Laugh? I almost cried!!

I went to a Junior High School today to play games and be quized about culture, history, life, sports & entertainment of England.

However in most cases I was just playing games and have a giggle with the kids. They're great fun at that age, and these kids had really good English skills.

Now a bit of background on the whole event.

Doctor Who, Captain Black Beard, Mince Pie and Dreadlocks

So I was informed that the I would be giving four different presentations in six different classes. The presentations were going to be about food, culture, life & history and sports & entertainment. So I decided to write my presentation about Doctor Who, Captain Black Beard, Mince Pie and Dreadlocks (and what the different things they represent in British Culture).

all I needed to do is turn up and be entetained by the liveliest youngsters ever!

I didn't finish any of them, but fortunately I didn't have to, all I needed to do is turn up and be entetained by the liveliest youngsters ever! For the sake of it I've appended my speeches and presentation materials to the bottom of this post.

The picture below is of the gifts I recieved for turn up and helping up. The nuts are gorgeous, the sweets got sent to a friend with a child, the tea is lovely and calming, and the Christmas card is made with an Oragami Tree inside.

So, not the most exciting post in the world but, I had to get this day down on server else I may forget it ever happened.

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Presentations*


Dreadlocks (ドレッドヘア ) in British Culture

Can you tell me what these people have in common?

[show pictures, the them guess, probably met with silence]

Their hair. They all have the same hairstyle. (Can anyone tell me what that hairstyle is called?)

Today I would like to talk about Dreadlocks and how they fit into British Culture.

My name is Stephen. I’m from England in the United Kingdom. [Show Map]

I’m from London and my dad is from Barbados and my Mum is from South America.

My mum and dad do not have dreadlocks. My dreadlocks are not a sign of my religion.

Many people from different religions wear their hair in different ways [Show pictures].

Can you identify the religions from their hair styles?

Dreadlocks are often associated with Rastafarianism.

But their history outdates Rastafarians.

The first accounts of dreadlocks are over 1000 years old.

There is evidence of dreadlocks in Egypt as there are mummies with dreadlocks.

Dreadlocks are a part of many different cultures history including the Mexican Aztecs, the Greek, the Christians, the Germans and the Vikings.

When do you think Dreadlocks became popular in England?

Let me give you a clue [play Bob Marley]. Do you recognise this song?

Dreadlocks became popular in Britain and all over the world in the 1970s when Bob Marley release his album and became very popular.

At the time Dreadlocks meant Rastafarianism. But now they mean many things… can you tell me what you think dreadlocks mean today? What sort of person wears dreadlocks?

For me Dreadlocks represent individualism. It allows me to show that I’m laidback, creative and fun-loving.

Sometimes it is a political

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Dr. Who

Doctor Who is a fictional character made for the BBC and British Television.

The show was made in 1963, and it was shown until 1989.

Since then it has been relaunched and is now very successful.

Doctor Who is the longest running Science Fiction show in the world. It has had more episodes that Star Trek.

Doctor Who has become British Popular Culture and Cult Viewing.

The show is a mix of history, science fiction and horror.

The Doctor is an Alien, but he is always very British in character. He travels in an old Police Box called The Tardis. The Tardis is much bigger inside than it is outside and contains all sorts of machines.



Doctor Who can also regenerate after a near death experience. Each time he regenerates he changes form and personality.

But each Doctor Who believes in the power of goodness, love and humanity.

In the end The Doctor defeats his enemies without using violence but by using reason.

Some of the enemies he encounters are terrifying and as a child they really scared me.

There are the Daleks who want to exterminate all other races including humans.

And then there are the Cybermen, the Cybermen take out the human brain and place it into a metal shell. They believe that humans are better without emotions.

[Who Music]

[Who Clip]

Questions

*Please remember the inteded audience was 12 and 13 year olds.

Two Poems about My Week

In lieu of a real post, here is some poetry.

Enjoy.

Culture Day

It’s Culture Day tomorrow
And I should be here preparing
But instead I look out the window
And looking becomes staring

Then I drift in my own thoughts
With no fear of what tomorrow brings
Until I catch a look at the clock
And reality bites and stings

I have to stop my procrastination
Need to rewrite my speech about my nation
I have things that I want to impart
But have trouble thinking where to start

So instead of just putting pen to pad
I stop and gaze outside instead
And whilst caught up with
The thoughts in my own head
I lose an hour and gain some dread

Looking Good

I find if I suck in my cheeks
And turn my head to the side
The man in the mirror
Looks back at me with pride

Oh, sometimes in a certain light
And if I suck my stomach in
With my abs tensed nice and tight
I actually look quite thin

Then there are times I don’t groom my hair
But leave it wild and rough
I find it adds some character
But wonder if it adds enough

8 Day Weeks

During my last year of university I worked pretty much flat out, Monday to Sunday. Ok, that’s not true, I worked semi hard around a schedule that included Lost, Property Ladder, Easteneders and masturbation (never together).

At LUL I also worked many a weekend and reaped the reward of overtime. Overtime at LUL was often a lonely affair, other staff were far too busy recovering from coke binges to get work done on a Sunday.

Now, at Saito Shogyo I work 5 days strictly separated by a weekend, which in all truth may be harder than the week days combined. Not only do I drink in excess, but I also have no transport and must rely on other people or public transport, sometimes this lack of freedom or indepdence is easier, sometimes its just a pain. But this is not the point of this blog.

My point is that I just worked an 8 day week, oh yes it is possible. I worked Monday to Monday with no break in between. In that time I produced a display about the U.K. a speech about the U.K, a U.K. playlist and a video about U.K culture.

It was challenging, it was fun and unlike overtime at university or LUL it actually involved working 7 whole days (plus one).

