Информационный проект с элементами исследовательской деятельности "What are the British like"

МУНИЦИПАЛЬНОЕ БЮДЖЕТНОЕ ОБЩЕОБРАЗОВАТЕЛЬНОЕ УЧРЕЖДЕНИЕ

СРЕДНЯЯ ОБЩЕОБРАЗОВАТЕЛЬНАЯ ШКОЛА №29

Информационный проект с элементами исследовательской деятельности

«WHAT ARE THE BRITISH LIKE?»

Выполнила: Прилуцкая Варвара ученица 8”Б” МБОУ СОШ №29

Руководитель: Филиппова Елена Николаевна учитель английского языка

Введение:

1.        Актуальность выбранной темы: я выбрала эту тему, потому что англичане-очень интересные люди. Во всем мире Англия известна как страна дождей и туманов, так называемый - «Туманный альбион», и, соответственно это оказывает влияние на характер англичан. Иностранцам совершенно не дано проникнуть в душу истинного англичанина, потому что англичане крайне редко проявляют свои эмоции, их кулинарные пристрастия понять совершенно невозможно, а радости жизни, похоже, проходят мимо них. Их считают педантами, исполненными всякими предубеждениями, совершенно равнодушными к происходящим в мире переменам, предпочитающих жить под вечно серым небом, подкрепляющих свои силы пивом, ростбифом и вечно жестким корсетом традиций..Так какие же они, эти англичане?В своей работе я постаралась ответить на этот вопрос.

2.        Цель: Найти и обобщить информацию о жизни, характере, обычаях и традициях Британцев. Собрать информацию, изучить, проанализировать, структурируя ее, сделать выводы.

3.        Задачи: Собрать информацию о характере англичан, изучить ее, проанализировать, структурируя ее, сделать выводына основе полученного материала.

Методика исследования:

1. В информационных источниках (интернет-ресурсы, книги, справочники, словари) подобрала материал по данной теме, исследовала его, перевела, сократила предложения, выбирая основную мысль.
2. Структуририруя материал, разобрала по определенным темам.
3. Исследовательская часть работы включала в себя две части: среди учеников 5-6 классов провела  тестирование в  форме рисунков под названием :» Англия и Англичане  глазами наших школьников».

        Проведен анализ полученных рисунков и сопоставлен с реальным образом, сделаны выводы в форме диаграммы. Вторая часть работы включала в себя викторину  для учеников 7-8 классов «Знаешь ли ты Британию?», результаты викторины представлены в виде диаграммы, сделан вывод.

В конце работы я представила выводы и перспективы дальнейшей работы.

1. British people as they are

Great Britain is an island state and its geographical position has produced a certain insular spirit among its inhabitants. The British people are known to be superior, snobbish, aloof, hypocritical and unsociable. Are these characteristics typical  for all the Britons? No, of course. The ordinary Briton was seen to be friendly and sociable. Englishmen  are conservative, they love familiar things. It can be explained by public attitude to the monarchy. England is the land of law and order. For an Englishman, the best of all reasons for doing something in a certain way is that it has always been done in that way. The English sense and feeling  for privacy is notorious. It is the land of brick fences and stone walls. They rarely shake hands only when being introduced to someone for the first time. English people are prudent and careful about almost everything. Their lawns are cropped, their flower beds are cultivated, everything is in order. They are not romantic, but practical and realistic.

2. English etiquette.

Some greetings in England are very informal:

-        a simple “good morning” or a wave of a hand across the street.

-        handshakes are only exchanged on a first introduction, agreement or congratulation.

-        “sorry” takes the place of “no” when you cannot do something for a person.

-        “pardon’ is the polite way of asking somebody to repeat what he has said. It is considered polite to give up one’s seat to a woman,  who is standing, to open door for her, carry her things and so on.

During a conversation personal questions like “How old are you?”, “What is your salary?”, “Where did your buy your watch?” are impossible.

Modesty is closely related to the English. For example, you are a person who is very good at golf, and  if you are asked  how you play golf, the answer will be ‘I am not bad at golf or I am very keen on it” and that’s all about it.

3. Strange British customs.

1.        Once a year it is the custom for women to cook flat cakes in a frying pan, and run down the street, throwing the pancakes into the air, and catching them in the pan. This is traditional pancake race, which is held on Shrove Tuesday.

2.         Sometimes men tie bells onto their legs and dance in the streets, waving their handkerchiefs in the air. This is the Morris dancing and it is still sometimes seen, especially in villages.

