4

Seminar 1.

What is the British Studies /its subject-matter/' ?

Questions for discussion:

1. What is the subject matter of the British Studies?

2. Country and People geographically and politically speaking.

1. Is there any difference between the UK, Great Britain and the British Isles?

2. When and why was the Union Flag first designed? Why is it quite often called the Union Jack?

It is most obvious and natural that the student of a language department and future translator or interpreter should want to have in his mind’s eye a picture of the country of origin of that language.

It is common knowledge that to be able to translate adequately from one language into another it is far from being enough to acquire a certain amount of purely linguistic knowledge. By that I mean a sum of grammar rules, certain vocabulary and phonetic skills, etc.

It is of vital importance for the future translator to have the picture of the country and the people which must be a fair and balanced one, taking into account not only representative data and facts but also what lies behind it , what has produced it and causes its changes.

Moreover, the language is closely interrelated with the political and social life of a country and tends to change with the changes in the society, especially in such a multicultural one as the British society in real fact is. Besides, it is important to study how language varies according to the institutional contexts in which it is used. The range of institutional contexts may be presented by the following list:

Seminar 1. 1

Seminar 3. 8

Seminar 4 13

Seminar 6. 17

Seminar 7. 19

The language certainly varies according to such identity factors as class, race and ethnicity, locality, gender, generation etc. Language itself, together with dialect and accent, is, to my mind, fundamental and should be central to the concerns of our British (Cultural) Studies Course. As Nick Wadham-Smith, editor of the journal '‘British Studies Now” states: “British Studies is an umbrella term which embraces a multiplicity of studies about contemporary Britain. According to context the focus will shift between the arts and media, society and institutions, etc.’'

Due to the fact that the "'iron curtain” has been lifted in this country there has been a growing demand for the up-to-date information about British culture and society.

2. Country and People Geographically and Politically Speaking.

If we look at the map we shall see two large islands and about 5,000 smaller ones off the north-west coast of Europe. Collectively they are known as The British Isles. The largest island is called Great Britain. The other large one is called Ireland.

Politically speaking there are two states. One of them is The Republic of Ireland (with its capital Dublin). It is also called «Eire» (its Irish name). Informally it is also referred to as just «Ireland» or «The Republic».

The other state has authority over the rest of the British Isles (the whole of Great Britain, the northeastern part of Ireland and most of the smaller islands off the British coast for example, the Isle of Wight, the Orkneys, Hebrides and Shetlands, and the Isles of Scilly). Although the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man are not part of the UK and are self-governing, however, all these islands do recognize the Crown.

The official name of this state (which will be the main subject for our discussions) is The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland although it is usually known by a shorter name ‘The United Kingdom ' or ‘The UK’. In other contexts it is often referred to as Great Britain though it implies England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland (which is sometimes known as Ulster).

The flag of Britain - the UK - is officially called the Union Flag, because it embodies the emblems of three countries united under one Sovereign. It is commonly known as the Union Jack. While the origin of the term is uncertain, the following explanation is the most probable.

The original Union Flag was designed for use at sea and the term «jack» was first used in the Royal Navy during the seventeenth century to describe the Union Flag, which was flown from the jack staff (the main masthead) of a ship.

The emblems that appear on the Union Flag are the crosses of three patron saints. The upright red cross on a white ground is the cross of St. George, the patron saint of England. The white diagonal cross on a blue ground (with the arms going into the corners) is the cross of St. Andrew, the patron saint of Scotland. The red diagonal cross is the cross of St. Patrick, the patron saint of Ireland. St. David is the patron saint of Wales. The national flag of Wales (often called the Welsh dragon) represents a red dragon on a field of white and green, dates from the 15-th century and is widespread throughout the region. Though Wales is not represented in the Union Flag because when the first version of the flag appeared, Wales was already united with England.

The first Union Flag was created in April 1606 by combining the national flags of England and Scotland. It was made under James VI of Scotland who as

James I of England came to the English throne in 1603 and regally united both kingdoms.

