Oral presentation: Scotland

Oral presentation : SCOTLAND
Hello, we are Antonela, Mariana and Stefi and today we going to explain how the life is in Scotland. First and I’m going to introduce a little bit how this country is.

INTRODUCTION

Well, Scotland is a country that is a part of United Kingdom. It is occupying the northeast part of the island of Great Britain. It shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, and the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west.
The capital is Edinburgh, which has got more of 600.000 people; although the largest city is Glasgow, which has got more of 800.000 people. Scotland is on 112populated country
Scotland was independent until 1707, when Scotland entered into a political union to create the Kingdom of Great Britain. This union resulted from the Treaty of Union agreed in 1706.
The money that is actually in use is British Pounds (£), which are accept throughout the United Kingdom, but also there are some shops outside Scotland that refusing them. One pound approximately equals one euro and twenty cents.
1£ = 1,20 €

The flag of Scotland known as the Saltire or St. Andrew’s cross. The flag has got a while cross with a blue background. Scotland has got more symbols which are official and unofficial such as the thistle, the nation’s floral emblem, the textile pattern tartan, which signifies a particular Scottish clan.

The motto of Scotland is ‘anyone I offended with impunity’ it’s connected to the thistle.
The national hymn of Scotland is ‘Flower of Scotland’ and ‘Scotland the brave’. They compete with each other. However, there’s not an official hymn.

St Andrew’s Day is an official festival of Scotland. This celebration is on 30th November. Also they celebrate the Tartan day which recent innovation from Canada.

There are 2 official shields:
1. The first: ‘Lion rampant’
The shield has got a yellow background, which represents the gold; the lion in the centre is surrounded by a flowered red band.

2. The second: was used by the crown of Scotland. There’s a lion surrounded by a shield of armoury. There are horses, shields, lion rampant and a flag.


HISTORY:
The Scotland history begins around 10,000 years ago, when humans began to inhabit what is now Scotland, after the ens of ice age.
The recorded history of Scotland begins with the arrival of the Roman Empire in Bbritain.
Scotland seemed a peripheral country slow to gain adbances, but over time began to improve.
For the IIIth century until the XIIIth century the Celts were in charge of the Scoltish Crown, which began in 840 and the last was Alexander III, who completed his regn in 1249.
Talking about the geographical orientation of Scotland and his strong reliance on trade routes by sea. Scotland was independed to the south. with the Baltic contries, with France and the European continent. Following the Acts of Union which united Scotland with England ans started the Industrial Revolution. Scotland became one of the commercial, intellectual and industrial powerhouse of Europ.


CULTURE
The music is very important part of Scotland’s culture. The traditional instrument is the bagpipe, but there are more relevant instruments like violins or the accordions, because they are always present in traditional music festivals and concerts.
Also American music, like Country has been influenced by Scottish music. And there are famous singers like Amy McDonald, who is from Scotland.
Scotland’s literature includes texts in different languages like Scottish, Ancient Languages, Latin, English and more.
National television is “BBC Scotland” and the most popular newspapers are Daily Record, The Herald and The Scotsman.


WEAR
The traditional wear is the kilt, which is made of wool with a Tartan design. Tartan design is more or less like this photo, but it can be different colors like green and black, red and black, blue…
A person who lives there uses the kilt when he has got an important meeting like weddings, baptisms, communions…
Kilt is placed around the waist and covers up the knees. Also they can wear a bag.

LANGUAGES
There are two kind of languages: the Celtic Languages, including the Ancient Languages. These languages are spoken by only one per cent of population.
Also there are the Germanic Languages, including Scottish and Scottish English, which has been influenced by Ancient Languages.


RELIGION
IN 1560 the Church of Scotland became National Church of Scotland.
In 2001, forty per cent of population was members of Church, but in 2005 only twelve per cent were members.
There are some Catholics, that it is the stronger religion in Scotland. And there are some Protestants. Also there’s another religion which is Islam. Only one per cent of believers in a religion are Islamic.

GASTRONOMY
Scotland's cooking share many characteristick of England cooking.
In genaral, Scottish cuisme is characterized by her simplicity, using natural products by milk, meat, fish, fruits and vegetables, they also like use spices and herbs.
The haggis is the best know Scottish dish.
It consists on a heavy sausage that is traditionally served with potatoes.
It is a spicy dish with intense flavor, but there are many recipes. Usually cooked with lamb or sheep (lung, liver or heart), mixed with onions, oatmeal, herbs and spices, all this stuffed inside a baf made of animal's stomach and boiled for many hours.
This dish is traditionally eaten on Burns Supper every 25th Jenuary, the day which commemorates Scotland's national poets Robert Buns.
The most internation ans popular drink in Scotland is whisky. In U.S.A is called simply Scotch.
The origen of wisky in Scotland seems to date the IVth or Vth centuary, when the most brought the continent distillation, but it is final explosion occurred in the IXth century, when they desveluped new models of production.

Self- valoration:

We used a powerpoint with images and photos which supported our presentation, rather than text. We didn't use text hardly. The photos were related with our subject: Scotland, and in every slide we use images and animations. Also we used music, because we explained which are the hymn of Scotland. Our presentation lasted approximately 14 minutes.

We looked at audience, but no all the time, because I think that we were a little bit nervous. Sometimes I read my notes, because I was nervous and I didn't remember somethings that I had to say. I thnk that I didn't do many gestures, but sometimes, when I was more sure.

We organized the ideas in the order of importance, but the importance that we thought.

I think that all things that someone introduce in their presentations are new for someone, because we didn't know any countries.
Our grammar was simply, because if we don't use simply grammar we didn't know what we had say.

We used linkers for explain the hymn of Scotland.
Our pronunciate I think it's regular, and always we can improve it.

I think that we could consulted to our teacher for check the text that we said.