Language, Life & Culture in the UK Today

A double decker bus is one of the most traditional sights in England.  Listen to my message via Fotobabble, a voice recording tool.

Sightseeing in Oxford



These two objects are typical in England, but it's quite unusual to see them so close together in this remote area.

 Image of telephone box, postbox and Malverns taken by @elt_pics flickr photo set: http://www.flickr.com/photos/eltpics/6655141215/in/set-72157628672427593

I took this photo in Oxford of an idiom on the back of a bus - 'Saving is as easy as pie' 

MUSTAFA sent in an image of a poster for the coach to London.  It has a great grammar structure - 'let someone do something', as seen below.  Thank you!

 

EDU sent in a picture of an interesting idiom he spotted on the side of a bus. Cheers!

STEFAN spotted the interesting notice on a lamp post below, and then took a photo of it to include in this post. Many thanks!!

Another traditional sight is the local pub.  There are many pubs here and this one is in Broad Street opposite the Sheldonian theatre.

Real ale is a traditional type of beer that you can drink in this pub.

If you go to the local tonight, then hopefully you won't end up getting :

A typical dialogue in the local might go like this:

A  It's my round.  What can I get you?
B  Cheers, mate!  Half a lager would be great.
A  Do you fancy some crisps?
B  Yeah, why not..
A  Any particular flavour?
B  I'll go with salt 'n' vinegar, if that's ok?
A  No probs.  Back in a mo'.

Below I have embedded an ebooklet on places around Oxford.  I simply took images then added them to a presentation and then uploaded the pdf version to Issuu. You too can take photos of signs and places in Oxford, and then use them in class to exploit areas of interest such as vocabulary, grammar and cultural aspects of your visit. This is a form of digital literacy. You can read this publication called The Skills Transformation: Digital Literacy Explored, written by Gavin Dudeney.

You could enocurage your students to take snaps of interesting signs and places and then show to the class to discuss.

Some useful sites

The English blog is a useful source of news about life in the UK. It updates frequently and I like it because it always has the latest news and daily cartoons from the papers. 
Woodlands Junior School is a rich source of information on British life and culture.