And now, high ho, high ho. It's back to work I go and I'm not prepared... I have a lesson plan to scribble out, I have to wake the fuck up after a monster weekend in the big smoke (more on that later) and... I can't think for shit.

The kids are going to tear me a new asshole today... must stop cursing!

Here’s what I was working on:
☛ Video
☛ Presentation (Powerpoint Document)
☛ Display Document
☛ Display picture one
☛ Final Speech
☛ Playlist (scroll down)

Please let me know what you think of any of the above by leaving comments or sending an email.

And this blog explains what it was all in aid of. (Link to Blog)

Song	Artist
A Kind Of Magic	Queen
Bucky Done Gun	M.I.A.
Let It Be	The Beatles
Clocks	Coldplay
There Is a Light That Never Goes Out	The Smiths
Heart of Glass	Blondie
Despair In The Departure Lounge	Arctic Monkeys
I'm Still Standing	Elton John
Good Luck	Basement Jaxx
Come Together	The Beatles
Talk Tonight	Oasis
Glory Box	Portishead
Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds	The Beatles
Mezzanine	Massive Attack
I Bet You Look Good On The Dancefloor	Arctic Monkeys
Stupid Girl	Garbage
I Fought the Law	The Clash
Trouble	Coldplay
Saturday Night's Alright For Fighting	Elton John
Lucky Star	Basement Jaxx
Parklife	Blur
Half The World Away	Oasis
I Want To Be Free	Queen
Suddenly I See	KT Tunstall
Do It	Dizzee Rascal
You Had Me	Joss Stone

Culture Shock

Culture Shock

JETs love to harp on about what they call culture shock. Culture shock is when you find out that your formal and informal education can not help you in another culture because things are so different, that's me paraphrasing poorly by the way.



In reality culture shock is where you expectations of a place, of its people and their behaviour does not match the reality of that place.

I thought that I came over with no expectation, and in fact I came here with very few. But it’s difficult to forget how people act or to let go of your social norms. For example, where I’m from, pointing at someone in the street and gasping like you’ve just seen a plane hit a building would be considered rude, let alone embarrassing and extremely shameful behaviour. Here however it is common practice to laugh, or gasp out loud at strangers, tap a friend on the shoulder and then encourage them to do the same.

One time in Nottingham after seeing The Streets at Rock City I saw Mike Skinner on his mobile phone and stopped and pointed, he turned his back on me and carried on with his conversation. I felt like a prick, I was so star-struck that I lost all semblance of cool and just acted like a goofy twit.

Well there was a lot of pointing, tapping of shoulders and outbursts of laughter during my very first experience of Culture Festival (over a whole weekend).

The Culture Festival is held at schools around the time of Culture Day, a national holiday in Japan where the Emperor awards people for contributions to art, culture and science.

For the students it's a chance to show off their acting, comedy and singing talents and to show off on stage. And boy, do they love to show off. Funny voices, funny skits, songs sung poorly, songs sung well, dancing, skipping and jumping. They do it all and it’s tremendous fun, and totally unexpected.

Culture shock for me was finding that I was totally at a loss whilst the kids went mental around me, it was like they had sugar pumped into them through an intravenous drip, it was crazy.

Anyway, I’ve taken some photo’s and some video, I hope you enjoy them.










And finally the video I made for my presentation. This should be available soon on Youtube Just follow this link.

Oh and as an aside, did any of you ever take part in a school play? And the nativity doesn’t count.

Links:

• A great article on how to spot and deal with the stress of culture shock here.
• My presentation and a link to the presentation slides are here.
• Wikipedia article about Culture Day here.
  

Culture Day Speech

TITLE SLIDE

Konichiwa,

SLIDE 1

My name is Stephen Walrond and I would like to talk about my home country, the United Kingdom.

SLIDE 2

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is a group of islands northwest of the coast of Europe.
I’m from the largest of those islands. It is called Great Britain; it is made up of three countries England, Wales and Scotland.
These countries are mainly ruled by a central government in London, yet some of the duties of government have been assigned to separate governments in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

SLIDE 3

I’m from England and I live very close to its capital city, London.
London can be described as a metropolitan city.
England is one of the most successful capitalist countries in the world.
Japan is the also one of the most successful economic countries in the world and Japan has the worlds second largest economy.

SLIDE 4

Today I would like to talk about similarities and difference between my country, England, and your country Japan.
Some of these similarities and differences are my own observation and some are commonly regarded as fact.
England and Japan are both islands with successful capitalist and industrial economies.
Both of our economies grew from textile industries, silk here in Japan and Cotton in England. Both of our countries went through periods of feudalism also.

SLIDE 5

We also have societies which both value education, literacy, etiquette, politeness and reservation.

SLIDE 7

Both England and Japan have a love of nature, poetry and writing as well as crafts and a deep appreciation of practical skills.
So, the pupils in Japanese schools and English schools are very fortunate. They have the opportunity to express their selves through arts, sports and other challenges.

SLIDE 8

Many people in the United Kingdom are bilingual; they speak Cornish, Welsh, Scots Gaelic and Irish.
England has a large immigrant population also who speak languages such as Gujarat, Hindi, Urdu and Cantonese.
English is known as the Global Language. It is taught world wide as a second language more than any other language.
SLIDE 9
I feel this is a good thing as it means that I can have friends from all over the world and I’ve been able to visit and be understood in many countries.
It also means that many different races can find a home in England. This is something the government has encouraged over the years. My dad came to England from Barbados and my mother’s parents came from Guyana in South America.
I think that it is important to have a mixture of authentic cultures in one place.
It makes people aware of our cultural differences but also makes people aware of the things that link us all together.
Because of all the different cultures, the United Kingdom has many different styles of art that I would like to show you some of my favourites now.

SLIDE 10 Video



Link to Powerpoint Presentation