125 Jahre Justus-von-Liebig-Schule
Großbritannien im Englischunterricht
   

 

English Project: Great Britain – Past and Present
 


The English Class EG 3/2 presented various aspect of British Politcs, Society and History. The students worked on an aspect of their choice and showed their results on a poster. Topics ranged from History (King Henry VIII) and the fight for Home Rule in Ireland to England role’s in Workd War II, the foundation of the Commonwealth of Nation to present Monarch (Elizabeth II). Also the typical English way of life was covered – tea and beer. Ad of course the Bard William Shakespeare.

During the day vistors could also watch video clips about Shakespeare’s Works as well as films on the country and life style.
 

 

The Reign of Henry VIII.


Biography of Henry VIII

His father, king Henry VII and his mother Elisabeth of York.
As second son of this marriage, he was born on 28 June 1491. After his father Henry VII died,
Henry VIII was called king of England, France and Ireland.
Henry VIII was wedded to six women: one died, one survived, two divorced, two beheaded.

first woman: Katharina of Aragon
got daughter Maria I, later Queen after Edward VI
divorced: because Henry VIII wanted a male heir

second woman: Anne Boleyn
got daughter Elisabeth I, later Queen after Maria I
beheaded: because of adultery, although she had always been faithful

third woman: Jane Seymour
got son Edward VI, first male heir, later king after Henry VIII´s death

fourth woman: Anne of Kleve
divorced: only a marriage, because of political reasons

fifth woman: Catharine Howard
beheaded: because of adultery

sixth woman: Catharine Parr
survived: only woman, who survived Henry VIII

The English king Henry VIII is not only famous for the marriage with six wives and the fact that five of
them died or had been beheaded. Henry VIII was also important for England, because he divorced the
English Church from the Catholic Church and became leader of the new Anglican Church.
His daughter Elisabeth I became also a famous Queen, because she established the first English colony.

 

Elizabeth II

Biography:
This timeline includes 17 important dates in the life of the Queen. It starts at April 21th, 1926 with her birth as Elizabeth Alexandra Mary. The following dates describe several biograpical dates – her succes to the throne, her marriage with Prince Philipp and some information aboutb her family which includes for example information about her sister, her father who was known as George V, her uncle who was also King of Great Britain, Queen Mum, her sons Charles and Andrew, but also Diana and her children Prince William and Prince Henry are mentioned. The last point of the timeline is the Queens 80th birthday on April21th 2006.

Role:
The Queen is Head of the State. As Head of State, the Queen goes on official State visits abroad. So she represents the country abroad. She also invites other world leaders to come to the United her job is just to represent Great Britain. She is also Head of the Armed Forces and Head of the Church of England.

Reputation:
Queen Elizabeth is a really strong and strict person. She doesn’t want scandals and mistakes and is very professional in her job.

We chose this topic because the royal family of Great Britain is not only very popular in their country but also in Europe. We thought that it might be interesting to get to know the Queen a little bit better because we didn’t know very much about her life and family.

 

The Commonwealth of Nations


The Commonwealth of Nations was founded in 1931 with the Statute of Westminster, when many British Dominions wanted more independency from Britain. All the Members of the Commonwealth allow the British Monarch since 1949 as the symbolic Head of the Comon-wealth. The Relationship between the Commonwealth-States is more reasoned by their language and their history, than by a common written constitution.
The Commonwealth has at the moment 53 states and 20 dependencies as members, among them the UK, Canada, Kenya, South Africa, Tanzania, Namibia, Nigeria, India, the Bahamas, Austra-lia and New Zealand. Alltogether in the Commonwealth lived in 2005 1.9 Billion People, that’s 30% of worlds Population!
In 1965 the Commonwealth Secretariat was established in London, chief executive is ist General Secretary, the New Zealander Don McKinnon. The Commonwealth’s aims are democracy, human rights, peace, the fight against poverty and racial discrimination in the world and especially the improvement of the relationship between member countries.

