Union Jack Day
Hi All,
Just read your blog, Cris. Pleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeease don’t feel bad about making mistakes. I appreciate that you want to produce high quality writing, but making mistakes is a very important part of language learning. Your writing is already of an extremely high standard. Do you know why I pointed out so many mistakes last time? It’s because I felt guilty that I thought I wasn’t giving you enough help with your English (you know how we women feel guilty about all sorts of silly things…) so I thought I would do a blitz and give you lots of corrections. And you are right – all the things I pointed out were just small mistakes that you probably knew already. So keep writing and don’t fret, pet (pet is a word we use in Newcastle, where I am from in the UK, to mean ‘my dear’. I used it here because it rhymes with ‘fret’, which means ‘to worry’)
Talking of the UK, here are the results of the quiz. As some of you found on the internet, today is the official anniversary of the ‘birth’ of the British flag, The Union Jack. Hurrah! 
(image from http://londonairconnections.com/PicUnionJack.gif)
This event is not really celebrated by most British people. I have an interest in English history, however, and thought you might like to share in this piece of cultural heritage. The flag, created first in 1606, is made up of the flags of the individual countries that make up the UK (England, Scotland and Northern Ireland – but not Wales). The Welsh flag does not feature for various reasons. What is interesting is that nowadays, people talk a lot about splitting up the UK back into separate countries and no longer maintaining a 'united kingdom'. Some steps have alreay been taken to bring this event closer to reality, such as establishing a Scottish Assembly, or parliament. If you would like to know more about the creation of the Union Jack, the following site covers the whole story in great depth.
http://www.woodlands-junior.kent.sch.uk/geography/unionjack.html
Just a quick blog today. We all overslept a bit and had breakfast playing with lego.
Then we went out with the kids to stock up on shopping for the holiday (we needed more wine…)
Josh was pretty tired when we got back, so he went straight back to bed in his new Thomas bedding that his grandma got him. Thanks granny!
Time for a cuppa now. Cris, I will go over the prepositions in my next blog and thanks for the recipe. It looks delicious and have sent Steve back out to get the ingredients while I relax and drink tea. It's a hard life, but someone has to do it :-)
Best Wishes and have a great weekend,
Anne.
To fret (verb) – to worry
In great depth – in a large amount of detail
To stock up (verb) – to buy a lot of something
Cuppa (noun) – cup of tea
Comments
Hello Anne! Nice to e-meet you. I am having fun reading your blog. I like cooking too, but I think I am not as good as you. I mean, kneading and preparing game are difficult for me. Anyway, as for the prepositions: 1 Like Cristina, I would have said OF, but then I have tried to figure out something else and I would say FROM. 2 OVER . 3 ON the balcony 4 FROM 5 TO attach. I cannot wait to read your corrections. Enjoy the rest of the week-end and all the best from Italy.
hi,dear teacher,there is a question for you,can you give me a answer?thanks first.In my memory,"not" always goes with "any" or "anything",and it sometimes means "nothing". But,I saw two sentences when I watching a movie today,which are"I don't know nothing"and"He didn't tell me nothing" So I cannot understand the grammar. Can you tell me? Thanks in advance.
Hello, Anne! I was great to hear from you that you had an interest in English history. It would be nice to know about English history more, especially about modern history. As you can see, I am living in Ireland. So for approximate three years as I am living here I have some information about Irish history. In particular, I am interesting the situation between England and Ireland: is it true that the cause of bad relations between South Ireland and England were religion? Why South Ireland didn’t want to stay in United Kingdom? (I know what it explained in Ireland history but I would like to hear a representative of England too). Why people talk about splitting up the UK back into separate countries? I would like to know. Have a nice weekend…
Hi Anne! What a lovely pictures. Have a nice weekend, Ana Paula.
Hi Anne! I think you are having a nice long weekend :). Your kids look like angels and i guess they both keep you busy with their antics:). Thats why you look slim and smart;). Josh looks very happy on his new bed. Well, thats all for today bye and keep smiling!
Hello Anne. Thanks for telling us about the Union Jack’s birthday, it’s really interesting. It seems to me unbelievable to divide Grate Britain into smaller branches. All talks about have been raised upon political reasons and will never change the UK’s map. I’d like to remind of another corner stone for humanity to celebrate. As you know, on 12 April 1961, Yuri Gagarin became the FIRST human to travel into space and return. Good bye.
fristly i want thanks every staff and teacher here in bbc , good effort and amazing idea taken to fasialting the learning the english. this is frist time typing here in blogs . about your blog , i suggest UK has take step to more unation by europian union instead turn back into seperation idea . the world situation makes pressure to collection many countries in one great mass . we were living in gaint groups world . there not place for small countries .
Dear Anne, Your post reminded me about my old colleagues 15 years ago. In that time, I was working in United Mission to Nepal. In that team, two staffs were from United Kingdom, two from Finland and one from the US. From the UK, one was from Wales and she was chairperson and another was from England. I still remember that the person who was from England try to dominate the person from Wales. Later I asked other colleagues why this type of behaviour I had noticed between them. The colleague from the US told me that it was rooted from the very beginning and English people always thinks that they are superior to other parts of the UK. Is it still in practice or it was only then? When you mentioned that the UK is in the process of splitting in four countries. Another thing, I like to ask you that what are the similarities and dissimilarities among the people of four countries. In our country, an election for constitutional assembly was held on 10th of this month and results are coming nowadays. Unexpected results are coming from this poll. Majority of seats from direct polls are going in favour of Communist party which established itself as a strong party from revolution in last 10 years and it is able to gain sympathy from lots of people who want change in many walks of life. Most of the peoples aren’t able to think in which direction this new party will drive our country. People from low income profile think that certainly many people will now have access to economic resources which was in grip of limited elite family and politicians.
Hello Anne! You have a really beautiful family! Hope you are having a good weekend. Best Wishes. Anna.
Hi Anne, Do you think women alone feel guilty when commit mistake. No, I don’t agree with you. Every one feels the same when we do mistake. Especially when we learn the language we try to overcome the mistake. I feel not only guilty but also shame myself when I commit blunder. Life is hard as you said, but some one share your burden, you will be relieved. You got a good husband to support you always. That’s why you are enjoying your house work and teaching. Your children were really enjoying the shopping over the weekend.
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