's very nice of her!

Firstly, we four girls decoreted the house. We hanged on two big red lanterns on the two sides of the door, and sticked a red paper,on which was printed  "招财进宝", which means you can earn a lot of money in the coming year, onto the door.  And we aslo put some small Chinese decorations on the walls.

After the decoration, we had our big meal! We had noodles and fired rice and some different kinds of  fish balls, as well as fried dumplings. Actually dumplings are usually boiled in the hot water or just braised.  Although the food was English Chinese, we enjoyed it very much. It let me feel that I celebrated the Chinese New Year with my family! Many thanks to Bev and Peter! Bev really had a tired day that day!

We enjoyed an extra perform after dinner! It was performed by Callum, who is a grandson of Bev and Peter. He was so happy that he danced excitedly. Firstly he danced with clothes, but afterwards he took off the clothes because he danced so high that he felt hot. It was really a wonderful performance. And everyone enjoyed it.

Every thing was so fantastic that we really enjoyed it very much!!!  Many thanks to Peter and Bev. And many thanks to Callum for giving us so much happiness!!! I love the family!!! Unforgetable tonight!!!

A visit to London

We went to the London last weekend. We visited the London Eye, the Big Bang, Westminster, the Tower Bridge, the British Museum and so on. It was really a busy weekend!

The first palce we met is Oxford Street. What I felt was that it was not different from Shanghai, a province in China. Both have a lot of people and many big shops.

We went to London Eye and the Big Bang on Saturday. They are wonderful. When we waited in a que we took photos with Beckham, not a real one but a wax statue. It was so fantastic to be in the eye that we took a lot of photos to memory that moment.

At that nitht we went to the China Town. It was so familiar! The smell of the food, the red lanterns, and the language! It seemed that I was in China. And we had our supper there. The food there was nice but really expensive, but we all loved that.

They cost us 37 pounds. Oh my god!

The most I treasure is the visit to the British Museum! It is really fantastic! The exhibits there are so wonderful to watch that I spent a whole afternoon there. I love the jewel the best. They are so beautiful that I wish I can have one necklace or a ring like those in the museum!

Thanks to the underground in London! We would not go to so many places in London in two days. I love London.

Robert Burns and Haggis

Bev told me that they will haggis on January 25 every year to honor a Scottish port named Robert Burn.
Here is a picture about a meal we had on that day.

The black one in the bowl is haggis. It just has been cut up. The original shape is in the picture below.

So what is haggis? It is a Scottish dish consisting of  a mixture of the minced heart, lungs, and liver of a sheep or a calf mixed with suet, oniones, oatmeal, and seasonings and boiled in the stomach of the slaughtered animal. Some people may not like the taste of haggis, but I think it is good. 

The night on January 25 is called  Burn's Night.The main elements of the evening are haggis, Scotch whisky, a poem or two and much merriment. Traditionally the haggis is carried in to the sound of bagpipes followed by an 'address to the haggis' where Burns's poetry is recited and the haggis ceremoniously cut open. The event ends with a singing of his famous song Auld Lang Syne.

So who is Robert Burns? He was a Scottish poet and a lyricist. He is widely regarded as the national poet of Scotland, and is celebrated worldwide. He is the best known of the poets who have written in the Scots language, although much of his writing is also in English and a "light" Scots dialect, accessible to an audience beyond Scotland. He also wrote in standard English, and in these his political or civil commentary is often at its most blunt.He is regarded as a pioneer of the Romantic movement, and after his death he became a great source of inspiration to the founders of both liberalism andsocialism.

The song named Auld Lang Syne goes like below:

Should auld acquaintance be forgot,
And never brought to mind?
Should auld acquaintance be forgot,
And auld lang syne!
Chorus.-For auld lang syne, my dear,
For auld lang syne.
We'll tak a cup o' kindness yet,
For auld lang syne.
And surely ye'll be your pint stowp!
And surely I'll be mine!
And we'll tak a cup o'kindness yet,
For auld lang syne.
For auld, &c.

We twa hae run about the braes,
And pou'd the gowans fine;
But we've wander'd mony a weary fit,
Sin' auld lang syne.
For auld, &c.

We twa hae paidl'd in the burn,
Frae morning sun till dine;
But seas between us braid hae roar'd
Sin' auld lang syne.
For auld, &c.

And there's a hand, my trusty fere!
And gie's a hand o' thine!
And we'll tak a right gude-willie waught,
For auld lang syne.
For auld, &c.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eG3afAIi6IQ  It is the wedsite which you can listen to the song.

It impressed me so much that I realized that the literature is a very important part in UK.

Too much cream!!!

I did a really really silly thing today! And I feel sorry to ZHU Ying, my roommate.
Bev and Peter's grandsons came to their house today, so we had the dinner an hour early. We had Italian pasta and some bread.

It was delicious!! And the kids were so cute that we had a very very nice meal.
After the dinner, we had the some fruit. The way to eat the fruit is really different from the way in China. Bev cut the fruit in the small pieces. And we should add some cream or ice cream in the fruit. Then  I did the silly thing. I poured the cream in the bottle. I had no idea how much I should pour so I poured the cream to cover all the fruit. What silly was that I didn't  even stop when Bev told me that was enough because I cann't understan the words she used, which has the same meaning as enough. As a result, there was too much cream in the bottle. I tried my best to eat that up, but it was so terrible, too much cream. It make my stomach full of cream. It is awful. It was so nice that Peter and Bev told me that it was ok to not finsh that.

So I took a big cost to learn how to eat fruit after dinner. Say sorry to ZHU Ying again.