Carnival time

Differences between Christmas in Britain and in the USA

St. Valentine's Day

St. Valentine's Day from Ana Arias Castro

British currency and money

This presentation by Taylor shows the different coins and bills used in the USA:

Moneymaterials from Ana Arias Castro

And this other presentation will tell you about British money:

British currency from Ludivina

Christmas in English-speaking countries

Christmas time from Ana Arias Castro

Dates in English

Christmas vocabulary

What are New Year's Resolutions?

A New Year's resolution is a tradition, most common in the Western Hemisphere but also found in the Eastern Hemisphere, in which a person resolves to change an undesired trait or behavior.

Religious origins

• Babylonians made promises to their gods at the start of each year that they would return borrowed objects and pay their debts
• The Romans began each year by making promises to the god Janus, for whom the month of January is named.
• In the Medieval era, the knights took the "peacock vow" at the end of the Christmas season each year to re-affirm their commitment to chivalry
• At watchnight services, many Christians prepare for the year ahead by praying and making these resolutions
• This tradition has many other religious parallels.

image from Wikipedia

Popular goals

• Improve physical well-being: eat healthy food, lose weight, exercise more, eat better, drink less alcohol, quit smoking, stop biting nails, get rid of old bad habits
• Improve mental well-being: think positive, laugh more often, enjoy life
• Improve finances: get out of debt, save money, make small investments
• Improve career: perform better at current job, get a better job, establish own business
• Improve education: improve grades, get a better education, learn something new (such as a foreign language or music), study often, read more books, improve talents
• Improve self: become more organized, reduce stress, be less grumpy, manage time, be more independent, perhaps watch less television, play fewer sitting-down video games
• Take a trip
• Volunteer to help others, practice life skills, use civic virtue, give to charity, volunteer to work part-time in a charity organization
• Get along better with people, improve social skills, enhance social intelligence
• Make new friends
• Spend quality time with family members
• Settle down, get engaged/get married, have kids
• Pray more, be closer to God, be more spiritual
• Be more involved in sports or different activities
• Spend less time on social media (such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, etc.)

Success rate
The most common reason for participants failing their New Years' Resolutions was setting themselves unrealistic goals (35%), while 33% didn't keep track of their progress and a further 23% forgot about it. About one in 10 respondents claimed they made too many resolutions.

A 2007 study by Richard Wiseman from the University of Bristol involving 3,000 people showed that 88% of those who set New Year resolutions fail, despite the fact that 52% of the study's participants were confident of success at the beginning. Men achieved their goal 22% more often when they engaged in goal setting, (a system where small measurable goals are being set; such as, a pound a week, instead of saying "lose weight"), while women succeeded 10% more when they made their goals public and got support from their friends.

Information from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Year's_resolution

Easter in Britain and in the United States

Easter in britain from Olivia Tubby

Easter presentation (1) from albinonunez

 

What are New Year's Resolutions?

early 20th century card - Wikipedia

A New Year's resolution is a tradition in which a person makes a promise to do an act of self-improvement or something slightly nice, such as opening doors for people beginning from New Year's Day.

Religious origins and history

• Babylonians made promises to their gods at the start of each year that they would return borrowed objects and pay their debts.
• The Romans began each year by making promises to the god Janus, for whom the month of January is named.
• In the Medieval era, the knights took the "peacock vow" at the end of the Christmas season each year to re-affirm their commitment to chivalry.
• At watchnight services, many Christians prepare for the year ahead by praying and making these resolutions.
• There are other religious parallels to this tradition. During Judaism's New Year, Rosh Hashanah, through the High Holidays and culminating in Yom Kippur (the Day of Atonement), one is to reflect upon one's wrongdoings over the year and both seek and offer forgiveness. People may act similarly during the Christian liturgical season of Lent, though the motive behind this holiday is more of sacrifice than of responsibility, in fact the practice of New Year's resolutions partially came from the Lenten sacrifices. The concept, regardless of creed, is to reflect upon self-improvement annually.

Participation

At the end of the Great Depression, about a quarter of American adults formed New Year's resolutions. At the start of the 21st century, about 40% did.

Most typical resolutions

Some examples include resolutions to donate to the poor more often, to become more assertive, or to become more environmentally responsible.

Popular goals include resolutions to:

• Improve physical well-being: eat healthy food, lose weight, exercise more, eat better, drink less alcohol, quit smoking, stop biting nails, get rid of old bad habits
• Improve mental well-being: think positive, laugh more often, enjoy life
• Improve finances: get out of debt, save money, make small investments
• Improve career: perform better at current job, get a better job, establish own business
• Improve education: improve grades, get a better education, learn something new (such as a foreign language or music), study often, read more books, improve talents
• Improve self: become more organized, reduce stress, be less grumpy, manage time, be more independent, perhaps watch less television, play fewer sitting-down video games
• Take a trip
• Volunteer to help others, practice life skills, use civic virtue, give to charity, volunteer to work part-time in a charity organization
• Get along better with people, improve social skills, enhance social intelligence
• Make new friends
• Spend quality time with family members
• Settle down, get engaged/get married, have kids
• Pray more, be closer to God, be more spiritual
• Be more involved in sports or different activities

Success rate

The most common reason for participants failing their New Years' Resolutions was setting themselves unrealistic goals (35%), while 33% didn't keep track of their progress and a further 23% forgot about it. About one in 10 respondents claimed they made too many resolutions.