3.        It is an old custom to tie ribbons to a tall post, and dance around it until all the ribbons are wound round it. This is an old English maypole. Many English villages have a maypole, although the dancers are usually children nowadays.

4.        Once a year a group of young men roll a large cheese down a hill, and then run down after it. This is the custom of cheese rolling, which happens on Whit Monday.

5.        It is the custom on one day in the year to put apples into a bowl full of water, and try to pick them with your teeth. This is part of the traditional Halloween celebrations held on 31 October.

6.        Sometimes two young men sit over a river on a long pole, which has been covered in grease, and try to knock each other off it by hitting each other with pillows. This is an old competition, which is still seen at midsummer fairs. Often the prize is a farm animal, usually a pig.

7.        There’s a nettle-eating contest in Britain every year. The contestants try to eat as many nettle as they can This contest takes place every summer in Dorset. A word of warming:”Do not try nettle-eating if you do not know the “secret method”.

4. Holidays.

In Britain there are Public holidays that are called “Bank holiday” Among these are eight holidays: New Year’s Day, Good Friday, Easter Monday, May Day Holiday, Spring Bank Holiday, Late Summer Bank Holiday, Christmas and Boxing Day. New Year’s Eve(December 31st) is more special for Scottish people, who celebrate it with their families. At midnight Scottish people hold their hands and sing the song “Auld lang syne” by Robert Burns .People decorate their houses with bouquets of mistletoe. Christmas Day is the most popular bank holiday in Great Britain. It is celebrated on December 25th. On this day people go to Churches, get Christmas presents and make a traditional Christmas dinner (roast turkey and pudding) bank holidays .Besides bank holidays, there are also different festivals reflecting interesting traditions and customs. Among them are : St. Valentine’s Day, Shrove Tuesday (Pancake Day), April Fool’s Day, Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, Halloween and Guy Fawkes Night. On April Fool’s Day people play jokes on each other like in Russia, in June there is Father’s Day. On this day fathers get gift cards and a lot of attention from their children. Halloween is a holiday that is on October 31st.The symbol of this holiday is a lantern made of a pumpkin. Children go from one house to another and say: ”Trick or treat”. If people do not refuse to give them something they sing. If they refuse children play tricks. Guy Fawkes Night is celebrated in the UK on November 5th. This tradition comes from old times. In 1605 Roman Catholics made a plan to blow up the Houses of Parliament. They placed barrels with gunpowder under the House of Lords. Guy Fawkes was one of this people. Their plan was discovered, Guy Fawkes was founded and executed. Since then British people mark this day by burning a dummy made of straw and old clothes on a bonfire. St. Valentine’s Day is celebrated on February 14th. On this day people send Valentine cards and get presents and “valentines” from their sweethearts.

5. Spare time and sport.

Gardening is well-known favourite. Due to the weather British people manage to do gardening all year round. Mowing grass is also very important, walking is popular too. A pair of walking boots or “wellies”is a very necessary thing for British people. Criket is England’s national sport Football is really popular and some of the English teams are known all over the world- Manchester United, Arsenal, Liverpool. Cycling is another popular activity. Some people like extreme sports like rock climbing and extreme ironing, other people go to the gym, swimming pool or fitness classes. But British people are not the sportiest nation in the world. They like spending time watching  TV . Many British people like travelling abroad. They prefer warm countries as their destinations.

6. English family.

The family in Britain is changing. People get married at a later age and there are a lot of career-oriented women do not want to have children. They prefer to put off having babies. In 1969, the law made it easier to divorce and now Britain is called the divorce capital of Europe. However, most people get married and stay together until the end of their life. Young people in Britain become independent early and try to move out of their parents’ home and to be financially independent. Members of family try to keep in touch and meet not often, only on important occasions like Christmas.

7. Home, sweet home.

The traditional love of the English for their homes is known all over the world. Old sayings like “Home is a castle’ and “There is no place like home” reflect the nature of a real Englishman who cannot imagine his life without a lawn in front of his house or a small garden behind it and a fireplace inside the house. The English are a nation of stay-at-homes. They prefer to spend spare time with their families and to live in the house of their own.

8. Nation of animal lovers.

It is no secret that British people love pets and would do anything to make their life happy. Cats are especially popular because many people live alone. There are 8 million cats in Britain. Other popular pets are dogs, birds, rabbits ,fish, hamsters. Britain was the first country to create a society to protect animals in 1824.It is called the RSPCA-the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. People spend a lot of money for their pets, buying them good food, pampers and some accessories. Some dogs have personal astrologer and psychologist.

