England

Today I am working on discovering England. This is the country where our language comes from. If you live in India or Australia, you may despise the British. They colonized many places, and weren’t always nice to the indigenous people when doing so. Still, in America, much of our own culture and identity stems from their influence.

Movie:

I started out by watching the Kings Speech, the tail of King George the VI and how he overcame a speech impediment to take the thrown after his older brother stepped down in order to marry an American divorcé.  With the help of his unorthodox speech therapist, Logue, Prince Albert (King George the VI) is able to receipt Shakespeare, and address his subjects without stammering.

T.V. Show

Season 1 Episode 1
One of my favorite British T.V. shows is: “Mind Your Language”. This show from 1977 is not very P.C. It often makes fun of how tricky English language is, and how easy it is for a foreigner to misinterpret what it is that we are saying.

The show is set in a classroom where English is being taught as a second language. Each student comes from a different country, which at times causes problems amongst the students. For example, the Pakistani and Indian in the class often fight, which is great for a laugh.

Food:
Tonight I made fish and chips. I used cod, and I battered it in brown rice flower and egg. The chips I made by slicing potatoes and baking. I was trying to cut out a little bit of the fat and make it slightly healthier. I ate this with cole slaw.

 To drink, I had a New Castle Cabbie Black Ale. This is a dark beer, that tastes a somewhat like a light stout (such as Guinness), but less like soy sauce. I’m normally not a big fan of the darker beers, but I thought I would give this UK brew a try. It is hoppy, with a nutty, bitter, almost chocolate flavor…not bad if I say so myself.

Work Cited:

Hooper, Tom. “The King’s Speech” 2010.

Powel, Vince. “Mind Your Language”. “The First Lesson”. 30 December 1977.