My English speaking exam speech!(Distinction level) - Writing Wednesday
Hello everybody and welcome back to another blog post,
Here's my English Speaking Exam that I did on Tuesday and got a distinction for. I managed to memorise this whole speech to along with my slides! Enjoy.
-
Today, I thought that I would talk about my family heritage since as some of you may know, I do come from a multi-cultural background.
My mum is fully French, but she was not born in France, she was born in a colony of France called Reunion which is a small island off the coast of South Africa, in between Madagascar and Mauritius. They speak two languages there French and Creole French which is very similar too French, but it also sounds slightly different. These were the languages that my mum grew up to speak earlier in her life. However, she didn’t live in Reunion for all her life, she eventually moved to the South of France at an early age before she obviously moved to England to spend the rest of her life there.
My dad, however, was born in Kyoto in Japan. His dad was English, and his mum was Japanese so officially, that made him half English and half Japanese. Although, he did not spend all of his life in Japan, he actually moved to Kent in England at around the age of two years old. I do find my Japanese family history quite interesting though because at an early age, my grandmother and her family went to Manchuria in China during the war because my great granddad had to work in the coal mines there at around the time of the Manchurian Crisis. When they eventually returned to Japan all their homes and everything was just gone because of the nuclear bombs that hit Hiroshima and Nagasaki. From that point on they had to rebuild their whole entire lives. They had to live in a small house, and they had quite a big family so life was quite difficult. I, however, was born in Paris and just before I turned 2 years old, I moved to England.
I am half French, quarter English and quarter Japanese and I can speak French and English, but I don’t speak Japanese. I’ve never visited Japan myself since it’s quite far away and it’s very expensive to go there. I have visited Reunion before and it’s about an 11-hour flight to Mauritius and another 30-minute flight to Reunion from there. My grandad and my cousins live there so I usually visit them when I go there with my family but that doesn’t happen often because the flights are expensive and it’s far away.
Some of the general cultural differences that I've experienced over time are that in comparison to France, we have to wear school uniform. Since my mum didn’t come from a rich family background, she was often picked on at school because she wasn’t wearing what everyone else was wearing. This is why, although I don’t like school uniform at times, I can value its importance and how it makes everyone feel as they’re no different to everyone else. I also eat a variety of different foods in comparison to the normal British family because when my grandmother comes around, we have a big traditional Japanese meal but when my grandad comes around, we eat a lot of foods based upon the Reunion culture so it’s quite an interesting contrast. Lastly, my grandmother recently got me and my sister yukata kimonos which whilst they’re traditionally worn in Japan during formal occasions, I don’t wear it often at all. There’s a whole way in which you must fold it over and tuck all the material in which takes a lot of time and you have to put it off and fold it up to put away in the right way. I guess that’s why times are changing, and you see less people in Tokyo for example, wearing kimonos. It does put pressure on the people making them to continue the tradition, but you can’t also hide from the fact that young people don’t wear that sort of clothing anymore either.
Hope you've found this helpful! Let me know in the comments below if you've done a speaking exam before and I'll be sure to reply to them. I ♡ hearing from you!
See you next time,
Bye,
XOX, Juliette
My social media handles:
My Instagram
My YouTube channel
My second blog:
The Book Hub
Here's my English Speaking Exam that I did on Tuesday and got a distinction for. I managed to memorise this whole speech to along with my slides! Enjoy.
-
Today, I thought that I would talk about my family heritage since as some of you may know, I do come from a multi-cultural background.
My mum is fully French, but she was not born in France, she was born in a colony of France called Reunion which is a small island off the coast of South Africa, in between Madagascar and Mauritius. They speak two languages there French and Creole French which is very similar too French, but it also sounds slightly different. These were the languages that my mum grew up to speak earlier in her life. However, she didn’t live in Reunion for all her life, she eventually moved to the South of France at an early age before she obviously moved to England to spend the rest of her life there.
My dad, however, was born in Kyoto in Japan. His dad was English, and his mum was Japanese so officially, that made him half English and half Japanese. Although, he did not spend all of his life in Japan, he actually moved to Kent in England at around the age of two years old. I do find my Japanese family history quite interesting though because at an early age, my grandmother and her family went to Manchuria in China during the war because my great granddad had to work in the coal mines there at around the time of the Manchurian Crisis. When they eventually returned to Japan all their homes and everything was just gone because of the nuclear bombs that hit Hiroshima and Nagasaki. From that point on they had to rebuild their whole entire lives. They had to live in a small house, and they had quite a big family so life was quite difficult. I, however, was born in Paris and just before I turned 2 years old, I moved to England.
I am half French, quarter English and quarter Japanese and I can speak French and English, but I don’t speak Japanese. I’ve never visited Japan myself since it’s quite far away and it’s very expensive to go there. I have visited Reunion before and it’s about an 11-hour flight to Mauritius and another 30-minute flight to Reunion from there. My grandad and my cousins live there so I usually visit them when I go there with my family but that doesn’t happen often because the flights are expensive and it’s far away.
Some of the general cultural differences that I've experienced over time are that in comparison to France, we have to wear school uniform. Since my mum didn’t come from a rich family background, she was often picked on at school because she wasn’t wearing what everyone else was wearing. This is why, although I don’t like school uniform at times, I can value its importance and how it makes everyone feel as they’re no different to everyone else. I also eat a variety of different foods in comparison to the normal British family because when my grandmother comes around, we have a big traditional Japanese meal but when my grandad comes around, we eat a lot of foods based upon the Reunion culture so it’s quite an interesting contrast. Lastly, my grandmother recently got me and my sister yukata kimonos which whilst they’re traditionally worn in Japan during formal occasions, I don’t wear it often at all. There’s a whole way in which you must fold it over and tuck all the material in which takes a lot of time and you have to put it off and fold it up to put away in the right way. I guess that’s why times are changing, and you see less people in Tokyo for example, wearing kimonos. It does put pressure on the people making them to continue the tradition, but you can’t also hide from the fact that young people don’t wear that sort of clothing anymore either.
Hope you've found this helpful! Let me know in the comments below if you've done a speaking exam before and I'll be sure to reply to them. I ♡ hearing from you!
See you next time,
Bye,
XOX, Juliette
My social media handles:
My Instagram
My YouTube channel
My second blog:
The Book Hub
Comments
Post a Comment
Thanks for leaving your comments! I really enjoy reading your positive and constructive messages. They really make my day! 💜