London Day 3

In the morning, we had a talk on media (especially newspapers and TV).
We compared and contrasted the tabloids and broadsheets. My group had a look at 'The Times' and 'The Sun' which are managed by the same person - Rupert Murdoch, but we also had the opportunity to have a look at 'The Guardian', 'The Mirror' and others...
We understood that in politics, parties are more center oriented (not stict lefts or rights) and there is no organisation to censor the papers (freedom of speech).

After that, we talked about TV in Britain. If you have a TV at home, you have to pay a 70 pound/year fee. If you don`t, you may get fined.

BBC channel is sponsored by the government.

Downtown abbey is a massive TV series that was a great success last christmas and it talks about traditional England during the period of the World War I. It was successful probably because the costume drama brings back the time when Britain was 'great'. There is some nostalgia going on in the country. They miss the old times.

Coronation Street and Eastanders are the oldest soapoperas still being broadcasted (the first for about 50 years and the second one for about 40 years!).

London Day 3

Lost my pair of gloves today... The new ones! I had never used them... Now I'll have to try to find new ones, but I don't think I'll be able to find the same...

Well, today we had a session on Youth Speech with Jack Graham. He told us that now students can call their teachers by their first names rather than calling them Mr. or Mrs. + last name; this is because teachers want to close the gap between teachers and students. He showed us some of the slangs that are being used now and it was interesting and surprising to know that teenagers have been referring to old language and dialects (especially from New Castle) and using some expressions and words from that time.
Some examples are:

Aye = Yes (this one I have seen a lot in the book series 'Song of Ice and Fire')
Vexed = confused; upset (also seen it in the series)

Are ye alreet = Are you alright (phonetic language - you right the way you speak)

There's also influence from other languages, such as french. For exapme, Fauxpology = false apology. Or Gnarly (from the Australian surfers) meaning something really good.

The word Rents being used for Parents.

The main changes are happening due to technology (text messages, internet...).

It's also ok to be called Pet, Duck, Lad or Love in some places.

The speaker also talked a little about youth behaviour and attitude towards the government cuts for education, making them protest by occupying public buildings (e.g. St. Paul`s Cathedral). A college student spends about 10 thousand pounds a year between education fees, acommodation and personal expenses. In four years it would be about 40 thousand pounds. They don't need to pay it throughout the course. They can get a loan and pay it when they start making money after graduating, but many times they work while studying to pay for those expenses.
Universities are suposed to be public (for free), but he said that they are not only paying for their studies but also that the fees are rising.

He also talked about drugs and says that the government pictures the scenario worse than it really is.

C U L8R M8 (= See you later mate!)

London Day 2 (cont. 2)

After lunch we listened to a really nice lecture about Homelessness by Lakshmi Patel and it was interesting to aknowledge that in London they face many problems similar to ours in Sao Paulo... Although it is considered a developed country, they also have to deal with financial cuts from the government (especially now that they`re facing a crisis in emplyment and economy areas) and there is also corruption and lack of support from public agencies...

Can you imagine how cold it is???

This is my bedroom!

London Day 2 (cont.)

Adriana, Ana and I had lunch at a very nice restaurant (a pizza place actually) and our waiter took a picture of us! He is Indian, but could speak some words in Portuguese.

It`s funny to see how they try to communicate to people in other languages!

This is the picture I mentioned...

London Day 2

Woke up late today cause I forgot to set my alarm clock, but thankfully I managed to arrive at the school in time! I even had time to have breakfast (cereal and milk - my host mother had left everything on the kitchen table for me).

I decided to go on foot to the station instead of taking the bus and it was a shorter walk since my host mom showed me a short cut at the end of her street. It was really cold, but nice walking in the morning. I took some pictures on the way. Althought it was after 8am it seemed earlier. It was a bit darker than it would be in Brazil. The tube was really busy in the morning but not as packed as it would be during rush hour in Sao Paulo...

Classes in the morning were fine but because of the cold I had a terrible headache...