COCKNEY RHYMING SLANG
What a surprise!!!! For me that is difficult enough to understand p English speaking people, to discover there are so many accents and so different forms to speak English depending of the area where people is living . This make me the things more difficult…
But in spite of that I go to the Goggle as Felicity suggest as to find more information about Cockney Rhyming Slang
And I have found some interesting thinks that help me to understand better this king of language that I want to write to you.
Cockney Rhyming Slang is a coded language invented in the 19th century by Cockneys so they could speak in front of the police without being understood.
It uses a phrase that rhymes with a word, instead on the word itself .
For example.
“stairs” becomes apples and pears
“phone” becomes dog and bone
The cockney language can be traced back to the early part of the 19th century , when Sin Robert Peel formed the fist police force stationed at Bow street, People living here belonged to the lowest class of the society, and they had a lot of problems with the Police, so they invented this kind of language to hide the true meaning of discussions from the Police and the informers for the Police.
But Who is a Cockney????
A cockney traditionally is a person born within hearing distance of the sound of Bow bells, meaning within the sound of the bells of the Church of Saint Mary Le Bow in Cheapside, London, and refers to an East London accent, however to most people living outside London the term Cockney means a Londonder….
The I want to write you some amusing examples:
He rarely using his loaf of bread means He rarely using his head
He’s always telling porkies, means He is always telling lies
Pull on yer weasel means put on your coat
You have got a lovely set of Bacons means You have got love legs
The currant bun’s hot today means The sun shines hot today
She is always on the dog means She is always on the phone
I was amusing me discovering the meaning of the different sentences
Buy for the English society this is not a game, because Cockney Rhyming Slang , is like a kind of culture and behaviour in London, not in the 19th century, nowadays too…because in “el Periodico” newspaper I found last Saturday an article about a punk group “The Cockney Rejects” that will play in the Razzmatazz pub
This group was founded in 1977, his members belonged to the London worker class and the Jamaican Immigrants…without any political context and his most famous song is “Oi Oi Oi” and with his last song ”Unforgiven” they want to translate the rhythm of OI to the 21 century…
Maybe you that are younger that me know the history of this music complex formed by four musicians.
…
lunes, 18 de mayo de 2009
miércoles, 13 de mayo de 2009
Hello kids..
Reading “WATCHING THE ENGLISH” again, I am discovering a lot of things about English people that I haven’t imagined before….
I didn’t know that social classes are so important for English people. Here, in Spain , almost in the circle of people that I am, social classes are not very important, I hope.
I have discovered that for English people exist a big range of social classes and levels: upper class, middle class, middle-middle class, higher class, modest-middle class, working class, low class. And it is very difficult to pass from one class to another, so, to climb from the middle class to the upper class
The middle classes are particulary uncomfortable about class to the upper class, and well-meaning upper middles are the most squeamish of all. Upper class English people are also often rather blunt and no-nonsense about class.
Following the book, English people generally do not have problem to recognize at the most three classes: working, middle and upper. They have a sort of class radar, but for us, the foreing people things are more difficult, but I want to tell you a key that is a kind of class indicator to discover at what class belong your English friends….
“THE SEVEN DEADLY SINS”
they are seven words that the English uppers and uppers middles regards as infallible shibboleths
PARDON
This word is the most notorius pet hate of the upper and upper middle classes, so, all of them know that “pardon” is as much worse than “fuck” . Some even refer to lower-middle-class suburbs as “Pardonia”
A lower middle or middle-middle person will say “pardon” and an upper-middle will say “sorry”
TOILET
Toilet is another word that makes the higher class flinch. The correct upper-middle/upper term is “loo” or “lavatory”.
The working classes say “toilet” and may also sometimes say “bog”
SERVIETTE
A serviette is what the inhabitants of Pardonia call a napkin
Upper middle and upper-class mothers get very upset when their children learn to say “serviette” from their lower-class nannies and have to be painstakingly retrained to say “napkin”
DINNER
There is nothing wrong with the word “dinner” itself, it is only used by the working class to refer the midday meal, with should be called “lunch”
Calling your evening meal “tea” is also a working-class indicator, the higher echelons call this meal “dinner” or “supper”
A supper is an informal family meal eaten in the kitchen, and the uppers and upper-middles use the term “supper” more than middles and lower-middles.
