18 Nationalities,festivals and languages
While you read
FOUR EXPERIENCES
QUENTIN
Back in 1989,I went on holiday to London to visit somefriends.
The second day I was there,the Notting Hill Carnival was on.
So I went to see what it was all about.It was amazing!
It's like a huge street party right in the middle of London.
It's basically a celebration of Afro-Caribbean culture,
but all kinds of thousands of people there.
There are literally hundreds of thusands of people there.
Anyway,everyone dresses up in outrageous costumees and dances and has a great time.
I met some really nice people that day and it really helped broaden my mind.
I've been back every other year since then.and always look forward to it.
BARNAbY
I've been going to the Glastonbury festival in the west of England for years.
It used to be really great.but it's become a bit commercial now.
It's got too big.Ten years ago.
it was much smaller and it was easier to make friends
and everyone was there for the music.
Nowadays,everything is much more expensive
and it's become a place people go in order to drink and take drugs,
It's got more aggressive too.Things get stolen from your tent.
There are more fights and there are so many people
that you can't even see the bands.
The stages seem to be miles away!I only go out of habit now.I suppose.
RicARdO
Fallas is a big annual festival they hold in my home town,Valencia.
It's held every spring and it commemorates the patron saint of the city.
Lots of people spend the whole year preparing for it.
Each area raises money to build their own fallas
-huge papier-mache models-and they all spend ages making them look great.
We make funny models of famous politicians,
footballers,local celebrities,that kind of thing.
The festival runs all through the beginning of March and it's pretty carzy-lots of drinking,
hundreds of people all throwing fireworks at each other,
street performers and so on.Anyway,on March 19th,
there's a huge fireworks display and then everyone burns all their models!
It's mad,but really good fun.
YASUKO
Hounen Matsuri is a fairly strange festival.
I don't really know much about it.It still happens every year.
in March,but it's mainly for older people.
Most young people just find it a bit embarrassing,I think,
I suppose it's a celebration of spring
and the end of winter and that kind of thing.
People get really drunk on rice wine
and parade this big wooden thing through the streets.
Don't ask me why!Then they take it to the temple and pray and that's it,really.
It's odd,though,because it's really popular with tourists.
I guess it attracts the kind of person
who likes to think they're seeing the real Japan.
whatever that means.
3 Radio interview
You are now going to listen to a radio programme.
One of the speakers is Gareth Davies himself.
The other is a Professor of Modern Languages.
And now we turn on the story of Gareth Davies.which has caused so much discussion recently.
As you probably know.Mr Davies lost his job.
despite being an award-winning teacher of English.
because he failed an exam in Welsh.
He lost a court case recently,where he had argued he shouldn't be forced to have a qualification which wasn't relevant to his job.
To discuss this and other issues about language
we have Gareth himself and Christine Edwards,
Professor of Modern Languages at the University of Eastminster.
First of all,Gareth,I think quite a few people would say,you live in Wales.
you should speak the local language which is Welsh.
Well,I'm not actually sure you can say that Welsh is the local language.
I'd say that the majority of people in Conway speak English as their first mother tongue.
The second thing is.
I am Welsh!OK.my parents moved to London,when I was four because of work,
but I was born here and both my parents come from different parts of Wales.
It's just that neither of them spoke Welsh.
If people want to speak it,fine,
but it's no use to me in my normal life.apart from this stupid bit of paper.
You can't make people learn languages.
Isn't that a point.Christine?
People simply express themselves in the way they want and that happens to be English.
No.I'm sorry,but if you look at all the languages round the world.
one is dying out every two weeks and that's because of English.
I think people think they have to speak English
or they will not be able to get a good job,or succeed in the world.
Also,because America is so rich,people see lots of Hollywood movies,
and listen to lots of American music,
and so far younger people English becomes cool
and they start to want to speak it.
So then you get language like French being diluted with English.
No.when the language dies you also lose the culture and traditions of that country.
Languages need to be protected,
and that's all that's happened here in Garth's case.
So what you're saying is that I'm actually somehow damaging Welsh culture
by not learning the Welsh language!This is crazy.
If kids want to be cool.what's wroing with that?
What givess you the right to tell people how to live and how to speak?
And anyway,
the way you think doesn't change when you're speaking in another language.
When I am speaking Welsh-badly,
I admit-I still want to say the same kind of things I say in English.
I'm still me.I'm not suddenly someone else.
Disagreeing
You can't get a good job if you don't speak English.
Come on!That's bit of an exaggeration!No.it's not.
All the best jobs these days ask you to be fluent in English.
So what you're saying is could be a brilliant medical student,say,
and I couldn't get a job as a doctor because I can't speak English.
Yeah,more or less.
Do you honestly believe that?Yeah,If you don't speak English,you're nothing.
How can you say that?Because it's true.That's crazy.
Listen we're obviously never going to agree,
so let's just talk about something else.shall we?
OK.but you do realise you're wrong!
OK.whatever.I don't want to argue.Let's just agree to disagree.
Stereotypes and reality
1.He's typical Scot-really mean!
Oh,come on!Every Scot I've ever met was really generous.
2.He's typical ltalian-really loud!
Oh,come on.I've got a really good friend who's from rome and he's quite quite.
3.She's typical Japanese-really conservative.Oh,come on.
That's such a stereotype!Lots of Japanese people are really out-going.
4.She's typical small town girl-really conservative.Oh,come on!
Just because you don't come from the city doesn't mean you can't be open-minded.
5.She's typical Parisian-arrogant and snobbish!Oh,come on.
I've got a friend from Paris and she's really nice.
6.The Spanish are much more friendly than most people.
Some of them,maybe,I've met some Spaniards who were really cold and distant.
7.People from Osaka are usually really funny.Oh,come on!
They can't all be funny!There must be some who are as dull as the rest of us!
8.People from the north are much more open and honest than southerners.
Oh,come on!Just because you're a southerner doesn't mean you have to be two-faced.