King Charles Coronation

 King Charles III Coronation Day. Prepare.

Will you make the egg tart? Or something else?

The marvellous, magical day is Monday May 8th, 2023. 

Charles will be crowned.

Camilla will be beside him.

Kate and William will be there.

Harry will spare time to visit briefly, before flying home, his new home, to the USA, for his son's fourth birthday party.

Meghan will not be there.

Where To See Princess Diana statue unveiled July 1, 2021, by sons William and Harry

 

The Princess Diana statue has been unveiled in London, England, by her two sons, William and Harry. The statue shows slim Diana standing with her hands embracing two children, a boy and a girl.

The statue stands in a sunken garden, amid her favourite flowers exuding perfume.

Where: Kensington Palace.

The Palace, where Prince William lives with Kate, contains an orangery and fine state rooms.

Kensington Palace by Steve Cadman in Wikimedia.

Other statues in the gardens include one of Queen Victoria (east facade) and one of William III.

Getting There

Ten minute walk from Queensway underground station.

The physical site has a shop and cafe. Check for the latest opening hours, tickets, admission prices and times and Covid-19 regulations.

Useful Websites

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Statue_of_Diana,_Princess_of_Wales

https://www.royalparks.org.uk/parks/kensington-gardens/things-to-see-and-do/kensington-palace

https://moovitapp.com/index/en-gb/public_transportation-Kensington_Palace-London_and_South_East-site_6831039-2122

About the Author

Angela Lansbury is Vice President Public Relations of Braddell Heights Advanced, and Tampines Changkat Advanced,  speakers training club which are part of Toastmasters International. The USA has several Spanish speaking as well as the English speaking clubs. You can pick up Spanish from buying or reading online their Spanish clubs welcome pages and manuals. 

In The USA, UK, Singapore and worldwide, there are many clubs which are English speaking, as well as Mandarin, Cantonese, Japanese, French, Tamil, Malay.

The inauguration of Tampines Changkat Advanced was Tuesday 29 2021, online on  zoom. Their meetings are on the fourth Tuesday evening of the month. They hope to hold meetings with a few people meeting physically, the others online, as soon as the Covid-19 conditions allow.

You can find the club through their facebook page as well as through Toastmasters International find a club. 

https://www.facebook.com/tampineschangkatadvTMC

The meetings are free for visitors. Visitors can watch, and join in speaking by introducing themselves and volunteering to do a 2 minutes impromptu  speech in table topics.

If you wish to join for a year, it costs about 190 US dollars, to have monthly meetings online, a mentor, a magazine, and one of the 11  Pathways, consisting of 14 projects. Each project starts with 3 speeches of your choice of subject, lasting 4 to 6 minutes, then 5 to 7 minutes. The Pathways include the most popular Presentation Mastery. I chose  humorous speaking as my second Pathway, costing 20 dollars. Then my third was a leadership course. Come and see for free.

The club also has meetings in person in Singapore

You can also contact my other club, smaller Braddell Heights Advanced, which is a cosy little club with more chances to speak.

Login through bha.learncool.sg/meet/bha 

That will link you through to Zoom or googlemeet. 2 pm to 5 pm.

BHA meets the first Wednesday evening each month, starting at 7 pm Singapore time. 

Then an extra meeting on the 3rd Saturday afternoon, starting at 2 pm Singapore time.

To check your time zone,  

https://24timezones.com/difference/singapore/ 

Meetings will be on Wed July 7th and  Saturday July 17th.

Contact either of these or other clubs through Toastmasters International Find a Club.

Can you recognize English and other accents?

Years ago I had a BBC record of accents. Actors used to play these over and over to learn accents. I thought it was very difficult and wondered how you could ever learn them.

However, now I find accents easy, so long as you stick to no more than a sentence or two.

Flag of UK

London
Let's start with London. I am a Londoner. I speak with received pronounciation. My voice sounds like Julie Andrews in The Sound of Music.