“tea” for the higher classes is taken at around four o’clock, and consists of tea and cakes and perhaps little sandwiches, the lower classes call this meal “afternoon tea”
SETTLEE
If people called a seat for two or more people “settle” or “couch” , they are no higher than middle-middle class. If they called it “sofa”
They are upper-middle class.
LOUNGE
And what do they call the room in witch the settle/sofa is to be found?? Settles are found in “lounges” or “living rooms” , sofas in “sitting rooms” or “drawing rooms” . You may occasionally hear an upper middle-class person say “living room” but only middle-middles and below say “lounge”
SWEET
Like dinner, this word is not in itself a class indicator, but the upper middle and upper classes insist that the sweet course at the end of a meal is called “pudding” , never “sweet” on “afters” on “desert”
Sweet can be used as an adjective, but as a noun it is a piece of confectionery.
The course at the end of a meal is always “pudding” whatever it consists of a slice of cake or a lemon sorbet, But nowadays thanks to the American influence some young upper middles ate starting to say “desert” but it can also cause confusion, because for the upperclasses “desert” traditionally means a selection of fresh fruits to eat after the pudding.
So, now you have a good class test you can try when talking to a English people.. Ask them some questions and hear their answers with attention. If they say sorry or pardon,
If they used sweet or pudding, serviette or napkin…. But attention, because this is a particulary useful work for spotting middle-middle social climbers trying to pass an upper middle, they may have learn not to say pardon as toilet but they are often not aware that lounge is also a deadly sin.
MY GOD!!!! This is so complicated for me… I fell so happy when I can follow and understand English people talking that I can realized hearing their accent or the words than they used to recognized at what kind of social class they belong…
But may be you can try!!!
See you soon
Montserrat.-
I didn’t know that social classes are so important for English people. Here, in Spain , almost in the circle of people that I am, social classes are not very important, I hope.
I have discovered that for English people exist a big range of social classes and levels: upper class, middle class, middle-middle class, higher class, modest-middle class, working class, low class. And it is very difficult to pass from one class to another, so, to climb from the middle class to the upper class
The middle classes are particulary uncomfortable about class to the upper class, and well-meaning upper middles are the most squeamish of all. Upper class English people are also often rather blunt and no-nonsense about class.
Following the book, English people generally do not have problem to recognize at the most three classes: working, middle and upper. They have a sort of class radar, but for us, the foreing people things are more difficult, but I want to tell you a key that is a kind of class indicator to discover at what class belong your English friends….
“THE SEVEN DEADLY SINS”
they are seven words that the English uppers and uppers middles regards as infallible shibboleths
PARDON
This word is the most notorius pet hate of the upper and upper middle classes, so, all of them know that “pardon” is as much worse than “fuck” . Some even refer to lower-middle-class suburbs as “Pardonia”
A lower middle or middle-middle person will say “pardon” and an upper-middle will say “sorry”
TOILET
Toilet is another word that makes the higher class flinch. The correct upper-middle/upper term is “loo” or “lavatory”.
The working classes say “toilet” and may also sometimes say “bog”
SERVIETTE
A serviette is what the inhabitants of Pardonia call a napkin
Upper middle and upper-class mothers get very upset when their children learn to say “serviette” from their lower-class nannies and have to be painstakingly retrained to say “napkin”
DINNER
There is nothing wrong with the word “dinner” itself, it is only used by the working class to refer the midday meal, with should be called “lunch”
Calling your evening meal “tea” is also a working-class indicator, the higher echelons call this meal “dinner” or “supper”
A supper is an informal family meal eaten in the kitchen, and the uppers and upper-middles use the term “supper” more than middles and lower-middles.
“tea” for the higher classes is taken at around four o’clock, and consists of tea and cakes and perhaps little sandwiches, the lower classes call this meal “afternoon tea”
SETTLEE
If people called a seat for two or more people “settle” or “couch” , they are no higher than middle-middle class. If they called it “sofa”
They are upper-middle class.
LOUNGE
And what do they call the room in witch the settle/sofa is to be found?? Settles are found in “lounges” or “living rooms” , sofas in “sitting rooms” or “drawing rooms” . You may occasionally hear an upper middle-class person say “living room” but only middle-middles and below say “lounge”
SWEET
Like dinner, this word is not in itself a class indicator, but the upper middle and upper classes insist that the sweet course at the end of a meal is called “pudding” , never “sweet” on “afters” on “desert”
Sweet can be used as an adjective, but as a noun it is a piece of confectionery.