The final version of the Union Flag appeared in 1801, following the Union of Great Britain with the whole of Ireland, with the inclusion of the cross of St, Patrick. The cross remains in the flag although since 1922 only Northern Ireland is part of the UK and the southern part is an independent republic.

Seminar 2.

Multiracial Britain.

1. Who are the British ? Why British not English?

2. The four nations.

1. The history of unification.

2. Signs of national identity and stereotypes of national character.

3. Different waves of immigration.

1. Background to immigration

2. Ethnic diversity of immigrants

3. Geographical distribution

Who are the British? Why British not English?

People often refer to Britain by another name. They call it “England”. But this is not strictly speaking correct, and it can make some people angry. Similarly many foreigners say “English” when they mean British. This is very annoying for the 5 mln people who live in Scotland, and almost 3 mln in Wales and 1.5 mln in Northern Ireland who are certainly not English. To say nothing of 2.6 mln of British citizens whose family origins lie outside the British Isles altogether. People of Caribbean or South Asian descent do not mind being described as “British” (many are proud of it), but many of them would resent being called '‘English” . Many people from Wales, Scotland and Ireland have settled in England; and Jews, Russians, Serbs, Poles, Romanians, Germans have come to Britain during political changes in the rest of Europe.

Many new waves of immigration into Britain deserve our attention and will be discussed below.

The four nations

To be able to understand who the British are today we certainly have to look at the history of the four nations. The British (actually represented by the four nations - the English, the Scottish, the Welsh and the Irish) started their political unification many centuries ago. This took centuries, and a lot of armed struggle was involved. In the 15-th century, a Welsh prince , Henry Tudor, became King Henry VII of England. Then his son, King Henry VIII, united England and Wales under one Parliament in 1536.

In Scotland a similar thing happened. The King of Scotland inherited the crown of England and Wales in 1603, so he became King James I of England and Wales and King James VI of Scotland. The Parliaments of England, Wales and Scotland were united a century later in 1707. It was a gradual process and it was completed in 1800 when the Irish Parliament was joined with the Parliament in Westminster. The inhabitants of the large and beautiful island of Ireland are Celtic in origin, and the majority never accepted the Reformation *. In 1801 a new law added Ireland to the United Kingdom. By this time much of the land belonged to Protestant English landlords, and the Act of Union followed a period in which rebellious peasants were brutally repressed. But in the six northern counties the Protestants were not a dominant minority: they were a majority of the population. Most were descended from Scottish and English settlers who had moved into Ireland several generations before. They considered themselves to be Irish but remained as a distinct community. There had been conflicts and battles between the two communities, still remembered along with their heroes and martyrs. The Union of 1801 gave Ireland seats in the UK Parliament. So it was the time when the whole of the British Isles became a single state. However, after the extensions of the franchise **in the nineteenth century a nationalist party won most of the seats in the House of Commons.

Soon Irish nationalist MPs were demanding self-government, or «home rule» - a status similar to Canada’s. It was bitterly opposed by the Protestant majority of the people in the six northern counties, and by the MPs they had elected. They did not want to be included in a self-governing Ireland dominated by Catholics.

Eventually the island was partitioned. In 1922 most of Ireland became a separate, independent state called The Republic of Ireland, and in 1949 a republic outside the Commonwealth.

The six northern counties remained within the United Kingdom, with seats in the UK parliament, but had their own parliament, prime minister and government responsible for internal affairs.

At one time the four nations of the UK were distinct from each other in almost every aspect of life. In the first place, they were different racially. The people in Ireland, Wales and highland Scotland belonged to the Celtic race; those in England and lowland Scotland were mainly of Germanic origin. This difference was reflected in the languages they spoke. People in the Celtic areas

• The religious movement which had for its object the reform of the Roman Catholic Church , and which led to the establishment of the Protestant churches.

** Расширение прав голосования spoke Celtic languages: Irish Gaelic, Scottish Gaelic and Welsh. People in the Germanic areas spoke Germanic dialects (including the one which has developed into modem English). The nations also had different economic, social and legal systems.

Today these differences have become blurred. But they have not completely disappeared. Although there is only one government for the whole o

fBritain, and people have the same passport regardless of where they live, what language they speak and what colour their skin is.