The Queen's English
I speak the Queen's English. If the queen were to abdicate or die tomorrow or next year or later, and a king came on the throne, I would be talking the King's English. The Queen's English and the King's English are the same thing. It just depends who is on the throne. (See the film / movie The King's English.)

The flag of England.

If you want to learn to speak English clearly, listen to the BBC news readers. Or listen to Her Majesty the Queen delivering the Christmas Message. Listen to Prince Charles, William, and Kate.

English Accent
English is mostly accented on the first syllable. Good MORning. HAPpy BIRTHday. By contrast, Chinese and Japanese are staccato, to the English they sound like machine guns.

Shakespeare
In Shakespearean plays the kings and queens and heroies and heroines, the important characters, speak with a pronounced rhythm.  This makes them sound grand. The sentences are like waves of even length, so you expect them to last a certain time and to finish at a certain point. By contrast, the servants and commoners have short seetnences and exclamations with no particular rhythm.
ast word, the toastmaster rushes forward with his hand out to say thankt you, but no , the speaker is off again.

So remember to tell the listener, the audience, the toastmaster of the evening, the interviewer on radio or TV, whether you have finished.

Statements end with a lowering of the voice at the end. When poeple ask questions, their voice goes up at the end. The last word of a speech should be an important word,, one you can say loudly and emphatically.

Foreigners who end a sentence with a voice up at the end leave you expecting they will continue. maybe it's a rhetorical question, one which they answer themselves. If a speaker ends on a high note, the Toastmaster of the evening is confused. He doesn't know whether the speaker will continue. Should he stand up and shake hands? On the other hand, if the speaker ends with a definite and emphatic word, that's the end.

Margaret Thatcher, Prime Minister.

Listen to speeches by Winston Churchill and Margaret Thatcher. When Margaret Thatcher became Prime Minister, she was sent to speech lessons and  taught to speak with a lower voice to sound more msculine and more authoritative.

Winston Churchill, who gave speeches on the radio during WWII.

The United Kingdom includes Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. if you drive or take the train west you reach Wales. Where is it, W for west, w for Wales.

The flag of Wales showing the Welsh droagon.

Welsh Accent
The Welsh accent is very singing, singsong. I go there every year, so I just imagine I am lsitening to the people welcoming me. Boy-o. Welcome to way-ills. Your voice goes down on well and up on come, down on way and up on ills. The intonation is down up, down up, down up.

The Edinburgh accent is refined, fainter than the Glasgow accent. To remind myself of the accent, I say refained, and Edinbrrrrr. I think of a head mistress, or teacher, in the film The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, or my friend Fiona.m, I recommend


The flag of Scotland

Scottish Words Wee and Bonnie
Add the word wee for small. A wee lad, or a wee lassie (girl). The voice tends to go up slightly at the end of a phrase or sentence. If you are not sure of the intonation, to remind yourself, just try a sentence with the words Edinburgh and wee and make it a question. is the wee lad from Edinbrraaaa?

Of course, you know the word of Auld Lang Syne, old long time, translated as old time's sake. You can practice or listen to a reading of a Scottish poem for Burns Night, or practise Auld Lang Syne.
As a child I learned the songs, My Bonnie Lies Over the Ocean, and the plaintive song, you take the high road and I'll take the low road and I'll be in Scotland before ye .. on the bonnie, bonnie banks of Loch Lomond. Loch is lake.

Glasgow accent
The Glasgow accent is stronger. I say Glasgee, to remind myself.

For the Northern Ireland accent, listen to Ian Paisley. I think of the Oirish, to be sure. Some opeole say the Irish never say to be sure. But it's a handy reminder to get you in the mood or to help you to recognize the accent. There are plenty of Irish songs.

Whether or not you can speak in the accent, play a few songs and you will soon learn to recognize them.

If you want to watch a film, I recommend a film with Alec Guinness such as The Ladykillers. I have suggested this to Japanese friends and pupils and they loved it.

But the best way to learn an accent is to visit the country.

