Classes in Britain

There is still class system in Britain. People are divided into chiefly four classes. The classes are Upper Class, Middle Class, Working Class, and Under Class. The four classes are divided about position, job, and education, etc. I explain about the four classes.

Upper Class
Member of the upper class are very wealthy and have power. The upper class is divided into two classes: upper class and upper middle class. The position of the upper class is royal family, aristocrats, politicians, and captains. The position of the upper middle class is lawyers and doctors. The people of these classes have good speaking, behavior and education. The pronunciation is RP. They play golf, polo and shooting as sport. Also they read Guardian Telegraph Newspaper.

The left picture is polo.

The below picture is Guardian Telegraph Newspaper.












Middle Class
The middle class is also divided into two classes like the upper class: middle class and lower middle class. The position of the middle is white collar and teacher. White collar workers have very much poorer work and market situations than service class workers. The position of the lower middle class is office workers. They read Broadsheets Newspaper or The Times Newspaper.

Working Class
The working class is also divided into two classes like the above two classes: working class (skilled) and working class (unskilled). The position of the working class (skilled) is carpenters, engineers and electrician. The working class (unskilled) is laborers, waiters, dishwashers and porters. Manual workers are a declining proportion of all workers but an increasing proportion of manual workers are either female and from ethnic minorities. They read Tabloids Newspaper.

Under Class
The position of the under class is homeless and unemployment. They don't have job and don't have their house. Also, they are the lowest position in hierarchical society in Britain.

Reference
handout 'Contemporary British Society'

Big Ben in Britain

I would like to introduce about Big Ben in Britain. Big Ben is the nickname for the great bell of the clock and there is in the Palace of Westminster in London. The Palace of Westminster is registered in World Heritage and it uses as the Houses of Parliament now.

A clock tower was built at Westminster in 1288. But the Palace of Westminster was destroyed by fire on October 22, 1834. In the reconstruction of the Palace, the Neo gothic style which Charles Barry had designed was adopted. As for the clock tower, Augustus Pugin’s design was adopted and the dial of the clock also was designed by him. Under each the dial of the clock is carved in Latin, ‘DOMINE SALVAM FAC REGINAM NOSTRAM VICTORIAM PRIMAM’. It means O Lord, keep safe our Victoria the First in English. The height of the clock tower is 96.3 meters and 61 meters of the lower part are made from brick. The height of the remainder consists of the spire of the cast iron. And the clock tower was completed on May 31, 1859.

Big Ben is played at noon every day. The melody of the bell of Big Ben is similar to the melody of chime of school in Japan. A formal name of a song is called the bell of Westminster.

Now Big Ben has become a symbol of the UK and London. It was congratulated as the 150th anniversary on May 31, 2009. When night comes, Big Ben is illuminated.

Location and Size in the UK

The UK (official name: United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland) is located northwest of the European Continent between Atlantic Ocean and the North Sea. The total area of the UK is 244,100 km² (94,526 square miles) and nearly 99% of them are land and nearly 1% of the remainder of them is inland water. The total area of the UK is 76th place in the world.

mile = 1760 yards (about 1609 meters)

The UK is composed of four separate nations: England (London), Scotland (Edinburgh), Wales (Cardiff) and Northern Ireland (Belfast). London is also the capital of the UK. Great Britain is a main island in UK including England, Scotland and Wales. The UK is composed of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.

The quotation marks show the capital of each nation.

England occupies most of the southern 2/3 of Great Britain. The total area of England is 130,395 km² (50,346 square miles).

Scotland is located northwest Europe and is part of Great Britain, an island country and the UK. The total area of Scotland is 78,772km² (30,414 square miles)

Wales is located northwest Europe and is part of Great Britain, an island country and the UK. The total area of Wales is 20,779km² (8,022 square miles)

Northern Ireland is located in the northeast of the island of Ireland. The total area of Northern Ireland is 13,843 km² (5,345 square miles).