Hello again, and welcome back to Britain under the microscope.
Hello, Alan.
Hello, everybody! So, today, do you notice anything a little bit different to our background music.
Well, of course, usually we have it more a beat.
So what's with the solemn music?
That's because very soon, and also this year marks a very special anniversary in Britain, it is a hundred years after the end of The First World War.
So is there any special celebrations, or remembrance in the UK?
Yes, we wouldn't say celebration, celebration is only for happy events. But remembrance, it's to remember all the soldiers that have died in The First World War. And it marks the anniversary on the 11th of November 1918, and this is what we called 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month. That's because at eleven o'clock in the morning, the Allies, Britain, France, America and Italy, stopped fighting against Germany.
In The First World War?
Yeah.
And then you hold this kind of commemorative events every year.
Every year.
On November the 11th. Remembrance Sunday 被翻译成烈士纪念日或者阵亡将士纪念日
It's something that is so important in the UK, that everyone knows something about, but not that many Chinese learners know. So why is this war remembered so much in the UK?You said it's The First World War.
Em, yeah.
Because if you think about it, obviously, the fresher memory would be the Second World War.
Well, it is because The First World War, somewhere between 900,000 and one million British people were killed.
900,000 to a million?
Yeah.
That's really a heavy casualty.
That's why, it's still, sometimes called the great war.
The great war to mean how serious it was.
But you are absolutely right, the second world war obviously saw lots of casualties. So Remembrance Sunday is now for all soldiers who have died in war.
Not just The First World War.
Even recent wars as well. You remembered them at that time.
I'm very bad at history, so can you tell us a little bit about The First World War? And , obviously, its relation with the UK, with British people.
Well, absolutely. I won't go too much into details because it's quite a long war. But The First World War started in August 1914, and back then when it's first started, many people would thought it would be over by Christmas.
They never thought it would last so long.
No, there was lots of patriotism, there was lots of nationalism, people were very proud and they wanted to fight.
Defend their country and all that. And that war lasted 4 years.
4 years, yeah. Most of the fighting involved in Britain was on the Western Front, so that's modernday France and Belgium.
You said so many people lost their lives during the war, so back then, did you have so many soldiers, did you keep so many soldiers?
We did. In 1916, we started conscription.
Conscription, 强制征兵或者兵役法。In today's episode, there will be a lot of very specific words.
So there's lots of words very specific to The First World War, but it's worth knowing for the culture, because these are words, these are things that almost every British person knows about. So another one of these words is "Pal's battalions".
Battalion 是一个部队或阵营。So "Pal's battalions", pal is France, so what does that mean?
A "Pal's battalions" was when a group of men from the same town or village or neighborhood or the same work place, they joined together and they fought together.
Oh, so it's a bit like people you grew up with. They all join the army at the same time, they join together, obviously, they thought they were fighting for honor, for their country. I bet they were actually excited to join.
Lots of them were, lots of people wanted to fight with their friends, and the problem was because they fought together and there was so much killing, there was so many casualties that they all died together in many cases.
I can't imagine how when the news reach one village.

Yes, that's probably about 20 men or if not more men from that one place died roughly at the same time.
That must be devastating for the families.
Well, it was. And also what happened as well. Because soldiers back then, they lived and fought in trenches, and they would attack each other by "going over the top".
You need to get out of the ditch, the trenches.
And you would go against the enemy, but the enemy would use poison gas, tanks, machine guns.
That was also the first war to use that, the poison gas and tanks.
After the war came to an end, one of the saddest thing was that people believed that this was "the war to end all wars"
That would be the end of it, no more wars, but then, there was second world war. We've talked so much about The First World War. So, now, obviously, still, British people feel a lot about all those people who gave their lives in the war. But how do people commemorate The First World War on Remembrance day?
If you go to any place in the UK, if you walk down the street, you will see lots of people wear red poppies.
Red poppies, it is a kind of flower, isn't it?
Yeah.
Poppy, usually is translated into “罂粟花”. For Chinese, when we think of “罂粟”, we think of drugs. But I guess it's a very different type of flower.
It's a different poppy, this particular poppy there is no drugs and it doesn't produce that. But the reason why we wear it is because these were the only flowers that could grow in the battlefields, after the battle, it's a wild flower, and because they were blood, red.
I guess it's also the symbolism. So “血红的罂粟花来纪念” people who have died in the war.
And in London, on Remembrance Sunday which is the Sunday closest to the 11th November, there will be a national service at the Cenotaph in central London.
Cenotaph 是伦敦中心的一个阵亡烈士纪念碑，so there will be a national service to remember them.
Yeah.
You said about red poppies, so people will wear red poppies, actually, I remember that, when it's November, pretty much in the beginning of November, people started to wear that. They have it like a pin, and they put it on their coat. I've also read somewhere that average British people expect their politicians, celebrities or news broadcasters to wear that otherwise they get really upset.
Pretty much everyone on television or anyone that appears in the public event has to wear a red poppy. Some people don't like it, some people feel they are being forced to do that. But it is expected. But you are saying about poppies, at this particular ceremony, and ceremonies around the country, people will leave poppies, or a wreath of poppies.
Wreathes of poppies, to show that they remember all those people that died.
This is not just in London, this is throughout the whole of the country. Almost every town and village has its own war memorial with the list of everyone from that village or town that has died in wars.
If you travel in the UK, you do see them.
Especially in the center, very close to churches, even the smallest village, would have its own war memorial.
So you just said there will be a national service at the Cenotaph, at the monument. But what happens at the ceremony? Apart from the Wreathes of poppies being laid down.
There will be a parade of soldiers, or there would be a normally a church service as well, and there are something like, for example, this piece of music in the background, that is played as part of the service. And normally, there will be a twominute silence.
So I assume that means all the transport will stop.
Yeah.
And people will stop.
Trains, buses will generally stop and people will stop always at 11:00.
At the 11th hour.
Yeah, to remember the people that died. And very often, just before, this verse from a famous poem is recited.
"They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning.
We will remember them."
Let me try to translated roughly.
“这些阵亡的将士, 他们不会变老。岁月也没有留下沧桑的痕迹。每当夕阳西下, 朝阳升起, 我们都将纪念他们。”
And at the end of the two minutes silence, we will play "The Last Post", this is the piece of music that we are about to hear, and I think this will be a good moment to finish today's talk.
And I guess even though, for Chinese, the idea of wars is very different, but I think something is universal. That we all commemorate people who have given their lives for their own country, for the humanity, for peace, which makes the peace we have today all the more precious.
So for all those brave people that fallen in wars, and continue to fall in wars, let us listen to The Last post.
最后的岗哨。

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