Useful websites
visitbritain.com
visitbritainshop.com

Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author, author of Wedding Speeches & Toasts, and speaker, speech tutor, teacher of English and other languages

Where to see Kate's Wedding Dress?

No higher resolution available.

William_and_Kate_wedding.jpg ‎(500 × 524 pixels, file size: 163 KB, MIME type: image/jpeg)

Open in Media ViewerConfiguration

Description	The British royal family on Buckingham Palace balcony after Prince William and Kate Middleton were married. Kate wears a wedding gown by Sarah Burton.
Date	29 April 2011, 16:31 (UTC)
Source	The_royal_family_on_the_balcony.jpg
Author	The_royal_family_on_the_balcony.jpg: Magnus D derivative work: Blofeld Dr. (talk / cont)
Other versions	Derivative works of this file: William in uniform.jpg

I don't understand which bit of credit I have to give for the photo and/or modification so I've simply copied it all from Wikipedia.

Problem
You can see the wedding dress. Which wedding dress? Kate's. Not Meghan's. Kate's.

Answer
Not the Victoria and Albert Museum, but Buckingham Palace. Open all summer.

The queen thought it was horrible - not the dress, the display. She said so, on video.

I agree. It would be better with Kate's face and body, filling it out, reminding us of the occasion, smiling. I know we are looking at the dress, not the person, but you also need to soncider whether it flatters her shape, her face.

Closer to the dress would be better, too. Even if the dress has to be protected behind glass.

This weekend was for the bride, Meghan, married to Harry on May 19 2018. (Without mishap - thank goodness.)

Kate takes precedence, married earlier, and to Harry's older brother William, who is in line for the throne after their Father Prince Charles, his three children coming before Harry.

Useful websites

visitbritain.com
https://buckinghampalace.londonpass.com/

Author, Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker.

How to look co-ordinated when travelling

Less is more. Fewer colours, more co-ordinated, less time matching. That's why traditionally people where white in summer (when you can wash white clothes and dry them on the line).

Black was worn in winter (hiding the soot and smoke from indoors and outside in Victorian times). Nowadays the rule for safety on our busy traffic filled roads is Wear White At Night.

A recent newspaper article claimed that Kate, royal Kate, looked frumpy. I beg to differ.

Only half a dozen pictures slightly less gorgeous than the normal stunning clothes. Any set of photos of anybody will show some good and some bad. 

What is wrong in the ones shown? In one her bust is too low, so she needs to hitch up the era straps. Alternatively wear a different style. 

In another photo her toes point inwards. This stance which always looks daft in photos, like a five year old with problems standing upright. 

In a third photo she has nothing to add interest at the neckline. To draw attention to her face, she needs a necklace, collar or scarf. 

As for match-match, yes, her clothes match. Quite right, too. This is what you do when you can afford to buy everything made to measure and co-ordinated. 

Too many people haven't the money or time to match. Look in any high street or train and you see people wearing un-co-ordinated fabrics, different styles, an assortment of colours, or drab colours, nothing focusing on the face or any good point, complete lack of co-ordination and planning, worst of all, mixed patterns, flowers, polka dots and stripes, as if they dropped a set of colour swatches on the floor and picked them up in random order. 

I concede the if you wear a uniform of only one colour, not co-ordinated with either skin colour, hair colour, eye colour or accessories, that creates a drab effect. To lighten it you need a contrasting colour for accessories.

Ideally use a third colour which makes it all lively. Add a motif or pattern at three points or more, such as a rose or symbol. Place the accent on the hat, waist and shoes; or necklace, bracelet and ear rings and ring; or bag, belt and shoes.

Here's the comment and the original article which inspired my reply:

hand picked by the queen to be an oven for the heir. I'm sure the queen is the one in charge of what she wears.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-3530869/Duchess-Drab-s-mystery-cosmos-DOES-beautiful-woman-make-designer-outfits-look-frumpy.html#ixzz45ItRx2C2
Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook