Tea Party and a Journey Through British Culture at the Vocational School Of Ferenc Rákóczi II Transcarpathian Hungarian University

Between March 31 and April 1, second-year students at the Vocational School of Ferenc Rákóczi II Transcarpathian Hungarian University took part in a special event: as part of their English classes, they held a “Tea Time,” or British tea party. The aim of the session was to give students a closer look at the culture of tea drinking and its prominent role in everyday British life. Throughout the day, the students were completely immersed in the world of the English language.

At the beginning of the session the students searched for hidden objects related to British culture: they found an Irish handkerchief, a red telephone booth, British books, dictionaries, and coins featuring the portrait of Queen Elizabeth II. In the second round, the “Who am I?” game followed, where everyone had the name of a famous British personality written on their back. Among them were soccer players, members of the royal family, writers (such as Tolkien), actors (such as Tom Holland), famous characters (such as Hermione Granger), and singers (such as Adele). The students had to figure out their own identities by answering a series of questions, which led to lots of laughter and fun moments.

The highlight of the day was the tea party. Participants not only got to taste authentic British milk tea, but also learned interesting facts about tea etiquette: how to stir the tea properly and what the ideal water temperature is. This was followed by a British culture quiz, where teams competed, and then the “Guess the Idiom” game, where they had to decode English idioms based on a series of emojis.

Since the event took place during Holy Week, we also touched on Easter traditions: the students were given pictures with the English names and descriptions of the days of Holy Week, which they skillfully matched, and then reviewed the sequence of events together.

At the end of the session, we asked the students to share their thoughts and feelings. Here is some of the feedback:

„It was really good! Especially because we learned more about English tea traditions, and we even played games related to it. We’re already looking forward to the next program.” J.T. – T/II

“On the behalf of the group, we enjoyed this playful lesson. We loved the competitions, and the tea was a really good idea as well. :)” Students of AT/II

We hope that every participant enjoyed this unconventional lesson and that everyone took home a little bit of the British spirit!