Hello again, and welcome back to Britain under the Microscope. Hello Anlan.
Hello everybody.
So Anlan, lately when I was reading the news, especially the news in the UK, some of the British media, there was just so much about the royal family. Prince William is having another child, and also Prince Harry is about to marry an American actress. With all these coverage about the royal families, is that normal?
Yeah, pretty much. If you open the newspaper in the UK, there's generally always a story about the royal family, or especially about the Queen.
Actually that's something I'm quite interested in. So today we are going to talk about the queen.
In China we all know that the UK has a queen. We know that she's been reigning for a super long time. But probably that's about it. So first of all we talk about the queen but her real name is Elizabeth, right?
Yeah, so her name is Queen Elizabeth II. She doesn't use a third name.
Does she have a third name?
She does. They're called the Windsors.
Isn't Windsor a place or Windsor castle?
Yes. That's because in the First World War, royal family usually came from Germany. So they had German third name. And during the First World War when we were at war with Germany, the royal family changed their German name to Windsor.
So technically she should be Elizabeth Windsor.
Yeah, but obviously being the queen, she doesn't need a third name. She doesn't use one.
So what do people call her?
If you are going to see the queen, you would first call her "your majesty".
Your majesty. Your majesty. Her majesty. This is a bit like “陛下”。
We have that as well. So you don't directly address her like "you". You would say your majesty.
Yeah. And after you say your majesty, then you would probably say ma'am.
Ma'am, like madam?
Yeah. That's because in Britain we don't use ma'am as much as in the America. So ma'am is only really used for the queen and also a few other situations, but it's used very rarely.
So when you directly speak to the queen, like, what would say, all the stuff member, they would say ma'am.
Well, anyone apart from her family.
So Anlan could you tell us a little bit about her life?
The queen was born in April 1926.
Wow that would make her …
92 years old.
92 years old.
She has two birthdays---her actual birthday in April. But in Britain she also has an official birthday in June.
But why is that?
That's because on her official birthday, we have an event called trooping of the color. It's a big military parade. Because April, the weather is not that great.
So they deliberately moved it to June when you can guarantee better weather.
Yeah, it was moved by one of her predecessors who had birthday in November.
Sounds very interesting. And then, so where was she born?
She was born in London. She was born very closed to Buckingham Palace. And you can actually still visit where she was born.
Is it a museum now?
No, it's actually a very expensive Cantonese restaurant.
Cantonese restaurant …
Yeah.
You learned something new every day.
But it's very important to realize that when she was born, she was not actually meant to be the queen.
She wasn't?
No. Her father was the brother of the man who was going to be the king. But he abdicated. He refused the throne in 1936.
所以是她爸爸的哥哥放棄了王位
So then her father was the king.
Yeah, her father became king. And then she became the next in-line for the throne. So she got married in 1947 to Prince Philip who is also still alive, a few years older than the queen.
So she was the princess essentially and Prince Philip. What kind of relationship do they have? Are they actually in the same extended family?
Yeah, they are distantly related. 遠房表親
And then when did she become the queen?
She became the queen in 1952 when her father died. And she was crowned in1953.
Oh that was the famous coronation, wasn't it? Coronation. 加冕禮
I remember BBC did a few documentaries on it.
Especially around the time for Jubilee.
What's Jubilee?
Every 25, 50 and 60 years they have a big celebration.
And it's called Jubilee.
Yeah, so 50 years was a golden Jubilee and then 60 years was the Diamond Jubilee.

Diamond Jubilee. She had that, right?
Yeah, and now she is Britain's longest reigning monarch.
Longest reigning monarch. 在位時間最長的君主 Yeah, I mean she has witnessed so many different prime ministers in the UK and also so many American presidents.
Yeah, if you think about it, around 75% of all British people have only lived during her reign. They don't know any other monarch.
That's something interesting to think about. So they have never seen any other queen or king. They've only known her.
Yeah.
So, does she have a lot of power?