The course at the end of a meal is always “pudding” whatever it consists of a slice of cake or a lemon sorbet, But nowadays thanks to the American influence some young upper middles ate starting to say “desert” but it can also cause confusion, because for the upperclasses “desert” traditionally means a selection of fresh fruits to eat after the pudding.
So, now you have a good class test you can try when talking to a English people.. Ask them some questions and hear their answers with attention. If they say sorry or pardon,
If they used sweet or pudding, serviette or napkin…. But attention, because this is a particulary useful work for spotting middle-middle social climbers trying to pass an upper middle, they may have learn not to say pardon as toilet but they are often not aware that lounge is also a deadly sin.
MY GOD!!!! This is so complicated for me… I fell so happy when I can follow and understand English people talking that I can realized hearing their accent or the words than they used to recognized at what kind of social class they belong…
But may be you can try!!!
See you soon
Montserrat.-
lunes, 4 de mayo de 2009
watching the english 2. composition
Composition
WATCHING THE ENGLISH
RITES OF PASSAGE
Rites of passage are rites which accompany every change of place, state social position and age. ( like: christenings, weddings, funerals…..and other big celebrations along the year like Christmas, New Year’s ’eve, Easter, mayday Halloween, Mother’s day, Valentine’s day, and other special moments like graduations, eighteen birthday celebrations….)
These kind of celebrations with little or big differences are common in our society.
Because only humans seem to feel the necessity to make an almighty song-and-dance over each of these life-cycle transitions, surrounding them with elaborate rituals and investing every biological and seasonal change with deep social significance.
There are a lot of things that are similar to the United Kingdom and other areas in Western Europe, so our babies are christened in white and have godparents, girls wear white wedding clothes, we wear black at funerals, we exchange gifts at Christmas, eat chocolate eggs in Easter, sing “happy birthday to you”, translated in our languages and so on….
When I was reading this part of the book I remember the film “Four weddings and a Funeral” and I realized that there are little differences. Each wedding can be different, there are a lot of thinks and connotations like: the quantity of money that you can spent for the celebration, season, place, moment of the day morning or evening…….it is not the same a wedding in spring or in winter, or in a religious or a civil ceremony….
When I saw this film, I realized that for English people are more important friends than family and relatives…. Here in Spain, parents, parent’s friends or family are very important, specially if parents pay the celebration….and there are a lot of old people in this kind of celebrations….
For funerals, here in Spain, people make a lot of noise, people cry, with a lot of tears, specially if you live in a village, all the people go to visit the deceased house, talking and kissing the family,,,, and the family have to make coffee and serve drinks… it is very sad, specially if the deceased is a very close relative, like mother, father or same son.….I remember when my father dead, he was a young man, and my sister and me have to receive all the people that came home, all the people kissed us, and it was extremely nasty, after five of six hours, when almost all the village people passed there, we needed to clean our faces with hot water and soap.
Here we don’t use to put so many flowers over the coffin as English people, and relatives or friends don’t talk at the celebrations, just the clergymen do formal eulogies at funerals….but some thinks are changing, because nowadays it is more modern to go to the morgue and there things are more formal than at home.
I remember that once I was at Montserrat with a group of British tourists, (I think that you know that is very useful to celebrate weddings there)….and wedding took place, all the people look very smart with beautiful and expensive clothes, new bags and shoes, and so on. It was in winter time and a lot of women were wearing in black….British people were very interesting to look how the things took place….and they made me a “strange question”: Why all the women were wearing in black??? Well, because black is an elegant colour, specially in winter when we wear warm clothes, was my answer, what??? For them black was the colour that people use to wear at funerals only….
Then I remember that the Mother Queen, in spite of that she was a very old lady, she used to wear pink, almond green, baby blue, lemon yellow coats, so very very clear colours in winter too.
Little differences of taste….
Another day I would like to write to you about the use of alcohol in the rites of passage…. We (people on the Mediterranean countries) have another concept about wines and champagne or cava wines.
WATCHING THE ENGLISH
RITES OF PASSAGE
Rites of passage are rites which accompany every change of place, state social position and age. ( like: christenings, weddings, funerals…..and other big celebrations along the year like Christmas, New Year’s ’eve, Easter, mayday Halloween, Mother’s day, Valentine’s day, and other special moments like graduations, eighteen birthday celebrations….)
These kind of celebrations with little or big differences are common in our society.