9. Meals in England.

British cannot claim to be a nation of good cooks. The best British cooking is in good restaurants and hotels or at home. British tastes have changed a lot over the past years. Today many people want food to be quick and easy. “Ready-made’ meals from supermarkets and “take away” meals from fast food restaurants are very popular. Fish and chips is classic English “take away” food. It is usually bought ready cooked at special shops and taken away in paper to be eaten at home or outside.

If you go to a hotel in Britain and ask for a typical English breakfast, you will get bacon and eggs, sausage, mushrooms, baked beans and tea and toast.

The British population drinks tea, as we know, about 2 000 000 000 cups a day, but some people put milk in it to make it healthier.

10.  English weather.

This is the most important topic in the land. In England this is an ever interesting, even thrilling topic, you must be good at discussing. There is a proverb: “Other  countries have a climate, in Britain we have  weather”.The English say that they have three types of weather: when it rains in the morning,when it rains in the afternoon or when it rains all day long. It is only a joke, but…

Examples for conversation for good weather:

• Lovely day, isn’t it? –Isn ’t it beautiful? -Wonderful, isn’t it?-Personally,I think it is so nice when it is hot,isn’t it?

For bad weather:

• Nasty day,isn’t it? Isn’t it dreadful?

The weather is very convenient topic to fill the gap, because silence is rude Besides, if you do not know how to start the conversation, start it saying about the weather…

11.  Why driving on the left?

The knights with their lances under their right arm naturally passed on each other’s right, and if you passed a stranger on the road you walked on the left to ensure that your protective sword arm was between yourself and him. It was changed under Napoleon because he was left-handed. His armies had to match on the right, so he could keep his sword arm between him and an opponent. From that time any part of the world which was, at some time, part of the British Empire, was thus left-handed and any part colonized by the French was right-handed. The drive on the right policy was adopted by the USA to become free of all remaining links with its British colonial past. It is very to imagine that the British will ever refuse from driving on the left. Not being like everyone else is a good reason not to change.

12.  Some interesting facts:

1)        In Britain they shop in pounds and ounces, though almost everywhere in the world people use grammes and kilogrammes.

2)        As for temperature, even weathermen use Celsius while people in the UK use Farenheit.

3)        The English continue to start their financial year not as other countries do, at the beginning of the calendar year, but at the beginning of April.

4)        The class system has a special meaning for the British. And the most peculiar thing is that the class system there. It is totally dependent on money. This system is more historical than money-measured. Old aristocracy-the royal family, all the dukes, earls and barons are of very small number.

5)        The accent reminds of the class greatly. Most ordinary people have regional accent and upper-class people speak the same language throughout England and Scotland. It is like upper class, which has their own dialect with pronunciation called RP( Received Pronunciation).

6)        The British form the queues whenever they are waiting for something.

Some people even joke that an Englishman even if he is alone forms an orderly queue of one. But this does not mean that they enjoy it. They regard the necessity to wait in the queues for about 3 minutes already a problem.

Conclusion: You can tell: “ I’m British “because:

-I live in the past

-I do not care what people think

-I am a different person when the sun’s out

-I wouldn’t live anymore else

-I never refuse a drink

-I am lost without my dog

-I can’t do without my garden

-I do not speak a foreign language

-There is no place like home

-I drive on the left side of the road

-I do not talk very much to strangers

-I do not show my emotions

-I am a man of humour (I can laugh at myself)

-I am a tea-lover

-I like law and order

-I often say:”Sorry and Pardon”

-I keep a distance while speaking to a person

-I do not like shaking hands

-The weather plays a big role in my life

Every nation has its own traits, they can be either good or bad, English people, I think extraordinary, they differ from other people, may be the reason of it their weather? In any case, English character is full of contrasts, a very interesting theme for studying-.

Contents:

1. British people, as they are

2. English etiquette

3. Strange British customs

4. Holidays

5. Spare time and sport

6. English family

7. Home, sweet home

8. Nation of animal lovers

9. Meals in England

10. English weather

11. Why driving on the left?

12. Some interesting facts

13. Appendix

14.Bibliography

Bibliography:

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2.Сатинова В.Ф. «Читаем и говорим о Британии и британцах»,Москва--Высшая школа,1997г.-225с.

3.БалкЕ.А.., Леменев М.М. «Традиции,обычаи и привычки», Москва-Инфра-М,2001г.-127с

4.АдрианР.У. «Лингвострановедческий словарь», Москва-Русский язык,2000г.-558с

5.Шереметьева А.В.»Страноведческий справочник по английскому языку»,Саратов-Лицей, 2008г.-208с.