PART 2

Good morning, and welcome to Oniton Hall, one of the largest estates in the area. My
name’s Nick, and I’m one of the guides. I’ll give you a brief introduction to the estate
while you’re sitting down, and then we’ll walk round.
The estate consists of the house, gardens, parkland and farm, and it dates back to the
fourteenth century. The original house was replaced in the late seventeenth century,
and of course it has had a large number of owners. Almost all of them have left their
mark, generally by adding new rooms, like the ballroom and conservatory, or by
demolishing others (Q11). The farm looks much as it’s always done, although the
current owner has done a great deal of work to the flower beds.
In the seventeenth century, the estate was owned by a very wealthy man called Sir
Edward Downes. His intention was to escape from the world of politics, after years
as an active politician, and to build a new house worthy of his big collection of books,
paintings and sculptures. He broke off contact with his former political allies,
and hosted meeting of creative and literary people, like painters and poets (Q12).
Unusually for his time, he didn’t care whether his guests were rich or poor, as long as
they had talent.
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Big houses like Oniton had dozens of servants until the 1920s or 30s, and we’ve
tried to show what their working lives were like. Photographs of course don’t give
much of an idea, so instead, as you go round the house, you’ll see volunteers dressed
up as nineteenth-century servants (Q13), going about their work. They’ll explain
what they’re doing, and tell you their recipes, or what tools they’re using. We’ve just
introduced this feature to replace the audio guide we used to have available.
I see there are a number of children here with you today. Well, we have several
activities specially for children, like dressing up in the sorts of clothes that children
wore in the past, and as it’s a fine day, some of you will probably want to play in the
adventure playground. Our latest addition is child-sized tractors (Q14), that you can
drive around the grounds.
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We’ll also be going into the farm that’s part of the estate, where there’s plenty to do.
Most of the buildings date from the eighteenth century, so you can really step back
into an agricultural past.
Until recently, the dairy was where milk from the cows was turned into cheese. It’s
now the place to go for lunch, or afternoon tea, or just a cup of coffee and a slice of
homemade cake. (Q15)
The big stone building that dominates the farm is the large barn, and in here is our
collection of agricultural tools (Q16). These were used in the past to plough the
earth, sow seeds, make gates, and much more.
There’s a small barn, also made of stone, where you can groom the donkeys and
horses, to keep their coats clean (Q17). They really seem to enjoy having it done,
and children love grooming them.
The horses no longer live in the stables, which instead is the place to go to buy gifts,
books, our own jams and pickles, and clothes and blankets (Q18) made of wool from
our sheep.
Outside the shed, which is the only brick building, you can climb into a horse-drawn
carriage for a lovely, relaxing tour (Q19) of the park and farm. The carriages are well
over a hundred years old.
And finally, the parkland, which was laid out in the eighteenth century, with a lake
and trees that are now well established. You’ll see types of cattle and sheep that are
hardly ever found on farms these days (Q20). We’re helping to preserve them, to
stop their numbers falling further.
OK, well if you’d like to come with me …
PART 3
ED: Did you make notes while you were watching the performances of Romeo
and Juliet, Gemma?
GEMMA: Yes, I did. I found it quite hard though. I kept getting too involved in the
play.
ED: Me too. I ended up not taking notes. I wrote down my impressions when I
got home. Do you mind if I check a few things with you? In case I’ve missed anything.
And I’ve also got some questions about our assignment.
GEMMA: No, it’s good to talk things through. I may have missed things too.
ED: OK great. So first of all, I’m not sure how much information we should
include in our reviews.
GEMMA: Right. Well, I don’t think we need to describe what happens. Especially
as Romeo and Juliet is one of Shakespeare’s most well-known plays.
ED: Yeah, everyone knows the story. In an essay we’d focus on the poetry and
Shakespeare’s use of imagery etc., but that isn’t really relevant in a review. We’re
supposed to focus on how effective this particular production is.
GEMMA: Mmm. We should say what made it a success or a failure.
ED: And part of that means talking about the emotional impact the
performance had on us (Q21/22). I think that’s important.
GEMMA: Yes. And we should definitely mention how well the director handled
important bits of the play – like when Romeo climbs onto Juliet’s balcony. (Q21/22)
ED: And the fight between Mercutio and Tybalt.
GEMMA: Yes. It would also be interesting to mention the theatre space and how
the director used it but I don’t think we’ll have space in 800 words.
ED: No. OK. That all sounds quite straightforward.
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ED: So what about The Emporium Theatre’s production of the play?
GEMMA: I thought some things worked really well but there were some problems
too.
ED: Yeah. What about the set, for example?
GEMMA: I think it was visually really stunning. I’d say that was probably the most
memorable thing about this production. (Q23)
ED: You’re right. The set design was really amazing, but actually I have seen
similar ideas used in other productions.
GEMMA: What about the lighting? Some of the scenes were so dimly lit it was quite
hard to see.
ED: I didn’t dislike it. It helped to change the mood of the quieter
scenes. (Q24)
GEMMA: That’s a good point.