Because only humans seem to feel the necessity to make an almighty song-and-dance over each of these life-cycle transitions, surrounding them with elaborate rituals and investing every biological and seasonal change with deep social significance.
There are a lot of things that are similar to the United Kingdom and other areas in Western Europe, so our babies are christened in white and have godparents, girls wear white wedding clothes, we wear black at funerals, we exchange gifts at Christmas, eat chocolate eggs in Easter, sing “happy birthday to you”, translated in our languages and so on….
When I was reading this part of the book I remember the film “Four weddings and a Funeral” and I realized that there are little differences. Each wedding can be different, there are a lot of thinks and connotations like: the quantity of money that you can spent for the celebration, season, place, moment of the day morning or evening…….it is not the same a wedding in spring or in winter, or in a religious or a civil ceremony….
When I saw this film, I realized that for English people are more important friends than family and relatives…. Here in Spain, parents, parent’s friends or family are very important, specially if parents pay the celebration….and there are a lot of old people in this kind of celebrations….
For funerals, here in Spain, people make a lot of noise, people cry, with a lot of tears, specially if you live in a village, all the people go to visit the deceased house, talking and kissing the family,,,, and the family have to make coffee and serve drinks… it is very sad, specially if the deceased is a very close relative, like mother, father or same son.….I remember when my father dead, he was a young man, and my sister and me have to receive all the people that came home, all the people kissed us, and it was extremely nasty, after five of six hours, when almost all the village people passed there, we needed to clean our faces with hot water and soap.
Here we don’t use to put so many flowers over the coffin as English people, and relatives or friends don’t talk at the celebrations, just the clergymen do formal eulogies at funerals….but some thinks are changing, because nowadays it is more modern to go to the morgue and there things are more formal than at home.
I remember that once I was at Montserrat with a group of British tourists, (I think that you know that is very useful to celebrate weddings there)….and wedding took place, all the people look very smart with beautiful and expensive clothes, new bags and shoes, and so on. It was in winter time and a lot of women were wearing in black….British people were very interesting to look how the things took place….and they made me a “strange question”: Why all the women were wearing in black??? Well, because black is an elegant colour, specially in winter when we wear warm clothes, was my answer, what??? For them black was the colour that people use to wear at funerals only….
Then I remember that the Mother Queen, in spite of that she was a very old lady, she used to wear pink, almond green, baby blue, lemon yellow coats, so very very clear colours in winter too.
Little differences of taste….
Another day I would like to write to you about the use of alcohol in the rites of passage…. We (people on the Mediterranean countries) have another concept about wines and champagne or cava wines.
lunes, 13 de abril de 2009
tie a yellow ribbon around the old oak tree
Reading again the text that Felicity bring us last day, and thinking and thinking about the sentence “tie a Yellow Ribbon round the old oak tree”, I found in the back of my mind, that this sentence belonged to a very famous song….a kind of Folk Song…
I repeat, and repeat, and repeat it and finally I was able to sing the song in its Spanish translation too.
I don’t’ know how no one at class could remember it…
It was very , but very famous, when I was a girl….then I realized that I was a girl long time ago….when all the people sang these song….( along the sixties or may be at the beginning of the seventies) you haven’t still born….My God how old am I !!!!!, but I can remember too a king of film with the tree full of yellow ribbons flying in the wind, when the bus passed….
Then at home I looking for it at the Google….and I found it of course, and there were a lot of entrances about it….
The was composed by Tony Orlando and Dawn, but it was sang by a lot of singers and complexes….
And if you enter in You Tube, it is possible to head the music too.
I am sure that if you heard the music someone of your will remember it.
It is a beautiful song, very romantic, and for this I copy here the letter for you to read.
In one of the entrances there is the literal translation too ,but the literal translation is impossible to sing , the Spanish translation to sing was something like “ pon alrededor del viejo roble aquel una cinta si tu pensante en mi….”
TIE A YELLOW RIBBON AROUND THE OLD OAK TREE
I’m coming home. I’ve done my time
Now I have got to know what is and isn’t mine
If you received my letter telling you I’d soon be free.
Then you will know just what to do
If you still want me
If you still want me
Whoa, tie a yellow ribbon ‘round the old oak tree
It’s been three long years
Do you still want me?