For these aims there are different institutions:

  • Commonwealth heads of Government meeting: Two times a year the Gouvernment-Bosses meet to talk about their common issues, like trading and social stuff
  • Commonwealth Ministerial Action Group: Structure common sanctions and suspensions of members, in the case oof human rights abuse (1995 Nigeria was suspended, 2007 Pakistan)
  • Commonwealth Foundation: Organizes financial helps for non-governmental-organizations in the members countries, and the improvement of intercultural understanding
  • Commonwealth Fund for Techincal Cooperation: Appropriate for social and industrial development
  • Commonwealth Service Abroad Programme: A program for enlisted personnel to support Commonwealth’s projects
  • Commonwealth Games: The second-largest international sports event, in a member country

 

Drinking culture


My topic was the British drinking culture. On my poster the visitors could see, that pubs are places where people talk, eat, drink and meet friends and that there are over 60,000 pubs in the UK. I also informed them, that you have to be 18 years old for drinking alcohol in Great Britain and that there’s no table service in the pubs what means that you have to offer your drinks at the bar. Under the heading ‘beer’ I told our guests about the different kinds of British beer. I described the sorts ‘bitter’ (dark beer served at room temperature), ‘lager’ (lighter beer served cold) and ‘Guinness’ (very dark, creamy Irish beer called a ‘stout’).
I also mentioned the different glasses ‘pints’ (large glasses) and ‘halves’ (smaller glasses) and told the visitors that the average consume of beer of a British person are 99.4 litres every year and that they also drink beer from Germany, Belgium and France. I gave some short information about the drinks tea which most Britons like with lots of milk, coffee that is as popular as tea today and about wine, especially ‘Cider’, a sweet and dry one made from apples. Another big topic on my poster was ‘binge drinking’ in Great Britain, what means to drink as fast and as much alcohol as you can till you’re completely drunken. I informed about reasons for binge drinking which are for example cheap alcohol, group drinking or pubs that serve teenagers under 18. I also mentioned the facts, consequences and problems caused by binge drinking which are growing violence, anti-social behaviour, illnesses, many car accidents and high costs for the state because of the police, ambulances and hospitals that are needed every week. My last aspect were the solutions for this problem which can be more power for the police, no happy hours and no cheap drinks, stricter controls in pubs and in the streets, changing closing times for pubs, no alcohol for people under 18, campaigns against it and no advertising for alcohol.
Especially young people tend to drink very much

.

 

William Shakespeare

My presentation at “Tag der offenen Tür” was about William Shakespeare.
I have choosen William Shakespeare is because he is a very good playwright . In his works he wrote about problems which I think are still valid. I am particularly fascinated about his profound knowledge and insight in the human nature. In his comedies he often shows the silly mistakes of people while the tragedies are about characters whod od everything to achieve their aims – Iga, Richard III or Macbeth.

William Shakespeare was born in Stratford-upon-Avon in the year 1564 and died in his birth place in 1616. He was educated at the local grammar school. At the age of eighteen years he married the twenty-six- year old and pregnant Anna Hathaway. Their first child was Susanna. Then their twins Hamnet and Judith were born.
Hamnet, Wiliam´s son, died just being eleven years old.

The list of his plays included comedies, histories and tragedies. In my presentation I established a list of his plays. Some of his most famous comedies are “A Midsummer Night´s Dream “ and “Much Ado About Nothing” and Twelth Night. His most famous histories are Henry V and Richard III. The great tragedies are for example “Hamlet”, “Macbeth” and not forget to forget Romeo and Juliet.

Plot Summary of Romeo and Juliet
Romeo and Juliet is a love story about two young people which fall in love at first glance. Their families are enemies. Romeo is the son of the Montague family and Julia is the daughter of the Capulet´s. Romeo decides that he loves Juliet anyway and they confess their love for each other during the very famous “balcony scene” in which they agree to get secretly married the next day.
Friar Lawrence agrees to marry them and hope that with the wedding the feud between the families will end But the fighting gets worse and Mercutio (Montague) a good friend of Romeo's, ends up in a fight with Tybalt (Capulet), Juliet's cousin. Tybalt kills Mercutio, which causes Romeo to kill Tybalt in an angry rage. For this, Romeo is banished from Verona.
At the same time, the Capulet's are planning Juliet's marriage to Paris. Juliet does not want to marry this man so she arranges with Friar Lawrence to fake her own death with a sleeping potion that will make everyone think that she is dead. Friar Lawrence promises to send Romeo a message which tells him about the plan and that Juliet is not dead. Unfortunately, Romeo does not receive this message on time and upon hearing of her "death" goes to Juliet's tomb where he drinks poison and dies. When Juliet's potion wears off, she awaken's to find her lover's corpse and kill herself with Romeo's dagger. The two families find the bodies and their shared sorrow. They see that the enmity between the two families is sensles and finally they make peace with each other.

Plot Summary Of Hamlet
Hamlet is the son of the late king who dies about two months before the start of the play. After King Hamlet’s dead his brother, Claudius becomes king and marries King Hamlet’s wife, Gertrude. The young Hamlet is told by the ghost of his father that Claudius killed his own brother Hamlet’s father to become king of Denmark. He should revenge him. Hamlet is very angry about and plots of how to revenge his father´s dead although he is not sure whether he really do it.