Language & Literature, Popular

The Great Vowel Shift

If you have learnt a foreign language, or if you are bilingual in another European language, you may have noticed that there are a number of words that are similar to words in English. Perhaps you may even have been told that some of them are derived from Latin or Greek, or that they have Germanic roots. But why is the pronunciation so often so different in English?

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Art & History

The First Computer Programmers

Girls are told, all the time, that there are things they can’t do because, well, they’re girls. I’m here to tell you: it’s not true.
Let me tell you about a girl I know.

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Sports

Our ContiReporter Ailsa – Video Report from U17 Championship

 

Check out our ContiReporter’s fantastic video report from the Women’s U17 Championship, and tomorrow you can read her final report from the last day of her trip. 

If you missed part one and two, you can catch up now!

Ailsa went to the Women’s U17 Championship thanks to the kind support of Continental UK.  

 

 

 

 

 

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Travel

Carnivals Around the World

You might have heard of the carnival in Rio, but did you know that there are carnivals around the world – from Germany to Greece, USA to Italy?

Millie Slavidou explains where Carnival comes from on her blog

Long before the advent of Christianity, people held celebrations at this time of year. In Germany, they once looked forward to sending Hel, the goddess of the underworld, back down to her abode so they could herald the coming of the spring. In Greece, it was a time to worship the god Dionysus. With the arrival of Christianity, the celebrations continued, but changed in nature, gradually becoming more and more linked to the new religion. The Carnival is held in the period before the start of Lent, and Lent is the time when good Christians were supposed to fast, to abstain from meat 

In the UK, we don’t celebrate Carnival, but we do prepare for Lent – that is what Pancake Day is all about, after all. Traditionally, pancakes were made to use up the eggs, fat, and butter, that were not to be eaten during Lent!

Take a trip around the world with us, to find out how other countries celebrate Carnival!

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