If I don’t see a yellow ribbon ‘ round the old oak tree
I will stay on the bus
Forget about us
Put the blame on me
If I don’t see a yellow ribbon round the old oak tress
Bus driver, please look for me
‘cause I couldn’t bear to see what I might see
I’m really still in prison
And my love, she holds the key
A simple yellow ribbon’s what I need to set me free
I wrote and told her please
Whoa, tie a yellow ribbon round the old oak tree
It’s bees three long years
Do you still want me?
If I don’t see a ribbon round the old oak tree
I’ll stay on the bus
Forget about us
Put the blame on me
If I don’t see a yellow ribbon round the old oak tree
Now the whole damned bus is cheerin’
And I can’t believe I see
A hundred yellow ribbons round the old oak tree
I’m coming home.
I hope that you will enjoyed it
Have a good Easter…
Montserrat.
I repeat, and repeat, and repeat it and finally I was able to sing the song in its Spanish translation too.
I don’t’ know how no one at class could remember it…
It was very , but very famous, when I was a girl….then I realized that I was a girl long time ago….when all the people sang these song….( along the sixties or may be at the beginning of the seventies) you haven’t still born….My God how old am I !!!!!, but I can remember too a king of film with the tree full of yellow ribbons flying in the wind, when the bus passed….
Then at home I looking for it at the Google….and I found it of course, and there were a lot of entrances about it….
The was composed by Tony Orlando and Dawn, but it was sang by a lot of singers and complexes….
And if you enter in You Tube, it is possible to head the music too.
I am sure that if you heard the music someone of your will remember it.
It is a beautiful song, very romantic, and for this I copy here the letter for you to read.
In one of the entrances there is the literal translation too ,but the literal translation is impossible to sing , the Spanish translation to sing was something like “ pon alrededor del viejo roble aquel una cinta si tu pensante en mi….”
TIE A YELLOW RIBBON AROUND THE OLD OAK TREE
I’m coming home. I’ve done my time
Now I have got to know what is and isn’t mine
If you received my letter telling you I’d soon be free.
Then you will know just what to do
If you still want me
If you still want me
Whoa, tie a yellow ribbon ‘round the old oak tree
It’s been three long years
Do you still want me?
If I don’t see a yellow ribbon ‘ round the old oak tree
I will stay on the bus
Forget about us
Put the blame on me
If I don’t see a yellow ribbon round the old oak tress
Bus driver, please look for me
‘cause I couldn’t bear to see what I might see
I’m really still in prison
And my love, she holds the key
A simple yellow ribbon’s what I need to set me free
I wrote and told her please
Whoa, tie a yellow ribbon round the old oak tree
It’s bees three long years
Do you still want me?
If I don’t see a ribbon round the old oak tree
I’ll stay on the bus
Forget about us
Put the blame on me
If I don’t see a yellow ribbon round the old oak tree
Now the whole damned bus is cheerin’
And I can’t believe I see
A hundred yellow ribbons round the old oak tree
I’m coming home.
I hope that you will enjoyed it
Have a good Easter…
Montserrat.
martes, 31 de marzo de 2009
watching the english comments
Composition
I am reading the book “WATCHING THE ENGLISH” and I want to write something in my blog about it.
I choosed this book, because my daughter’s teacher has suggested to her to read this book. For this second term she has to choose two chapters and to comment them.
We have choosed “Home rules” and I found it very very nice., with a lot of beautiful worlds like “nestbuildings” , “DIY doityourself” , “housewarming” or “fatherland”….
In 2006 we spent our summer holidays in Bretagne (France) , and we hire a little house (by internet) to an English couple.
Usually we spend our summer holidays in apartments, we have visited a lot of countries because we have two weeks in a “timesharing” society and we change our apartment with other people, so we know a lot of holiday complexes, but that year we had not any possibility to change and we had to hire the house directly from the owner.
And in the meanwhile that I was reading these part of the book I remember that house very well.
It was in the countryside in a little village near the sea, where the people speak French with a difficult accent .
The house was at the end of a county dirt road, surrounded by fields and trees, with climbing plants of the walls, It hasn’t the typical front and back gardens, but a mixture of them in front of the house, with some bushes and pots full of little colourful flowers, a wooden table and two seats.
The house was very little, as a holiday house to rent, with two floors. Downstairs a big piece: kitchen, dinning room and living room together , and upstairs two bedrooms and two bathrooms….but the thing that I remember the more is that it was full of details and personal touches, as curtains, cushions, carpets, beautiful bedclothes…, pictures everywhere, embroideries,
All the things that you need in a house and more….