Information taken from Wikipedia

Christmas day in the UK

Christmas day, December 25th, is one of the most important date in the Christian calendar. It has been celebrated for centuries and many traditions are nowadays associated to it. Here you are some of them:

• Opening Christmas Presents. This is the favourite day for children. After waking up very early in the morning, they go and check their stockings which have been filled by Father Christmas and then unwrap the presents before breakfast. Presents are usually found and unwrapped under the Christmas tree.
• Giving presents or gifts has been a tradition for centuries and it is related to the gifts that the three wise men or Magi took to Jesus in Bethlehem. In fact, in some countries, such as Spain, presents are given on Epiphany day, closely linked to the presence of the Magi.

• Attending Mass. Many Christia
  ns go to church, attend mass services and sing carols to celebrate the birth of Jesus. It is a special mass service. Some even attend mass at 0:00, the so-called Midnight Mass.

• Christmas dinner and Christmas tea. The whole family gather for Christmas dinner at mid-day and then in the evening for Christmas tea. A typical dish for the dinner is Christmas pudding. Nowadays, a typical Christmas dinner probably consists of prawns or smoked salmon. The main course is likely to be turkey. This is usually followed by Christmas pudding; a rich fruit pudding served with brandy sauce or brandy butter.

• The Queen's Speech. the Queen gives her Message to the nation in the afternoon of Christmas day and it is broadcast on both radio and television. The tradition began in 1932 when King George V read a speech written by writer Rudyard Kipling. As the broadcast was an enormous success it has continued up to the present.

• Christmas Crackers. Crackers are traditional items in British Christmas. They consist of a cardboard tube wrapped in a brightly decorated twist of paper, looking like an enormous  sweet-wrapper and they go with the Christmas dinner. The cracker is pulled by two people and each one contains a small toy, a joke or motto, and a tissue-paper crown hat, usually a crown. 

• Christmas Cards. Cards became very popular in 19th century England (also called Victorian England). They usually include the message of "Merry Christmas" and are often produced by Charities or organizations such as UNICEF. Families display them as part of their Christmas decoration. They are usually sent before Christmas and some families receive over 100 cards from friends and family.

Learn More:

http://projectbritain.com/Xmas/day.html

https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christmas

Christmas Eve in Britain

stocking

Christmas traditionally starts at sunset on 24 December. This is called Christmas Evening or Eve.

 Christmas Eve in Britain


Father Christmas. Night on Christmas Eve is a very exciting time for children. It is the time when Santa Claus or Father Christmas comes. Children often leave some food, such asmince pies and brandy, for Father Christmas, and a carrot for the reindeer.

Christmas Stockings. From 1870, children have hung up Christmas stockings at the ends of their beds or along the mantelpiece above the fireplace before going to sleep. On Christmas morning they expect some presents in them: chocolate, nuts, etc.

Carol Service. Christians usually go to a special carol service at their church on Christmas Eve night. There are usually two carols services:

• Candle Lit Service - in the early evening. The attendants hold a candle each while they sing Christmas carols and watch a Nativity performed by children.
• Midnight Mass. Christians welcome Christmas Day in and rejoice in the coming of Jesus Christ. This mass takes place at midnight.

Christmas Eve Superstitions

• An old tale says that bread baked on Christmas Eve will never go mouldy.
• At midnight, a certain rose slowly opens and re-closes its petals to welcome baby Jesus. 
• Also at midnight, all the sheep in the fields turn and bow towards the East. 

Learn More:
Project Britain. Learn More.
Learn English

Advent time (four weeks before Christmas)

Advent calendar

Advent is not widely celebrated in England, its celebration actually originated in Germany, although in the church calendar Advent is the official start of the run up to Christmas.

Two traditions that have caught on in England are the Advent calendar and the Advent candle. The Advent Calendar originated in the 19th Century from the protestant area of Germany. Protestant Christian families made a chalk line for every day in December until Christmas Eve. Before long, commercial entrepreneurs started replacing the ephemeral chalk lines with printed calendars. The first known Advent Calendar is for the advent of 1851. Nowadays it is usually a thin rectangular card with 24 or 25 doors. The doors are numbered 1-24/25. Door number 1 is opened on the 1st of December, door 2 on the 2nd etc. Behind each door there is a Christmas scene (but the most popular ones have a chocolate behind each door) .

