Remember some important internet safety rules when using this site (and others):
never give your full name,
never give your phone number, address or email details,
don't mention where you will be at a particular time,
don't put any of that information on the net about anyone else,
think carefully if you respond to anyone else's comments because they can't hear your tone of voice,
do not call people names or put them down
World Map
Monday, June 21, 2010
Room 5JP Map Work
If you want you can put the information you find about Luxembourg here instead of your homework books! Maybe we can get someone from Luxembourg to add to it as well at the end of the week :)
*Luxembourg has the highest percentage of mobile phones per capita in Europe *Most official (written) business is carried out in French, whereas German is the first language taught in school and used in the media.
I got my information from: http://www.eupedia.com/luxembourg/trivia.shtml
Luxembourg has three offical languages: French, German, and Luxemboureois. Luxembourg also ranks as the world's top city for personal safety and security
Hello thanks for your comment about Kapa Haka on our blog. That gave me a couple of ideas. Firstly please record the show at Greymouth when you do it for the Kapa Haka festival, secondly if you are interested in performing or practising any part of the show perhaps we could arrange something with our Kapa Haka group at school! Perhaps a rehearsal or a communication, leave us a comment on our class blog if you are interested. Mr Webb and Room 8, Melville Intermediate School, Hamilton, Waikato. PS you might want to change the comment settings so anyone can leave a comment, not just people with google accounts! Nice globe!
Very interesting information Alex and Courtney. Thanks for letting us know where you got your information from Courtney. It is a very good habit to get into. Congratulations girls on being the first people to do some of your homework on line from our classes! :)
Wow! Well Miss Paterson finally found that someone from Luxembourg to give some comments on the many thinks already said above :-).
I have to say you have done a great job so far and found many correct answers :-), some of which i didn't even know myself :-).
So i will try to give some input here without cheating it from a website somewhere. Will be difficult.
I remember from my times at school, that Luxembourg has a size of 2586 sqare km (which is about 16 time bigger then Liechtenstein :-), the country is landlocked indeed, but the nearest coast (Belgium) is only about 3 hours drive away.
The lowest point is at about 130m above sea level, the highest at roughly 550m.
The population is about 400.000. Only about slightly more then half of them are native luxembourgish, like me. The other part comes from everywhere, but mostly from Portugal, Italy, Belgium, France, Germany, Bosnia, Denmark, Iceland, UK, The Netherlands, Spain, Sweden, Norway, Poland etc ...
The comments about languages are very interesting. In fact, our language is luxembourgish, which, if you are honest, is some kind of a german dialect (even though it has been recognized as an official language). If you want to get some idea of what it sounds like: here are a few links to live radio stations: http://delicast.com/radio/Luxembourg. That is the language we all speak, but as we are so small as a country, we need to know german, french and english as well. Although luxembourgish is our language, you will find it very difficult to manage your daily life, if you are not able to speak french. Staff in restaurants and many shops, as well as hospitals, live on the other side of the border and are unfortunately, most of the time, not able to speak luxembourgish. So we need to adapt to them.
We learn to write and read in german (not in luxembourgish) and all other subjects in school are taught in german up to the age of about 12-14 where it all changes to french. I dont know the reason for that to be honest. The 3 languages (luxembourgish, french and german) are official languages.
The capital of Luxembourg is quite simply "Luxembourg" :-) or "Luxembourg-City" and has a population of about 80.000.
The economy is among the wealthiest in europe, although it has been going through hard times recently.
The national day was a few days ago only on June 23rd. It symbolizes the Grand-Duke's (Something like a king) birthday, which is not on June 23rd, but the date was chose as we have summer in June, the days are long, it is quite warm and sunny and a really nice time to party.
Luxembourg has also been one of the 6 founding members of the European Union back in the 1950's, and several european institutions are located in Luxembourg, like for example the european court of justice ...etc..