But not the normal things, like pots and things to cook, dishes, glasses and so on. …matches, candles, plastic bags, nails knitting needles, soap, shampooing, toilet paper, cologne, food like: honey, sugar, tea, jam, salt, wine and cava wine too!!!! books, cd’s, videos… a lot of tourist brochures in order to know better the area, a book where the guests can write their experiences…. I don’t know if you understand me, but the owners try to create a warm atmosphere that the guests could feel there than in their own house.
I never lived in an English house, like a lot of Spanish students that go to England to learn the language, and I have just this image like a typical English house.
I hope to read more parts of this book and write my impressions to you.
Montserrat.-
I am reading the book “WATCHING THE ENGLISH” and I want to write something in my blog about it.
I choosed this book, because my daughter’s teacher has suggested to her to read this book. For this second term she has to choose two chapters and to comment them.
We have choosed “Home rules” and I found it very very nice., with a lot of beautiful worlds like “nestbuildings” , “DIY doityourself” , “housewarming” or “fatherland”….
In 2006 we spent our summer holidays in Bretagne (France) , and we hire a little house (by internet) to an English couple.
Usually we spend our summer holidays in apartments, we have visited a lot of countries because we have two weeks in a “timesharing” society and we change our apartment with other people, so we know a lot of holiday complexes, but that year we had not any possibility to change and we had to hire the house directly from the owner.
And in the meanwhile that I was reading these part of the book I remember that house very well.
It was in the countryside in a little village near the sea, where the people speak French with a difficult accent .
The house was at the end of a county dirt road, surrounded by fields and trees, with climbing plants of the walls, It hasn’t the typical front and back gardens, but a mixture of them in front of the house, with some bushes and pots full of little colourful flowers, a wooden table and two seats.
The house was very little, as a holiday house to rent, with two floors. Downstairs a big piece: kitchen, dinning room and living room together , and upstairs two bedrooms and two bathrooms….but the thing that I remember the more is that it was full of details and personal touches, as curtains, cushions, carpets, beautiful bedclothes…, pictures everywhere, embroideries,
All the things that you need in a house and more….
But not the normal things, like pots and things to cook, dishes, glasses and so on. …matches, candles, plastic bags, nails knitting needles, soap, shampooing, toilet paper, cologne, food like: honey, sugar, tea, jam, salt, wine and cava wine too!!!! books, cd’s, videos… a lot of tourist brochures in order to know better the area, a book where the guests can write their experiences…. I don’t know if you understand me, but the owners try to create a warm atmosphere that the guests could feel there than in their own house.
I never lived in an English house, like a lot of Spanish students that go to England to learn the language, and I have just this image like a typical English house.
I hope to read more parts of this book and write my impressions to you.
Montserrat.-
lunes, 16 de marzo de 2009
composition:BIRDS
Composition
Finally I find a little free time to write this composition about BIRDS
I was thinking about this subject a lot, without any inspiration…. Then at this season of the year I have a lot of Italian student’s groups that make me very tired and nervous, because they don’t have any interest and are very talkative….
And when I arrive at home I have no feel like going to write.
Long time ago when I get to the EOI, I remember we have to read “ MY FAMILY AND OTHER ANIMALS” by Gerald Durrell… It was a book that I like a lot, really, I enjoyed it very very much , then in my own I read “BIRDS, BEAST AND OTHER ANIMALS”….
Under a literary point of view, they aren’t literary books, or scientific ones, they are books without any plot. The writer wrote his experiences when hi was a child and lived in Corfu (Greece), his particular experiences one after another without continuity. The reading of the books isn’t easy, the vocabulary is a bit complicated al the beginning, because is full of animal nouns that I didn’t know beforehand.
To my mind, there aren’t books about animals only, because besides the animal stories, there are beautiful descriptions of the Greek countryside. If you have time, I recommended you to read, at least one of the books
But….I don’t forget that subject of the composition is about birds….and why I write to you this introduction….Because I remember that when we talked about the books at class, all the people look very surprised at me, when I explained that I had a lot of birds at home….
What??? Yes, a lot of bird, perhaps fifty or more. Why????
Well, I am country girl, when I was a child at home, we have a lot of animals; not cats or dogs, as usually, rabbits, pigs, chicken, ducks, goats….