"Marianne Schneegans Adventskalender" by Marianne Schneegans

An Advent candle often has 25 marks on it, a bit of the candle is burned down by one mark each day. In some homes, 24 candles are kept, one for each night from December 1 through Christmas eve. One candle is lit for a while on December 1, then a new candle is added each day for the 24 day period. However, it is now more common to have four candles for the four weeks before Christmas. One candle is lit on the first Sunday, two the second week and so on. The candles were often placed on a wreath upon the dining room table. Advent candles are lit in many homes, schools and churches, in England, with a final central candle lit on Christmas Day; these are often on a hanging decoration known as an "Advent Crown." They became exceedingly popular due to a children's TV programme called Blue Peter, who every year made an advent crown from old coathangers, tinsel and candles! Well, they used to use candles, but because of health and safety insanity they now give instructions using baubles - it's not really the same, but you can make an advent crown following the instructions in this pdf file.

Information from http://www.learnenglish.de/culture/christmas.html#sthash.cJyTOjiU.dpuf

Presentation about Liverpool

This is the presentation about Liverpool within our school project about English-speaking cities:

United Kingdom / Great Britain

British and American English

This presentation summarizes some of the main differences between British and American English:

British and American English from lilianamonserrat







Then if you want to try this exercise, you'll have to match the most common vocabulary which changes from one variety of English to the other.

For a more thorough explanation of these differences, read the article in Wikipedia.

St Patrick's Day

This week, on the 17th of March, st. Patrick's day will be celebrated. Here you are some information and activities about this date.

St. Patrick's Day is celebrated every 17th of March by the Irish and Irish origin people all over the world, particularly in the USA. People usually celebrate it wearing something green, eating green food, drinking green drinks or using Irish symbols such as clover, Leprechauns, etc.

1) ESL activity video- Reading comprehension activity

2) Riverdance (video)

3) Gaelic football rules

4)How to celebrate St. Patrick like and Irishman.

• What do you think of these traditions?

5) And so, what are these (pictures from wikipedia):

And these are some of the cities where St. Patrick's day is celebrated: (These pictures have been taken from Wikipedia)

DUBLIN (IRELAND)

Dublin-picture from Wikipedia

SYDNEY (AUSTRALIA)

Sydney-picture from Wikipedia

WASHINGTON  D.C. (UNITED STATES OF AMERICA)

Washington D.C. - picture from Wikipedia

LONDON (UNITED KINGDOM)

London-picture from Wikipedia

 CHICAGO (UNITED STATES OF AMERICA) 

  

picture by Sabela Arias 

picture by Sabela Arias 

picture by Sabela Arias 

picture by Sabela Arias 

Advice for your project on English-speaking cities

SOME ADVICE:

• Choose some relevant websites in English. These websites should offer information that you can easily understand.
• Take information from your sources but rewrite it, don't just copy and paste: that is plagiarism.
• Choose interesting, relevant pictures to illustrate.
• Provide interesting information, suggest useful activities and exciting places to visit.
• Write short sentences if you are not sure about grammar. It is easier to make mistakes if your sentences are longer.
• At the end you should mention ALL the sources in the Reference section (the last slide)
• When you finish, double check to avoid mistakes.

This is the template for our etwinning project about English-cities:

City project from Ana Arias Castro

This is a Word 2010 version. If you need a Word 2003 template try this other link.

And this is an example about New York City. However, your presentation can be completely different:

New York City from Ana Arias Castro

Template for our project about English-speaking cities

This is the template for our etwinning project about English-cities:

City project from Ana Arias Castro

This is a Word 2010 version. If you need a Word 2003 template try this other link.

And this is an example about New York City. However, your presentation can be completely different:

New York City from Ana Arias Castro

New Year's Traditions

The New Year is widely celebrated in countries that share our calendar and, thus, start the New Year on the 1st of January every year.

In English-speaking countries most people sing "Auld Lang Syne" as the new year begins. This poem was composed by Scottish poet Robert Burns and was made popular by Scottish immigrants in Canada.

In the USA probably the most famous tradition is the dropping of the New Year ball in Times Square, New York City, at 11:59 P.M. Thousands of people watch the ball make its one-minute descent, arriving exactly at midnight. The tradition first began in 1907. 

There are other common traditions all over the world:

New Year's Resolutions: It is believed that the Babylonians were the first to make New Year's resolutions, and people all over the world have been breaking them ever since. The early Christians believed the first day of the new year should be spent reflecting on past mistakes and resolving to improve oneself in the new year.

Fireworks: Noisemaking and fireworks on New Year's eve is believed to have originated in ancient times, when noise and fire were thought to dispel evil spirits and bring good luck. The Chinese are credited with inventing fireworks and use them to spectacular effect in their New Year's celebrations.

Read More:

• About traditions in many different countries
• Infoplease