The Buddha of Suburbia

The Buddha of Suburbia (1990), written by Hanif Kureishi, won the Whitbread Award for the best first novel. It has been translated into 20 languages and was also made into a four-partdrama series by the BBC in 1993, with a soundtrack by David Bowie.

The Buddha of Suburbia is said to be very autobiographical. It is about Karim, a mixed-race teenager, who is desperate to escape suburban South London and make new experiences in London in the 1970s. Gladly, he takes the unlikely opportunity when a life in the theatre announces itself. When there is nothing left for him to do in London, he stays in New York for ten months. Returning to London, he takes on a part in a TV soap opera and the book leaves its reader on the verge of Thatcherism.

The suburbs are "a leaving place" from which Kureishi's characters must move away. To Karim, London—even though it is geographically not far away from his home—seems like a completely different world. Therefore his expectations of the city are great.

• Hanif Kureishi discusses The Buddha of Suburbia on the BBC World Book Club
• Susie Thomas article on the London of The Buddha of Suburbia

Click here to view a file with evidences on different topics of the book

Christmas celebration: links for intercultural understanding

Christmas today

Today, only around 60 percent of people in the UK are Christian but Christmas remains the biggest holiday in the calendar. It is a largely secular holiday, with the main element the exchange of gifts on Christmas day.

Chocolate Father Christmases ©

In previous centuries the Church worried about Pagan influence on the Christian festival, but today ethical considerations are focused on the over-commercialism of the holiday, with the average person in the UK spending hundreds of pounds on Christmas-related purchases (an average of £384 in 2007, according to a Halifax report).

Protests against consumerism have been made by Christians and non-Christians such as 'Buy Nothing Christmas', encouraging people to spend time with their families instead of spending money on them.

With carol concerts, Christmas trees, office parties, midnight mass, and television programmes, today's festival has elements of the Pagan, Christian and folk traditions.

Christmas remains a time to forget about the long dark days and celebrate with friends and family.

COMMUNICATIVE LANGUAGE TEACHING

Communicative language teaching is an approach that represents the 

philosophy of teaching that is based on communicative language use. It is also 

based on communicative competence 

CLT enfaces national/functional concepts and in communicative competence 

rather than grammatical structures.