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21 I wanna talk about learning languages. I’ve lived in many
different countries, both in Western Europe, Middle East,
22 and now here in Hong Kong. And during all of that time,
I’ve learned five or six different languages, to one degree or
23 another. I love learning languages, not only are they
important when you move to a country, I just find them
24 fascinating. Before I came to Hong Kong, I lived in
Barcelona Spain for ten years. And when I first arrived, the
25 most important thing was being able to communicate with
people locally. I don’t attend classes. I don’t think I’m
particularly good in classes. I prefer to learn by just talking
to people, finding out what I need to say by looking at
dictionaries and listening carefully. Other things that helped
me when I first moved to Spain, were watching the typical
kinds of programs we see everyday on channels around the
world. For example the weather. This is great, because they
always say the same things. So you can really quickly hear
the same words repeated again and again. And the pictures
helped of course. Other types of program that helped me
learned Spanish quickly were things like game shows, where
the same thing happens. They have a catchphrase or a slogan
that they repeat endlessly when contestants win or when they
are called to compete. As well as that, I used to pick up the
Spanish newspapers. First of all, I just accepted that there
was no way I was going to understand anything but one or
two words. But gradually, I found that I learned lots of new
things about this. I was interested because I wanted to know
what was happening in the country I lived in. But, I also
knew that I could learn a lot of language this way. So I'd take
a dictionary with me sometimes, or I'd notice a word and I'd
ask other people what …it meant. Anyway, by far the best
practice I ever had was just talking to people in the street, or
in shops where I'd rehearse in my head what I wanted to say
beforehand, before I went in. Usually, I'd make a right mess
of it first of all, but, after you get over the embarrassment,
it’s quite funny really. And people are very sympathetic and
supporting in most cases. It took me a long time to develop a
good level of Spanish. I lived there for ten years, and I think
I’m very fluent now. But I think for the first two years I was
there, it was quite a struggle to hold a decent conversation.
There were always lots of words or expressions that I didn’t
pick up on. In particular with the colloquial expressions,
idioms, that kind of thing, that people use in everyday talk,
but you don’t necessarily see written down. I didn’t find
those very easy to learn at all. But it was a lot of fun. And
people as I said are really supporting when they know that
you are genuinely interested in learning their language.
26 C Hello Ladies and Gentleman. It gives me great pleasure
to introduce our keynote speaker for today's plenary address,
27 A Dr. Howard Miller. Dr. Miller, Professor of Sociology at
Washington University, has written numerous articles and
28 B books on the issues facing older Americans in our graying
society for the past 15 years. Dr. Miller.
29 A Dr. Miller:
Thank you for that introduction. Today, I'd like
30 A to preface my remarks from a story from my own life which
I feel highlights our common concerns that bring us here
together. Several years ago when my grandparents were well
into their eighties, they were faced with the reality of no
longer being able to adequately care for themselves. My
grandfather spoke of his greatest fear, that of leaving the
only home they had known for the past 60 years. Fighting
back the tears, he spoke proudly of the fact that he had built
their home from the ground up, and that he had pounded
every nail and laid every brick in the process.
The prospect of having to sell their home and give up their
independence, and move into a retirement home was an
extremely traumatic experience for them. It was, in my
grandfather's own words, like having a limb severed off. He
was quite emphatic exclaiming that he felt he wasn't
important anymore.
For them and some older Americans, their so-called
"golden years" are at times not so pleasant, for this period
can mean the decline of not only one's health but the loss of
identity and self-worth. In many societies, this self-identity
is closely related with our social status, occupation, material
possessions, or independence. Furthermore, we often live in
societies that value that which is "new" or in vogue, and our
own usage of lexicon in the English language often does
not bode well older for Americans. I mean how would your
family react if you came home tonight elated exclaiming,
"Hey, come to the living room and see the OLD black and
white TV I brought!" Unfortunately, the word "old"
conjures up images of the need to replace or discard.
Now, many of the lectures given at this conference have
focused on the issues of pension reform, medical care, and
the development of public facilities for senior citizens. And
while these are vital issues that must be addressed, I'd like to
focus my comments on an underlying issue that will affect
the overall success of the other programs mentioned. This
has to do with realigning our perspectives on what it means
to be a part of this group, and finding meaningful roles the
elderly can play and should play in our societies.
First of all, I'd like to talk about . . .

31 A Hello. I’m going to talk about British festivals. I’m sure

you’ve heard about the Notting Hill Carnival in London and
32 D the Edinburgh Festival, but today we’re going to look at a lot
more that you might not know about. Actually, a lot of these
33 B are not exactly festivals, but strange races or competitions.
Some of them are ancient and some are modern. So, let’s
34 B start in January in the north of Scotland with the Burning of
the Clavie. This is a whisky barrel which is set alight then
35 A carried through the streets as a bonfire. It’s an ancient
tradition which always takes place on 11th of January, the
first day of the year, according to an older form of the
calendar. The bonfire brings good luck for the coming year
and people used to keep bits of burnt wood as protection
against evil spirits. At the end of January, even further north,
in the Shetland Islands, there’s another fire festival, the Up
HellyAa. This seems like an ancient festival, but has actually
only been going for about 130 years – well, it is fairly old, I
suppose. People carry fire-lit torches and a Viking boat
through the streets, then set fire to the boat. There’s lots of
dancing; it’s good fun. Now to the north of England. On
Shrove Tuesday in February, otherwise known as Pancake
Day, a special Pancake Bell is rung in Scarborough.
Everyone goes down to the road next to the beach where
they skip – yep, they jump over long ropes, up to fifteen
people to one rope.
And they have pancake races. This is quite common in
the UK – running with a frying pan and tossing a pancake at
the same time. Another kind of race takes place in spring –
cheese rolling.In Gloucestershire, in the south-west of
England, round cheeses in round boxes are sent rolling down
a hill and people run after them and try and catch them. The
hill is very steep, so people often fall over – if you take part
in this you need to be very fit and wear your oldest jeans.
Nowadays this strange custom attracts visitors from all over
the world, but the people from the local village are usually
the ones who catch the cheese. From people-racing, to
animals, very tiny animals. World Championship Snail
Racing takes place in a village in Norfolk. The snails have to
race from an inner circle to an outer circle and the winner
gets a lot of lettuce.There’s a party and barbecue for the snail
owners and observers. This custom began in the 1960s after
a local man saw something similar in France. In the UK we
don’t eat snails, by the way.