I didnt know the fact about the mobile phones but i was not surprised to hear that. Almost everybody has one and companies have many more which results in the fact that the number of mobile phones in Luxembourg is higher than the population :-)
Well one last point might be interesting. Sports. The most popular sport is Soccer of course, even though we are really bad at it. We never went to the World Cup, where the Kiwis did really well now. But 2 years ago, we beat Switzerland 2-1, and Switzerland beat Spain a week ago and Spain is european champion, so we are not that bad :-)))). Hahah. Well for a small country it is normal that we cannot compete with other nations in most areas. That's why Luxembourg and other small european nations like Cyprus, Malta, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Monaco, Andorra organize a special Olympics called "Olympiad of Europe's small countries" where we can get medals as well :-). There is one sport where Luxembourg is doing quite well however. Cycling. Here we have a few good riders like The Schleck Brothers. Andy and Frank Schleck. They are both among the best riders in the world and Andy did 2nd in the Tour de France last year. The Tour de France is the biggest cycling event in the world. But apart from Cycling it is not funny to be a sports fan in Luxembourg :-). Also, as i am writing to Kiwi's, i have to say that rugby is by far not as popular as soccer is, but it is being played more and more. We also have a national team and i know one of the coaches.
There would be more to say but i think it is enough for a first time. If you have any questions, just raise them to Miss Paterson and she will let me know.
Wow!! That's really interesting, about how it's not very high above sea level. The other Facts are interesting to. From reading your comment I've found out some cool facts about Luxembourg.
thanks for the lovely comment the facts are very interesting and i hope you post more comments Luxembourg sounds like a lovely place to go and visit in your summer holidays. also i like soccer to. hope to hear more comments form you and hopefully from your famly and friends Briahn =}
Hey, Those facts are really interesting! I think that the fact that in Luxembourg there are the 3 main languages, Luxembourgish, French and German,is really interesting. It must be hard to learn three different languages, especially when you're learning one in primary school and another one in highschool. Thanks for commenting on our blog :) Courtney
Thank you so much for commenting on our blog. We've learnt some very interesting facts about Luxembourg. Someday I guess us kiwi's should come teach you a thing or two about rugby.! I really like the comment about the mobile phones. It's very interesting. Thanks again for commenting on our blog and we hope to hear from you in the future.
WOW! ! ! ! ! You did a great job on telling us so much about Luxembourg. Thanks for all the facts. It is very interesting that so many people from different countries live in Luxembourg.
I would love to go there one day!!!!!!!! Thanks!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :) :) :)
WOW.!!!! Those facts are all very interesting,I didn't know that Belgium is only 3 hours from Luxembourg. I also didn't know that Luxembourg had three main languagues,French,German and Luxembourgish. I find it interesting that soccer was the most popular sport in Luxembourg. Thank You for commenting on our blog. :) Eilish.B
I appreciate that big load of comments. It's really nice you guys are interested in seeing the world and trying to understand different cultures and people.
C) To Courtney Well the language thing sometimes annoys us but I am quite happy we are forced to learn the languages because then we can travel pretty much everywhere. German is not difficult for Kids. Most TV stations we get are in German and as Luxemburgish and German are quite similar languages, kids learn German via TV even before they go to school. French is way more difficult. Kids learn it at age 7, but the younger you are, the quicker you learn. As for English, it is only our 3rd foreign language and we start learning it later than in most other European countries, only at age 13. But then, the learning is done quite rapidly so we can make up for starting later then for instance Germans. And the nice thing is that we can practice a lot as we have so many foreigners. I need to speak those 3 languages each day at work. D) To Eilish R. Yes Basketball is also quite popular. It used to be in 2nd place but now I think it has dropped in popularity a little. I think it comes behind soccer, cycling (of course) and maybe tennis. I go to basketball matches only about once a year, for instance for cup final games. Here is a video about the last cup finals, including also the Kids team's: http://sport.rtl.lu/tele/rebound/show/?v=2601
You also mentioned Belgium. Well Luxembourg is landlocked with common borders to Germany, France and Belgium. Where I lived before, it was just a 5 minute-drive to the Belgian border. Now it would be about 45 minutes. Germany is even closer. E) To Tay Rugby! Oh yes. That’s a sport where we still need to get lots of experience. Most rugby coaches are foreigners, French or British mostly. There has been a talented player which has been sent to New Zealand a year or 2 ago to get trained, but I did not hear anything about how it went. When I went to New Zealand, I really saw how big that sport is down there.