She does in theory. For example the government is her own government. She is the commander of all the arm forces, the army, the navy and the air forces. But it's only in theory.
Only in theory … So she doesn't actually control the country or the government.
No, she reigns. She doesn't rule. She only reigns. So she's a figure head.
There are interesting two words. Reign, r-e-i-g-n, as a queen, as a monarch. But she doesn't rule, r-u-l-e.(只是在位，但是不統治)
And it's not only in the UK. She is also the queen of Australia, New Zealand, Canada.
I remember in Australia a friend before, every year around Christmas time she wanted to see the queen's speech. That was quite important to her. So where does she live right now, in Buckingham Palace?
Yeah, Buckingham Palace is essentially her office, that's a main palace and she lives there during the week. And on the weekend, she goes to Windsor Castle, which is just outside of London.
I have a question though. Obviously so many people visit Buckingham Palace. You said she also lives there. How can she allow people to visit where she actually lives in?
That's because they only open the palace during the summer months. Every summer she goes to Scotland for her summer holidays.
So you cannot go into Buckingham Palace all year round.
No, you can only go in there during summer months.
I did not realize that. I went in, and I guess that was in the summer. Is there a sign to show that when she is in, when she isn't?
Yeah, if you actually go to Buckingham Palace, you'll see a flag flying.
If it's the Union jack, the Union flag, the flag of Britain.
哦，如果是英國國旗，then that means she is not in?
That means she's not in.
But if you see her flag, which is called the royal standard, that shows she is in residence.
Then you cannot go in, essentially. Ah, very interesting. So being a queen, obviously, she is so high up there. And she is the reigning monarch. But does she have any hobbies? Like, err…you know, like a real person?
Well, hard to say what her hobbies are because she is quite a private person. It's different to imagine, being one of the most famous women in the world, but she does keep her private life quite private. Because she is a queen we don't know her views and opinions about many subjects.
Oh, she is not allowed.
Not the question ---not allowed. But for example her political views, she can't show favoritism. She has to be neutral.
She cannot say I prefer this party or that party.
No, but her famous hobbies are horse racing, she always goes to the horse races, and dogs.
Like corgi.
Yeah. So whenever we think about corgis in the UK, they are always considered almost like royal dog.
柯基犬在英國就是royal dog because the queen likes it. It was getting really popular in China, that kind of dog. Any other interesting facts you can share about the queen?
That's quite a few. For example, she is the only person in the country who doesn't need a passport.
Obviously, everyone knows her.
Oh yeah. Nobody's gonna stop the queen and ask for her passport and she doesn't need a driving licence either.
Does she still drive though? She's 92.
She still drives! And she's actually one the only loyal we've ever had who was a train mechanic.
She was a mechanic during the Second World War.
So she can fix cars. That's certainly one interesting fact. I think that's a lot about the queen. We can continue in our advanced episode. But let's summarize it with a few expressions in English that has the word queen.
Yeah. You can imagine in English there's lots of expressions around the royal family, and also especially around kings and queens. So, for example, queen bee.
B-e-e, like the insect.
Yeah.
Queen bee, doesn't that just mean the queen basically who is in charge, with the top?
Yeah, we normally use it to describe a woman who is very powerful.
She is the queen bee of the group.
Yeah.
And you also hear the Queen's English.
Yeah, so for example, we see the pronunciation. Some people call it the Queen's English. Or, if we have a king, they call it the King's English.
就是所謂最正統的英式發音，最高段的，就是the Queen's English.
And you also have beauty queen as well.
The winner of a beauty contest(選美冠軍). Also you have drama queen（戲精）. We talked about this in one of the other episode.
So today we talked a lot about the Queen.
We're also going to explore the topic of the Queen and the royal family of the UK in our advanced episode. I have a lot more questions to ask you Anlan.
So until then.
See you next time. Bye!

更多英語資訊，獲取節目完整文本，請關注微信公眾號：璐璐的英文小酒館。每天大量英語干貨更新！