ED: What did you think of the costumes?
GEMMA: I was a bit surprised by the contemporary dress (Q25), I must say.
ED: Yeah – I think it worked well, but I had assumed it would be more
conventional.
GEMMA: Me too. I liked the music at the beginning and I thought the musicians
were brilliant, but I thought they were wasted because the music didn’t have much
impact in Acts 2 and 3. (Q26)
ED: Yes – that was a shame.
GEMMA: One problem with this production was that the actors didn’t deliver the
lines that well. They were speaking too fast. (Q27)
ED: It was a problem I agree, but I thought it was because they weren’t
speaking loudly enough – especially at key points in the play.
GEMMA: I actually didn’t have a problem with that.
ED: It’s been an interesting experience watching different versions of Romeo
and Juliet, hasn’t it?
GEMMA: Definitely. It’s made me realise how relevant the play still is.
ED: Right. I mean a lot’s changed since Shakespeare’s time, but in many ways
nothing’s changed. There are always disagreements and tension between teenagers
and their parents. (Q28)
GEMMA: Yes, that’s something all young people can relate to – more than the
violence and the extreme emotions in the play.
ED: How did you find watching it in translation?
GEMMA: Really interesting. I expected to find it more challenging, but I could
follow the story pretty well.
ED: I stopped worrying about not being able to understand all the words and
focused on the actors’ expressions. The ending was pretty powerful. (Q29)
GEMMA: Yes. That somehow intensified the emotion for me.
ED: Did you know Shakespeare’s been translated into more languages than
any other writer?
GEMMA: What’s the reason for his international appeal, do you think?
ED: I was reading that it’s because his plays are about basic themes that
people everywhere are familiar with.
GEMMA: Yeah, and they can also be understood on different levels (Q30). The
characters have such depth.
ED: Right – which allows directors to experiment and find new angles.
GEMMA: That’s really important because …
PART 4
Right, everyone, let’s make a start. Over the past few sessions, we’ve been
considering the reasons why some world languages are in decline, and today I’m
going to introduce another factor that affects languages, and the speakers of those
languages, and that’s technology and, in particular, digital technology. In order to
illustrate its effect, I’m going to focus on the Icelandic language, which is spoken by
around 321,000 people (Q31), most of whom live in Iceland – an island in the North
Atlantic Ocean.
The problem for this language is not the number of speakers – even though this
number is small. Nor is it about losing words to other languages, such as English. In
fact, the vocabulary of Icelandic is continually increasing (Q32) because when
speakers need a new word for something, they tend to create one, rather than
borrowing from another language. All this makes Icelandic quite a special language –
it’s changed very little in the past millennium, yet it can handle twenty-first-century
concepts related to the use of computers and digital technology. Take, for example,
the word for web browser … this is vafri in Icelandic, which comes from the verb ‘to
wander’. I can’t think of a more appropriate term because that’s exactly what you do
mentally when you browse the internet. Then there’s an Icelandic word for podcast
– which is too hard to pronounce (Q33)! And so on.
Icelandic, then, is alive and growing, but – and it’s a big but – young Icelanders spend
a great deal of time in the digital world and this world is predominantly
English. Think about smartphones. They didn’t even exist until comparatively
recently, but today young people use them all the time (Q34) to read books, watch
TV or films, play games, listen to music, and so on. Obviously, this is a good thing in
many respects because it promotes their bilingual skills, but the extent of the
influence of English in the virtual world is staggering and it’s all happening really
fast. (Q35)
For their parents and grandparents, the change is less concerning because they
already have their native-speaker skills in Icelandic. But for young speakers – well,
the outcome is a little troubling. For example, teachers have found that playground
conversations in Icelandic secondary schools can be conducted entirely in
English (Q36), while teachers of much younger children have reported situations
where their classes find it easier to say what is in a picture using English, rather than
Icelandic (Q37). The very real and worrying consequence of all this is that the young
generation in Iceland is at risk of losing its mother tongue.
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Of course, this is happening to other European languages too, but while internet
companies might be willing to offer, say, French options in their systems, it’s much
harder for them to justify the expense of doing the same for a language that has a
population the size of a French town, such as Nice. The other drawback of Icelandic
is the grammar, which is significantly more complex than in most languages. At the
moment, the tech giants are simply not interested in tackling this. (Q38)
So, what is the Icelandic government doing about this? Well, large sums of money
are being allocated to a language technology fund that it is hoped will lead to the
development of Icelandic sourced apps and other social media and digital systems,
but clearly this is going to be an uphill struggle.
On the positive side, they know that Icelandic is still the official language of
education and government. It has survived for well over a thousand years and the
experts predict that its future in this nation state is sound and will continue to be so.
However, there’s no doubt that it’s becoming an inevitable second choice in young
people’s lives.
This raises important questions. When you consider how much of the past is tied up
in a language, will young Icelanders lose their sense of their own identity (Q39)?
Another issue that concerns the government of Iceland is this. If children are
learning two languages through different routes, neither of which they are fully
fluent in, will they be able to express themselves properly? (Q40)