F) To Carla Thanks a lot :-). Well Luxembourg has its good and bad things. But one of the good things is the multicultural aspect. Now for the soccer world cup, you see flags everywhere, people being out in the streets celebrating when their teams win, especially Portugal. Portuguese represent around 10% of the entire population in Luxembourg. In my job, I work with almost as many nationalities as there are people. My boss is Norwegian, then I have some French colleagues, and most of them again have other origins so it’s quite funny. I also work with a polish guy, a girl from Spain, a guy from Morocco, 1 from Belgium and a few from Luxembourg too :-). I am quite happy about that because you get to learn a lot. For instance, when the Muslims do their Ramadan, when they are not supposed to eat or drink during the day. G) To Bridget Yes the rate is interesting and we will soon be outnumbered by foreigners. But as long as we have no clashes and integration (where both sides have to work on) is done properly, it's a good thing. Then we all benefit from each other. Of course not everybody has the same opinion on the issue. But thats how i think about it. On the other hand i also think we have to pay attention, seeing that luxembourgish is used less and less. It's like an animal threatened by disappearing. So i think we should make it a criteria for people who want to work and live here, to know a minimum of luxembourgish. This would make integration easier and it also would prevent older people from feeling offended by being spoken to in french all the time.
To all of you. Have fun. Enjoy the learning and thanks for the questions :-)
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDelete*Luxembourg has the highest percentage of mobile phones per capita in Europe
ReplyDelete*Most official (written) business is carried out in French, whereas German is the first language taught in school and used in the media.
I got my information from:
http://www.eupedia.com/luxembourg/trivia.shtml
Luxembourg has three offical languages: French, German, and Luxemboureois. Luxembourg also ranks as the world's top city for personal safety and security
ReplyDeleteHello thanks for your comment about Kapa Haka on our blog. That gave me a couple of ideas. Firstly please record the show at Greymouth when you do it for the Kapa Haka festival, secondly if you are interested in performing or practising any part of the show perhaps we could arrange something with our Kapa Haka group at school! Perhaps a rehearsal or a communication, leave us a comment on our class blog if you are interested.
ReplyDeleteMr Webb and Room 8, Melville Intermediate School, Hamilton, Waikato.
PS you might want to change the comment settings so anyone can leave a comment, not just people with google accounts! Nice globe!
Very interesting information Alex and Courtney. Thanks for letting us know where you got your information from Courtney. It is a very good habit to get into. Congratulations girls on being the first people to do some of your homework on line from our classes! :)
ReplyDeleteGreat work guys.
ReplyDeleteVery professional blog.
Tony Roughan
Tasmania
The largest city is Luxembourginton.Luxembourg is one of the smallest countries in Europe.
ReplyDeleteluxembourg is a land locked country. I could not find the captil of luxembourg!!!!!!!.
ReplyDeleteHey Benjamin if you get a chance Google "What is the capital of Luxembourg" and you will see the answer without even having to open any of the links!
ReplyDeleteWow! Well Miss Paterson finally found that someone from Luxembourg to give some comments on the many thinks already said above :-).
ReplyDeleteI have to say you have done a great job so far and found many correct answers :-), some of which i didn't even know myself :-).
So i will try to give some input here without cheating it from a website somewhere. Will be difficult.
I remember from my times at school, that Luxembourg has a size of 2586 sqare km (which is about 16 time bigger then Liechtenstein :-), the country is landlocked indeed, but the nearest coast (Belgium) is only about 3 hours drive away.
The lowest point is at about 130m above sea level, the highest at roughly 550m.
The population is about 400.000. Only about slightly more then half of them are native luxembourgish, like me. The other part comes from everywhere, but mostly from Portugal, Italy, Belgium, France, Germany, Bosnia, Denmark, Iceland, UK, The Netherlands, Spain, Sweden, Norway, Poland etc ...
The comments about languages are very interesting. In fact, our language is luxembourgish, which, if you are honest, is some kind of a german dialect (even though it has been recognized as an official language). If you want to get some idea of what it sounds like: here are a few links to live radio stations: http://delicast.com/radio/Luxembourg.
That is the language we all speak, but as we are so small as a country, we need to know german, french and english as well. Although luxembourgish is our language, you will find it very difficult to manage your daily life, if you are not able to speak french. Staff in restaurants and many shops, as well as hospitals, live on the other side of the border and are unfortunately, most of the time, not able to speak luxembourgish. So we need to adapt to them.