So, forty years ago, Sant Just, my village, seemed very far from Barcelona, it was a country village and a lot of families live in a single house with a vegetable garden, with fruit trees and grow animals…in order to eat them ( the other students didn’t believe me…)
My father made a big cage ( so big that it was possible to go inside) to grew canaries and other little birds, like goldfinches and greenfinches….He put there a death Christmas tree and birds had a lot of space to fly… In spring he put nests in a special wood place and it was very interesting to look how the every male choose his female and they stayed together in the nest, they got eggs ( thee or four per couple) and then the little birds born….a bird per day… at the beginning they were very awful without feathers, how they grew, day by day, then how the parents feet them…with a special meet that my father put just for them… how the parents clean the nest, how they tried to fly…. Sometimes ants went to the nest and ate the little birds….and sometimes someone death.
When my father dead, my husband tried to follow this hobby for several years, and my children had the opportunity to live these special experiences….
I remember that when my old son started to school, one day his teacher wanted to speak with me, because he was very worried with my son, because he had a very strange ideas, so, he explained that at home he had a bid cage of birds that it was possible to go inside, to fly with the birds, and that this kind of fantasies were no normal in a boy of his age, and she suggested to me to sent my son to the psychologist…..….Do you imagine the face of this teacher when I explained l to hem that it was true. , that t in spite to live near Barcelona we are a country family….and we have this kind of cage at home……
And now a second history about birds ( je je)
Sometimes tourist are like children and they make me a lot of crazy questions. One of these questions are put me in the Park Guell… I am talking about Gaudi and his ideas and that the park for Gaudi has to be a Holiday complex and bla, bla, bla…. And the question arrives
-Excuse me???? What king of birds are these????
-yes, just a minute, please….
Because nowadays there are a lot of green parrots, living on their own, in the Park Guell and in a lot of gardens of Barcelona. The history of these parrots is very nice…
This king of birds don’t belong to our fauna, they came from Brazil.
Around thirty years ago these birds, that they have the same size of a pigeon, and a beautiful green colour, where sold like pets , they were cheap, and a lot of children received them as a present with a special cage and food and so on….but they are very “talkative” and they make a nasty noise all the time….at the beginning they are beautiful and funny….but some weeks after, the noise was so nasty that was impossible to live with them at home….and people have a lot oh problems with the neighbours….and the easy solution was to open the cage and the bird flies away….
As the weather in Barcelona is warm and we have a lot of palms threes. They have the possibility to make their nests inside the palm threes and eat the dates…so, they had colonized our gardens and they had found a new habitat…
it is possible to look at them, everywhere in town…They can fly a lot. and when the palm trees have no fruits, they can eat almonds, tomatoes and other fruits that find in the vegetable gardens in the Llobregat Delta….so,, they are starting to be a problem for the Delta country families….
Beautiful history….that sometimes interest the tourist most that the Gaudi constructions…
Montsrerat Rajadell.-
Finally I find a little free time to write this composition about BIRDS
I was thinking about this subject a lot, without any inspiration…. Then at this season of the year I have a lot of Italian student’s groups that make me very tired and nervous, because they don’t have any interest and are very talkative….
And when I arrive at home I have no feel like going to write.
Long time ago when I get to the EOI, I remember we have to read “ MY FAMILY AND OTHER ANIMALS” by Gerald Durrell… It was a book that I like a lot, really, I enjoyed it very very much , then in my own I read “BIRDS, BEAST AND OTHER ANIMALS”….
Under a literary point of view, they aren’t literary books, or scientific ones, they are books without any plot. The writer wrote his experiences when hi was a child and lived in Corfu (Greece), his particular experiences one after another without continuity. The reading of the books isn’t easy, the vocabulary is a bit complicated al the beginning, because is full of animal nouns that I didn’t know beforehand.
To my mind, there aren’t books about animals only, because besides the animal stories, there are beautiful descriptions of the Greek countryside. If you have time, I recommended you to read, at least one of the books
But….I don’t forget that subject of the composition is about birds….and why I write to you this introduction….Because I remember that when we talked about the books at class, all the people look very surprised at me, when I explained that I had a lot of birds at home….
What??? Yes, a lot of bird, perhaps fifty or more. Why????
Well, I am country girl, when I was a child at home, we have a lot of animals; not cats or dogs, as usually, rabbits, pigs, chicken, ducks, goats….
