December 2019 1 December 2019 CONTENTS Cover 1 Contents 2 Christmas Traditions in different countries Hong King 3 Germany 4 Ukraine 5 Interview with Mr Benedict 6 Book Review 7 ‘Weep Not’ Child Poem 8 How to make a ‘Clay Santa’ 9 Story – Tom the Christmas Turkey 10 Crossword 11 Mercers Lecture 12-14 Competition Time 15 Crossword Solution 16 In the Heights 17-19 Back Cover 20 2 December 2019 Have you ever imagined Christmas without eating a turkey? Have you ever thought of Christmas without any celebration? Did you ever see the beautiful view when all the lights turn on over the buildings? In Hong Kong, we treat Christmas as a normal festival which brings us a holiday to relax. At Christmas, we usually have Christmas dinner in a famous restaurant together with our family. We chat and share memories as a family time. Sometimes, we do exchange presents to each other. On the other hand, my friends and I often gather around and have party at home. We have Shushi, fried chicken, hot pot and pizza for celebrating Christmas night. We always play board games or mahjong until mid-night. We don’t decorate with bells, Christmas tree or socks in our home. However, there is strong Christmas atmosphere along streets and malls. There are Christmas trees, cartoon characters and sometimes, the mall will spread the ‘snow’ amongst the shops. Most of the tall buildings along the coast, hang up light bulbs over the side of buildings. On Christmas eve, every building is lit with bright light. We can see a spectacular view over the Victoria harbor with Santa Claus, deer and numerous Christmas decorations. Apart from that, we all enjoy and love Christmas. By Mia 3 December 2019 Christmas - the time of year when everybody comes together to show love. I guess that this is probably the same everywhere around the world. But now I would like to tell you what a German Christmas is like. Christmas time starts with the first Advent. All the families buy a wreath with four candles on top and every Sunday we light one more candle so that all the four candles are burning on Christmas Eve. The children get an advent calendar on the first of December and on the 6th of December we celebrate Sant Nicolaus, that means we clean our shoes and put them in front of our doors and the next morning they are filled with lots of amazing sweets. When it comes to the 24th of December everybody gets ready for a lovely Christmas service. We go to church and watch the little kindergarten children´s play. Afterwards we come home and our living room with our festive Christmas tree is filled with presents. We spend the evening opening our gifts and having a delicious dinner. My family always eats raclette, but I know some families that have fondue or sausages. written by Neele 4 December 2019 Well, let’s start with the fact the we don’t celebrate Christmas in Ukraine. Although we have this day on the 7th of January while others have it on the 25th of December. Instead of Christmas, we do celebrate New Year, which is believably, on the 1st of January! I think that the main reasons why we don’t celebrate Christmas is that usually Christians who have Catolicism have Christmas before New Year while the orthodoxy Christians celebrate after it. However, I am still not sure if it’s true. As we don’t do anything special at Christmas, I will talk about celebrating New Year. We have a Christmas tree, don’t ask me why we have it during New Year, not during Christmas because I am not able to answer you. Also, we buy a lot of tasty stuff at the shops. Usually during New Year, we buy tangerines (or angles), black or red caviar, salad called Olivie and other types of food we like. As for drinks, we buy both fizzy drinks and champagne. Then, we buy presents we want to give to our family members. After that, we invited a lot of people to our house and start supper, or dinner. Then, we turn the TV and we watch the president setting time and wishing us a good luck in New Year. Written by Andrii 5 December 2019 Interview with Mr Benedict The new head of EAL, Mr Benedict, has just joined our school this year and he might still be a little unfamiliar to you. Luckily, in this article you will be reading some information about him. Including his experience, opinions and suggestions, and a few fun facts about him. Mr Benedict used to work in a small independent school near Reading, as the Deputy Principal and Head of EAL before he came to Dauntsey´s. The reason he chose to become an EAL teacher was, according to him, that it has always been amazing to him how English is such an important language for business and travel throughout the world, therefore he wants to do what he can to help international students with their language skills. Along with this, he also thinks it is great that he can learn a lot about many different countries and cultures while teaching. More importantly, Mr Benedict has been enjoying his time at Dauntsey´s and finding his relationship with students very positive and full of mutual respect. Surprisingly, Mr Benedict has not always been a teacher. He worked in IT sales for a few years and had various casual jobs when he was young; including counting cars at a roundabout when he was at university! I was personally really amazed after my interview with Mr Benedict, because I felt like there can be so many interesting stories about a person that have not been told. Lastly, Mr Benedict strongly recommends that international students should read and never be afraid of asking questions, no matter how ridiculous they may seem! He said the only silly question is the one you don’t ask. Written by Ryan 6 December 2019 ‘Weep Not, Child’ is a deep and touching tragedy about the dark time of Kenya and showing the painful. Life of people under Colonial rule: By describing the living conditions of an ordinary family, we can truly feel the difficulties Kenyan people were facing; Njoroge is a child of the family and the main character. He was eager for knowledge and believed it will change his fate. He wanted to be successful in order to help his family out. However, something terrible happened to his family. His father lost his jobs since he stood out and encourage people to go against colonial government. Njoroge was gradually losing his faith in god and education. Finally, the reality destroyed him. The hopeless young man he ended up to be. The story is based on actual historically facts. How everything was so hopeful at the beginning, but reality mercilessly deprived him of hope. That really shocked me. It is definitely a worthy reading book. It enriches people’s knowledge who are not familiar with that period when black people were suffering and white people were dominating. I strongly recommend this book; the ending is on another level!! By Isaac 7 December 2019 Poem Christmas in Thailand by Tin Maicharoensre Hot air rising in December Christmas in Thailand IT’s not getting colder Christmas market and shopping mall Discount for a Santa doll Commercial and Marketing Shopping never been so exciting Light shining from nor star Which be seen from really far A big giant Christmas tree Decorated by me When the sun already falls You can see trees round the malls Decoration shining light Colour: red, blue, green bright Santa sculptors on the floor Never seen real one before Haven’t counted Rudolf and elves Come, enjoy in month of twelves 8 December 2019 9 December 2019 Story - Tom the Christmas Turkey Days are passing by and it’s getting closer to Christmas. As most people are looking forward to having a relaxing and fun time with their family, Tom the Christmas Turkey has fears and is feeling pressure on him. “Hi, I’m Tom the Christmas Turkey.” Today is the 24th of December. Me and my mates are next to each other feeling cramped on a small shelf, displayed to the people walking by. I don’t know what is so cool about me being displayed as I’ve never seen myself. Today, four people walked by and the smallest kid pointed at me; I was excited, “Am I the chosen one?” A man put both hands on my body and lifted me off the shelf and passed me to another pair of hands with two kids laughing and jumping below me. I was put into a small bag and I felt like I was in a car. It was dark and I couldn’t see a thing “Wow, be careful mate!” Someone just took me out of the bag and now I’m sitting on a table. It’s quite weird looking at people without a glass in front of me, There’s a sink on my right and a knife beside my leg. I have no clue what’s going on. Sitting down there was quite comfortable but it felt boring – I’m used to people walking in front of me. As time has passed, I see more and more people arriving at the house; they seem to be hugging and they are continuously chattering. Suddenly, a person put some salt on me and put me into a very hot place.