Let’s go!

My first trip to the United Kingdom

Letter to my pen-friend

• Dear pen-friend,

Yes. I accept your invitation. I will come and visit you next July. I’m looking forward to it. I’m very excited about it!

Did I tell you what were my favourite hobbies? I remember telling you that I liked basketball. But what I really love nowadays is cycling. It’s great! Last Sunday it was my birthday. I was fourteen. Well, my parents gave me a new cycle as a present and I am very happy with it. Unfortunately I won’t be able to take it with me to England. But I intend to hire one where you live. We could ride and see many places.

Anyway, the thing is that I’m preparing the visit and I shall be able to meet you personally for the first time. You can see the diagram next page. By chance one of the activities in the English lesson is preparing a sort of trip to an English speaking country, so it will be very helpful for me! Don’t you think so?

I send you what I have prepared up to now. Could you give me your opinion? I’m sure it will be of great help.

Best wishes,

Josep

Planning a TripTo practise EnglishTo meet new people

WHY?

English speaking countries like the UK

STAGES

WHERE?

The ArrangementsOn the phone

The TripAt the airport The Stay

With the host family

The returnBack again

ITINERARY

The arrangements

• Here are the things I’ll need:

My diary. A diary and/or a scrapbook is very useful. I’ll gather information about the country and I can illustrate it with pictures and all kind of authentic materials. I’ve been given some suggestions to write in it:

New lifestyle, entertainment for young people, special meals, description of an English house and comparison with a Catalan house, the town, the people, places of interest worth visiting, living with a family abroad, etc.

When I visit my pen-friend abroad I must be sure that my partner will have enough information about me and that I have enough skills to communicate basic things at least.

The trip

• I intend to fly to England. It’s more confortable and there are special fares for students. (24,450 pts a return ticket in July). I wanted to fly to Gatwick airport in London from Girona but there are very few charter flights and there were no tickets left.

• I’ll check Internet to see if I can “catch” cheaper fares.

• I have to be able to book anything by telephone (bus, hotel, museums, cycle)

• I have prepared different dialogues about situations related to the journey to England. (vocabulary, expressions, situations, information).

The stay

• I must know how to book tickets by telephone because I want to go to a pop concert by U2 on July 23rd in Reading. The same for the museums (Tate Gallery, Science Museum, British Museum, Tower of London and Madame Tussauds Wax Museum).

• I’m doing cooking lessons to invite you, my host family (paella and pollastre amb escamarlans). It’s fun and very easy to prepare!

• I’d like to take you and your friends out for a meal. Can you recommend me a place? Pub or restaurant. You’ll be able to check my English and correct my mistakes.

The return

• When I get back to Girona I immediately will check the vocabulary I have learned during my trip.

• In my diary I will finish with my impressions of my stay abroad (probably about the English spoken, the nice places visited, your friends and family, new experiences).

• I’ll develop my photographs and complete the album with some photos taken from brochures of places I’ve been to.

• I’ll tell my friends and relatives how wonderful the stay with you was.

English speaking countries• First language:

Australia

The Bahamas

Eire (Republic of Ireland)

New Zealand

The United Kingdom

The United States of America

• Mother tongue with coexistence with another language:

Canada

South Africa

Swaziland

Lesotho

• Official second language:

India

Pakistan

Hong Kong

Philippines

Singapore

New Guinea

Guyana

Camerun

Kenya

Uganda

Tanzania

(Except attached docs....)

The diary and the scrapbook

• A diary is a book which has a separate space or page for each day of the year on which you keep a record of appointments but often used mainly by youngsters to write down personal events or thoughts as well.

• A scrapbook is a book with blank pages in which you stick or paste scraps, which are small things such as pictures, newspapers articles, postcards, tickets, small brochures and so on.

A situation: At a travel agency• Travel Agent Can I help you?

• Customer Yes, we would like to go to Edimburgh for a few days.

• T. A. I see. When do you want to go?

• C. On 17 July.

• T.A. And how many people will there be?

• C. Two. My friend and I.

• T.A. How do you want to travel, by air, by coach or by train?

• C. Well, you see, my friend doesn`t like flying very much. She doesn’t enjoy it.

• T.A. Do you think she’d prefer travelling by train?

• C. Yes, Ithink so. And me too.

• T.A. Very well. Let me have a look at the computer. ..... . Right, I got them. Two tickets for the 7.05 train to Edimburgh on 17 July. Will that be OK?

• C. Yes, thank you.

• T.C. Anything else?

• C. Yes. Could we book a hotel for three nights?

• T.C. A hotel or a Bed & Breakfast? A B&B is cheaper.

• C. Maybe you’re right.We’ll take a B&B.

• T.A. Fine. Let’s have a look at the computer again. ..... . Here you are. There are plenty of them.

• C. Thank you very much.

• T.A. Thanks to you.

A recipe: The Paella

• Serves four people.

• Ingredients: 1 medium cuttlefish

129 grs of clams

3 tomatoes

1 onion

1 red pepper

1 green pepper

150 grs of peas

1 artichoke

Some pork

200 grs of sausages

150 grs of spareribs

4 bowls of rice (400 grs)

8 bowls of water (800 ml)

4 shrimps

4 big shrimps (escamarlans)

250 grs of mussels

The British Museum The Pharaoh: Lord of the Two Lands

Ramses II(c.1304-1237 BC)

The Pharaoh fighting

The United Kingdom: some useful information

• The weather in Britain is very changeable. It doesn’t snow very often, but it can be rainy, sunny, cloudy, windy, foggy or cold at any time of the year. Be prepared for any kind of weather!

• The currency is the pound sterling, which is divided into 100 pence. You can change money at airports, banks and some travel agencies. Credit cards are widely accepted. British don’t expect using euros in 2002.

• People queue for buses and they get annoyed if you try to push in at the front: join the queue at the back. Don’t forget, vehicles travel on the left, so be very careful when you cross the road. Look both ways first.

• Shops usually open from 9 a.m. to 5.30 or 6 p.m. From Monday to Saturday. Banks are open from 9.30 a.m. to 4.30 Monday to Friday. Outside these time you can use cash machines. Museums, art galleries and other attractions are usually open from about 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.

• Most people in Britain don’t smoke. You musn’t smoke in cinemas, on buses or on the London Underground, and most public places have ´no smoking` areas. As a general rule, don’t smoke in queues, in shops or when you are with other people who don’t smoke, especially in someone’s home.

Photograph Album

The Tower of London

Greenwich Observatory

The Big Ben

The Tower Bridge

Bradford upon Avon

A typical Pub

Newbury Castle

A sample from the scrapbook

Concert by U2

• During the Top of the Pops performance in 1999

• After the performance

United Kingdom Fact Box

• GENERAL INFORMATION

• Official Name– United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (see map next

page)

• Capital– London

• Flag– The distinctive “Union Flag” (more commonly known as the “Union Jack”)

was adopted in 1801, when the diagonal, red Cross of Saint Patrick, representing Ireland, was added to the red Cross of Saint George, representing England, and the diagonal, white Cross of Saint Andrew, representing Scotland.

• Anthem

– “God Save the Queen”

United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland

God Save the Queen

Saint George, the Flag and the Dragon

• Saint George, the patron saint of England, may have been a martyr in Palestine before AD 300, but no actual details of his life are known. The legend that he saved a Libyan princess by killing a dragon arose in the 12th century, possibly from the myth of Perseus, who slew a sea monster near the site of George's supposed martyrdom. His status as patron of England probably originated with the foundation of the Order of the Garter in his name about 1347. George is also patron of Portugal, Aragon, Catalonia, and Lithuania. Feast day: April 23.