So, forty years ago, Sant Just, my village, seemed very far from Barcelona, it was a country village and a lot of families live in a single house with a vegetable garden, with fruit trees and grow animals…in order to eat them ( the other students didn’t believe me…)
My father made a big cage ( so big that it was possible to go inside) to grew canaries and other little birds, like goldfinches and greenfinches….He put there a death Christmas tree and birds had a lot of space to fly… In spring he put nests in a special wood place and it was very interesting to look how the every male choose his female and they stayed together in the nest, they got eggs ( thee or four per couple) and then the little birds born….a bird per day… at the beginning they were very awful without feathers, how they grew, day by day, then how the parents feet them…with a special meet that my father put just for them… how the parents clean the nest, how they tried to fly…. Sometimes ants went to the nest and ate the little birds….and sometimes someone death.
When my father dead, my husband tried to follow this hobby for several years, and my children had the opportunity to live these special experiences….
I remember that when my old son started to school, one day his teacher wanted to speak with me, because he was very worried with my son, because he had a very strange ideas, so, he explained that at home he had a bid cage of birds that it was possible to go inside, to fly with the birds, and that this kind of fantasies were no normal in a boy of his age, and she suggested to me to sent my son to the psychologist…..….Do you imagine the face of this teacher when I explained l to hem that it was true. , that t in spite to live near Barcelona we are a country family….and we have this kind of cage at home……
And now a second history about birds ( je je)
Sometimes tourist are like children and they make me a lot of crazy questions. One of these questions are put me in the Park Guell… I am talking about Gaudi and his ideas and that the park for Gaudi has to be a Holiday complex and bla, bla, bla…. And the question arrives
-Excuse me???? What king of birds are these????
-yes, just a minute, please….
Because nowadays there are a lot of green parrots, living on their own, in the Park Guell and in a lot of gardens of Barcelona. The history of these parrots is very nice…
This king of birds don’t belong to our fauna, they came from Brazil.
Around thirty years ago these birds, that they have the same size of a pigeon, and a beautiful green colour, where sold like pets , they were cheap, and a lot of children received them as a present with a special cage and food and so on….but they are very “talkative” and they make a nasty noise all the time….at the beginning they are beautiful and funny….but some weeks after, the noise was so nasty that was impossible to live with them at home….and people have a lot oh problems with the neighbours….and the easy solution was to open the cage and the bird flies away….
As the weather in Barcelona is warm and we have a lot of palms threes. They have the possibility to make their nests inside the palm threes and eat the dates…so, they had colonized our gardens and they had found a new habitat…
it is possible to look at them, everywhere in town…They can fly a lot. and when the palm trees have no fruits, they can eat almonds, tomatoes and other fruits that find in the vegetable gardens in the Llobregat Delta….so,, they are starting to be a problem for the Delta country families….
Beautiful history….that sometimes interest the tourist most that the Gaudi constructions…
Montsrerat Rajadell.-
miércoles, 11 de febrero de 2009
FIRST ENTRY
Dear friends,
It was a bit difficult for me to create this blog,
but with my son's help me and finally I have created it!
I studed English long time ago, when I was young, but I never went to England or to the USA to study, so, my English is a "library English".
I am working as a local guide for more than 20 years. I speak some different languages, because to work as a guide you need to speak several languages if you want to work four or five dayapera week.
English was very difficult for me to learn. I can speak very well other languages without translate. I can read with no problem the other languages, but when I try to read in English, I feel tired after four or five pages. so I need to practise more and more to reach the same level that I have with the other languages.
When my daugter gave me the information about this course, I though that it will offer to me a good oportunity to study and improve my English, becasue timing is good and the School is not far away from home, moreover the prize is not very expensive.
I hope to learn a lot of things, and be able to speak more fluently and with a better accent.
Till tomorrow
Montserrat.-
It was a bit difficult for me to create this blog,
but with my son's help me and finally I have created it!
I studed English long time ago, when I was young, but I never went to England or to the USA to study, so, my English is a "library English".
I am working as a local guide for more than 20 years. I speak some different languages, because to work as a guide you need to speak several languages if you want to work four or five dayapera week.
English was very difficult for me to learn. I can speak very well other languages without translate. I can read with no problem the other languages, but when I try to read in English, I feel tired after four or five pages. so I need to practise more and more to reach the same level that I have with the other languages.
When my daugter gave me the information about this course, I though that it will offer to me a good oportunity to study and improve my English, becasue timing is good and the School is not far away from home, moreover the prize is not very expensive.
I hope to learn a lot of things, and be able to speak more fluently and with a better accent.
Till tomorrow
Montserrat.-
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