We learn to write and read in german (not in luxembourgish) and all other subjects in school are taught in german up to the age of about 12-14 where it all changes to french. I dont know the reason for that to be honest. The 3 languages (luxembourgish, french and german) are official languages.
ReplyDeleteThe capital of Luxembourg is quite simply "Luxembourg" :-) or "Luxembourg-City" and has a population of about 80.000.
The economy is among the wealthiest in europe, although it has been going through hard times recently.
The national day was a few days ago only on June 23rd. It symbolizes the Grand-Duke's (Something like a king) birthday, which is not on June 23rd, but the date was chose as we have summer in June, the days are long, it is quite warm and sunny and a really nice time to party.
Luxembourg has also been one of the 6 founding members of the European Union back in the 1950's, and several european institutions are located in Luxembourg, like for example the european court of justice ...etc..
I didnt know the fact about the mobile phones but i was not surprised to hear that. Almost everybody has one and companies have many more which results in the fact that the number of mobile phones in Luxembourg is higher than the population :-)
Well one last point might be interesting. Sports. The most popular sport is Soccer of course, even though we are really bad at it. We never went to the World Cup, where the Kiwis did really well now. But 2 years ago, we beat Switzerland 2-1, and Switzerland beat Spain a week ago and Spain is european champion, so we are not that bad :-)))). Hahah. Well for a small country it is normal that we cannot compete with other nations in most areas. That's why Luxembourg and other small european nations like Cyprus, Malta, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Monaco, Andorra organize a special Olympics called "Olympiad of Europe's small countries" where we can get medals as well :-).
There is one sport where Luxembourg is doing quite well however. Cycling. Here we have a few good riders like The Schleck Brothers. Andy and Frank Schleck. They are both among the best riders in the world and Andy did 2nd in the Tour de France last year. The Tour de France is the biggest cycling event in the world. But apart from Cycling it is not funny to be a sports fan in Luxembourg :-). Also, as i am writing to Kiwi's, i have to say that rugby is by far not as popular as soccer is, but it is being played more and more. We also have a national team and i know one of the coaches.
There would be more to say but i think it is enough for a first time. If you have any questions, just raise them to Miss Paterson and she will let me know.
Have a great weekend.
Philippe
Wow!! That's really interesting, about how it's not very high above sea level. The other Facts are interesting to. From reading your comment I've found out some cool facts about Luxembourg.
ReplyDeleteMollie =]
thanks for the lovely comment
ReplyDeletethe facts are very interesting and i hope you post more comments
Luxembourg sounds like a lovely place to go and visit in your summer holidays.
also i like soccer to.
hope to hear more comments form you and hopefully from your famly and friends
Briahn =}
Hey,
ReplyDeleteThose facts are really interesting!
I think that the fact that in Luxembourg there are the 3 main languages, Luxembourgish, French and German,is really interesting. It must be hard to learn three different languages, especially when you're learning one in primary school and another one in highschool.
Thanks for commenting on our blog :)
Courtney
Sorry I forgot to ask you something in my last comment!!!Do you play basketball in luxembourg???
ReplyDeleteEilish R
Hello (:
ReplyDeleteThank you so much for commenting on our blog. We've learnt some very interesting facts about Luxembourg. Someday I guess us kiwi's should come teach you a thing or two about rugby.!
I really like the comment about the mobile phones. It's very interesting.
Thanks again for commenting on our blog and we hope to hear from you in the future.
WOW! ! ! ! ! You did a great job on telling us so much about Luxembourg. Thanks for all the facts. It is very interesting that so many people from different countries live in Luxembourg.
ReplyDeleteI would love to go there one day!!!!!!!!
Thanks!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :) :) :)
WOW.!!!! Those facts are all very interesting,I didn't know that Belgium is only 3 hours from Luxembourg.
ReplyDeleteI also didn't know that Luxembourg had three main languagues,French,German and Luxembourgish.
I find it interesting that soccer was the most popular sport in Luxembourg.
Thank You for commenting on our blog. :)
Eilish.B
Hello it is funny that only just above half of Luxembourg are actually native.Thank You very much for commenting we really appreciate it.Thank You!
ReplyDeleteHey to all of you.
ReplyDeleteI appreciate that big load of comments. It's really nice you guys are interested in seeing the world and trying to understand different cultures and people.
Well so i will try to answer to those questions.
A) To Mollie.
