Cross-curricular activities

Languages
Here you'll find language-related activities for Mrs Kuuranhalla, the Finnish teacher. This is a cross-curricular assignment that was agreed on before we left Finland.
Instructions: Work in pairs and write about 100-150 words on one of the topics. If it's an interview, think of other interview questions as well.  Don't just answer the questions. Write your own opinions and analyse the topic. If possible, add a picture.

1. The Rosetta Stone explained

The Rosetta Stone carries an inscription in different languages which helped decipher the ancient Egyptian hieroglyphic script. It is the only surviving fragment of a larger stone slab (stela) recording a decree on 27 March, 196 BC.
At the top decree was written in hieroglyphs, the traditional script of Egyptian monuments, then already 3000 years old. In the middle the same decree was written in Demonic, the everyday script of literate Egyptians, and at the bottom in Greek, the language used by the goverment.
In case you didn't quite catch what we were trying to say here's the simple version. The ancient Egyptian hieroglyphic script was hard, really hard to decipher and the Rosetta Stone helped doing just that.
Vilho and Niko

2. Interview Mervi or some other staff member: What's it like to live surrounded by a foreign language? What was it like when you first came to Britain? What's it like now?

3. Interview a Brit (a Thursday sauna guest perhaps): Do you speak Finnish? Do you hear Finnish regularly? Do you have a Finnish spouse? If yes, what things are easy or difficult because you have two languages in your family?

 An interview of Mitch Flacko

Q: Do you hear a lot of Finnish language here?
Mitch: Yes and especially from children. Children use Finglish and finnish is very hard to learn. I can hear the words but they are very hard to say.

Q: What kind of words have you learned here?
Mitch: Mainly food related. Basic words like kiitos and minun nimeni on mitch and some other basic things. Also my title: Talonmies.

Q: What football team do you support?
Mitch: Team Dulwich Hamlet

3. Do you have other connections to Finland?
Mitch: I started working with finnish music business. Then i worked with finnish football.

4. What is your oringinal language?
Mitch: English

5. What was the first time you heard and learned finnish?
Mitch: Around 1988 and first word i learned was perkele. I learned it when i was on tour with Jimi Tenor.
 6. What do you know about finnish language?
Mitch: I know that finnish and hungaroan are somewhat related. Finnish is almost impossible to learn because words change so much.

7. Are you planing on coming to finland?
Mitch: I have been in finland few times and i go visit every now and then.

8. What are the pros and cons of working in billingual environment?
Mitch: I like experiencing new and different thing and somerimes I can't understand what are the lads saying.

Vili and Veikko

4. What is important language-wise if you work as a guide? You have heard quite a few ones in action: your Shakespeare guide (we had two different ones), the Chelsea Stadium guide and the Street Art guide. Write about their styles, the ways they addressed the audience, how they made sure they got everybody's attention and so forth. Did they make a good job of it? Make comparisons.

As a guide you have to speak clearly and loudly so people can understand you. You also have to know about the topic of course. Guides also have to be patient and tolerate ignorance. Our guides were very energetic and fun. They knew about the things they talked about and they articulated well. The guides were also entertaining to listen to and they were very nice. Usually in Finland, guides aren't that entertaining and fun to listen to. The guides we had in London were quite good and they made the topics sound interesting even if they might have not been.Mikael and Jussi



5. An American tourist called Vili a "honey" and Elli a "baby" during the Globe tour. What forms of endearment are common in Britain? Are there such things in the Finnish language? Should we use them more in Finnish? Why? Why not?

 Darling, honey, baby and love are common British endearment words. Usually when you went shopping or store you may get called one of those endearment words. When you call someone with endearment words you seem more polite than without those words. British people are used to use endearment words and they make sentences more kind. In Finland we are not used to words like that. If you say that kind of words in Finland some people may keep you weird. We think that it would be nice to use endearment words in Finland but Finnish people are not used to that so it's fine not to use them. It was nice to be in London and hear those words and it was nice to use them  by myself.
Elmiira and Josefiina

6. Vili managed to travel without a valid ticket all day yesterday. Brits are famous for their sarcasm. What happened and do you think that could have happened in Finland?

Vili managed to travel without a valid ticket all day on Wednesday. We were going to Natural History Museum. Everybody else had their valid tickets but Vili didn't have his. We asked that could Vili travel without the ticked. The guard said that "No! You have to stay here all the day." Brits are famous for their sarcasm. We think that couldn't have happened in Finland because we think that Finnish people are not so friendly and they are not so sarcastic. Britain's unique take humor may seem baffling at first. The key to understanding British humor is knowing not to take yourself too seriously. British people are produced with world-class timing and nearly always with a deadpan delivery that will leave you wondering as whether it was indeed a joke or not. Sometimes sarcasm can be hard to spot and British people make their sarcasm difficult to pick up. Luckily sarcasm is used so often in day-to-day life.
Elli and Reetta

                                                                                           

                                             7. Language and ads
We saw a lot of ads in bus stations metro stations buses shops and really everywhere as an example there was an commercial of a KFC that said eat KFC with your family buy a family sized bucket of KFC and it was my favorite ad there because it was really nice and had the whole family involved. The ads were very demanding and really tried to get you to buy their product the ads usually tried to get the younger audience to buy their product, Some of the products really tried to use trending things like for example twerking and almost all of the ads had their Facebook and Instagram on it.