Week 2
It's surprising how fast the time goes forwards, in my I ask myself has this really been already two and a half weeks? The second week has been marked by really nice weather, maybe you could argue that the thing with the bad weather is rather some kind of a stereotype.
At the school, this week focused more on writing as well as some grammar in form of the claft-sentences. The lessons focused on how to write a formal letter or an essay which would bring you a good mark at the CAE. It was a good refreshment of older and more passive stored vocabulary as well with the structure of texts. Generally speaking the advanced certifcate seems to easier then I thought. I was surprised about my results in the reading and listening exam part we made (~85% each) and with still quite a few weeks left I'm thinking about to try the exam.
New vocabulary I've learned last week is for example dull for boring, bloke as an informal way to say a person, as well as many other words like: twee, lavish, excruciating, stride or prone. Also I've learned some really nice Idioms like: Why have a dog and bark youself, If you fly with the crows, you get shot with the crows or If you pay peanuts, you get monkeys.
In cultural regard, I've learned that there's a bit a north-south divide in joking about each other which is based on the upper/lower class divide from the past with many of the industrial cities in the north and most of the universities and aristocratic houses in the south. But these little jokes seem to get quickly forgotten when the Welsh come into play. Wales is more or less described as hills with a lot sheeps and 'really bad weather' (and this by the English). Of course, it's not so serious, but it's still surprising how strong stereotypes (more or less serious) are.
As well I've learned a bit about the british wealfare-system. So do they for example have free healthcare with their NHS, which pays for them even if they are outside their country but in less serious cases causes long waiting times. Their unemployment benefits seem to be much stricter than the swiss one. For example, will people who leave their job by them self not get benefits by the state and people who lost their job only get them if they really can prove that they are looking for a new job. This is completely different to the swiss system where you get at least for a certain amount of time 80% of your wage and the government can't really force you to look for a new job since they have to support to a certain level no matter want.
On saturday I went to Bath, a city which is famous for it's hot springs and old roman bath. It's located about 20 minutes by bus from where my hostfamily lives and the way was so quite easy. The weather was nice and there were only a few coulds on the sky. It turned out to be a really nice place with a river crossing the city and a beautiful river promenade.
The famous roman bath turned out to be a bit of a tourist trap, since only the groundwork is a remain of the roman complex Aquae Sulis which is build on the hot springs under Bath. The whole complex build on it was build in the last few centuries. At the end of the museum they had a well with the water from the hot springs which was praised in the paast to have healing powers and is high on minerals. The only downside with this, even if it may sounds a bit hypocritical, is that the most commen of these minerals SO4 with it's ~800mg/l is over three times as much included then recomended for normal drinking water.
At the school, this week focused more on writing as well as some grammar in form of the claft-sentences. The lessons focused on how to write a formal letter or an essay which would bring you a good mark at the CAE. It was a good refreshment of older and more passive stored vocabulary as well with the structure of texts. Generally speaking the advanced certifcate seems to easier then I thought. I was surprised about my results in the reading and listening exam part we made (~85% each) and with still quite a few weeks left I'm thinking about to try the exam.
New vocabulary I've learned last week is for example dull for boring, bloke as an informal way to say a person, as well as many other words like: twee, lavish, excruciating, stride or prone. Also I've learned some really nice Idioms like: Why have a dog and bark youself, If you fly with the crows, you get shot with the crows or If you pay peanuts, you get monkeys.
In cultural regard, I've learned that there's a bit a north-south divide in joking about each other which is based on the upper/lower class divide from the past with many of the industrial cities in the north and most of the universities and aristocratic houses in the south. But these little jokes seem to get quickly forgotten when the Welsh come into play. Wales is more or less described as hills with a lot sheeps and 'really bad weather' (and this by the English). Of course, it's not so serious, but it's still surprising how strong stereotypes (more or less serious) are.
As well I've learned a bit about the british wealfare-system. So do they for example have free healthcare with their NHS, which pays for them even if they are outside their country but in less serious cases causes long waiting times. Their unemployment benefits seem to be much stricter than the swiss one. For example, will people who leave their job by them self not get benefits by the state and people who lost their job only get them if they really can prove that they are looking for a new job. This is completely different to the swiss system where you get at least for a certain amount of time 80% of your wage and the government can't really force you to look for a new job since they have to support to a certain level no matter want.
On saturday I went to Bath, a city which is famous for it's hot springs and old roman bath. It's located about 20 minutes by bus from where my hostfamily lives and the way was so quite easy. The weather was nice and there were only a few coulds on the sky. It turned out to be a really nice place with a river crossing the city and a beautiful river promenade.
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| The city of Bath |
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| The remainings of the roman bath |
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