Well it's true that we are not located that high above sea level. We do not have any borders with the sea though, so we are not located that low either. In fact, Luxembourg is quite hilly, so it might be quite of a challenge to take your bike and go through the countryside, but there are of course no big mountains and no real alpine downhill skiing tracks. To ski, we normally drive south to Switzerland, Austria, France or Italy, or more globally to the Alps which are really nice for skiing. The Alps are a quite big range of mountains and are located at a distance of roughly 500-1000 km from Luxembourg. We also could go to the world’s longest indoor ski hall, just across the border in Amnéville (France). http://www.snowhall.fr/index.htm
B) To Briahn
Yes it can be a nice place but you have to combine it with other countries in Europe. It's too small to just visit Luxembourg when you come from such a remote place. Last time, I told you how big Luxembourg is. In fact to give you a little idea about what that size really means: it is about 100 times smaller than New Zealand.
C) To Courtney
ReplyDeleteWell the language thing sometimes annoys us but I am quite happy we are forced to learn the languages because then we can travel pretty much everywhere. German is not difficult for Kids. Most TV stations we get are in German and as Luxemburgish and German are quite similar languages, kids learn German via TV even before they go to school. French is way more difficult. Kids learn it at age 7, but the younger you are, the quicker you learn. As for English, it is only our 3rd foreign language and we start learning it later than in most other European countries, only at age 13. But then, the learning is done quite rapidly so we can make up for starting later then for instance Germans. And the nice thing is that we can practice a lot as we have so many foreigners. I need to speak those 3 languages each day at work.
D) To Eilish R.
Yes Basketball is also quite popular. It used to be in 2nd place but now I think it has dropped in popularity a little. I think it comes behind soccer, cycling (of course) and maybe tennis. I go to basketball matches only about once a year, for instance for cup final games. Here is a video about the last cup finals, including also the Kids team's: http://sport.rtl.lu/tele/rebound/show/?v=2601
You also mentioned Belgium. Well Luxembourg is landlocked with common borders to Germany, France and Belgium. Where I lived before, it was just a 5 minute-drive to the Belgian border. Now it would be about 45 minutes. Germany is even closer.
ReplyDeleteE) To Tay
Rugby! Oh yes. That’s a sport where we still need to get lots of experience. Most rugby coaches are foreigners, French or British mostly. There has been a talented player which has been sent to New Zealand a year or 2 ago to get trained, but I did not hear anything about how it went. When I went to New Zealand, I really saw how big that sport is down there.
F) To Carla
ReplyDeleteThanks a lot :-). Well Luxembourg has its good and bad things. But one of the good things is the multicultural aspect. Now for the soccer world cup, you see flags everywhere, people being out in the streets celebrating when their teams win, especially Portugal. Portuguese represent around 10% of the entire population in Luxembourg. In my job, I work with almost as many nationalities as there are people. My boss is Norwegian, then I have some French colleagues, and most of them again have other origins so it’s quite funny. I also work with a polish guy, a girl from Spain, a guy from Morocco, 1 from Belgium and a few from Luxembourg too :-). I am quite happy about that because you get to learn a lot. For instance, when the Muslims do their Ramadan, when they are not supposed to eat or drink during the day.
G) To Bridget
Yes the rate is interesting and we will soon be outnumbered by foreigners. But as long as we have no clashes and integration (where both sides have to work on) is done properly, it's a good thing. Then we all benefit from each other. Of course not everybody has the same opinion on the issue. But thats how i think about it. On the other hand i also think we have to pay attention, seeing that luxembourgish is used less and less. It's like an animal threatened by disappearing. So i think we should make it a criteria for people who want to work and live here, to know a minimum of luxembourgish. This would make integration easier and it also would prevent older people from feeling offended by being spoken to in french all the time.
To all of you. Have fun. Enjoy the learning and thanks for the questions :-)
Talk to you later. Philippe
thank you for answering my question!!But basketball is defiantly number one on my list!!!
ReplyDeleteEilish R
do you no tasmania is the 26 largest island in the world and the population is 500 000 as 2008
ReplyDeleteI got brunner and big river and bells junction
ReplyDeleteFor my map work I got Egypt and I would be nervous to visiting there because they all carry guns there.
ReplyDeleteDarfield dunedin and Dargaville they are what I got for my new zealand map work.
ReplyDelete