The UK and England is the same, right? Or, how to win enemies in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland

Posted on 12 June, 2009 by Bjørn

union-flagI recently wrote a post about the British and geography. I have to admit to some past cluelessness about the UK. Many years ago I thought England was the name of what I now know as the United Kingdom. I knew there was something called Scotland and Wales and I knew where they where, but I used to think they where part of England. The same way Bornholm, Jutland (Jylland) and Funen (Fyn) are part of Denmark. Boy was I wrong. If I had been a bit more interested in football I might have realised that the fact that Scotland have their own football team that play against other countries in the World Cup is because they are themselves a separate country. The English don’t mind, in fact I think they like how non-Brits sometimes make that mistake, but the Scottish and the Welsh definitely don’t like it! It would be like calling a person from Zealand (Sjælland) a Jutlander (Jyde). So as an example, you may call a person from Scotland a Scot, a Brit or British (unless of course he is actually English but has moved to Scotland). They will prefer being called Scots but they will (sometimes grudgingly) accept being British.

So what do you call a person from Northern Ireland? Unless you know for certain, avoid labelling a person from Northern Ireland with any nationality, that is why they’ve been fighting up there! Some years ago I worked with a guy from Northern Ireland who now lived in England, and I once made the mistake of referring to him as being Irish. I didn’t mean to label him as being from the Republic of Ireland. I only meant to make a comment about where he was from geographically. Well, I was told in no uncertain terms that he most definitely was not Irish, he was British!

Posted in Culture, Geography | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Clueless about Geography

Posted on 1 June, 2009 by Bjørn

london-amsterdam-copenhagenThe British once ruled large parts of the world, yet a majority of them don’t have a clue about geography and their nation-state neighbours. They are especially clue-less about Denmark and the Netherlands (Holland). They frequently confuse those two countries and the languages spoken (Danish in Denmark and Dutch in the Netherlands). So I frequently get comments about Dutch being my language if I tell people I’m from Denmark. Or I get comments about being from the Netherlands if I tell them I’m Danish.

In reality, the Netherlands is much closer to the UK than to Denmark. Denmark doesn’t even share a border with the Netherlands. Look at the map and notice the two lines going from London to Copenhagen (the capital of Denmark) and from London to Amsterdam (the capital of the Netherlands). While we are dealing with this particular set of misconceptions, Denmark, Norway and Sweden are the countries most often associated with Scandinavia. Some other countries are sometimes included, but the Netherlands never are, unless you are Anglo-Saxon. Yes, the Americans are also clueless in this regard, but as the British are so much closer to each country they have less of an excuse.

I have found that I’m not the first one to comment on this issue, one of my compatriots has her own blog entry about it here.

But most of the relevant websites I have found show how Anglo-Saxons mess it up. So here is another blog welcoming a Dutch Danish company to Toronto. Here’s a person asking for a reference to a Scandinavian (though preferably Danish or Dutch) restaurant. The people behind the Simpsons got it wrong (Little Orphan Millie) though it is of course difficult to know whether that was part of the pun or not). But then there is a person asking (based on the Simpsons episode) what the difference between Danes and the Dutch are. Should I laugh or cry about the person answering that they are both beer drinkers, cheese eaters and (wait for it) Scandinavians?

Posted in Geography | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Some stereotypes about England

Posted on 3 February, 2009 by Bjørn

london-busStereotypes about London and England are plentiful. A newspaper article in the Danish “Berlingske Tidende” about today’s “extreme” weather (“London paralysed by snow”) mentions two of them.

Used to rain?

First it mentions how the English who are so used to rain woke up to a snowstorm. I have covered that in another blog entry. London has almost 2% more rainy days than Copenhagen. So yes, there was a lot of snow compared to how much usually falls, but I haven’t heard it referred to as a snowstorm over here. But then, the journalist does mention that her source is “The Sun“, a newspaper given to exaggerations and even fabricated stories.

Double-decker buses?

Oh, and all the double-decker buses are at a standstill according to the article. In that case it is not as bad as I thought then, all the non-double-decker buses are still driving then I assume. Yes, there are non-double-decker buses in London.

Posted in London, Stereotypes, Weather | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Due to the extreme weather conditions…

Posted on 2 February, 2009 by Bjørn

2009-02-02_16-26-17The south-east of England is closed. The buses in London aren’t driving. Part of the M25 is closed. I was supposed to go to Bedford today, but the “Highways Agency” agency suggested that you only drive anywhere if you really had to. Well, I was pretty sure I would be able to handle the snow, before moving to the UK we lived in the country-side in Denmark so we had to drive in the snow every winter. But I was afraid of venturing out and meeting the English drivers that definitely are not used to driving in snow during the winter. My son’s school is within walking distance, but he came home with a notice that “due to the extreme weather conditions all schools in the Wokingham area are to close tomorrow”. The weather right now would be considered straightforward winter conditions in Denmark, so we had a laugh over that. Click the pink excerpt below to see for yourself…

due-to-extreme-weather

Posted in Weather | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

British jobs for British workers

Posted on 31 January, 2009 by Bjørn

2009-01-30_23-11-52The last couple of days have seen a lot of media attention over strikes around the country. People are complaining about foreigners working in the UK. Being a foreigner myself it is obviously a subject that I have a vested interest in. Though, to be honest, it isn’t something I’m giving much thought. I have in the 9 years I have lived in the UK never experienced any negative comments about me working in the UK.

The issue seems to be causing the Labour government some problems as Gordon Brown, the Prime Minister, at a party conference in 2007 uttered the slogan: “”. According to both the BBC and “The Times”, the “National Front” (a right wing whites-only political party) has used the same slogan. According to The Times, when Downing Street (where the prime minister lives, referring to Downing Street is comparable to referring to “The White House” in the US) was confronted with this, their response was that Gordon Brown used the slogan first but as The Times points out, that doesn’t necessarily make it any better.

Posted in Work | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

… Depending on the traffic

Posted on 9 January, 2009 by Bjørn

trafficjamIf you live near a large town or city in the UK, you have to add “… depending on the traffic” when you tell someone when you will be arriving, and that is irrespective of whether you use car or public transportation.

This morning I had to go from our village into Wokingham, a short distance of less than 3 miles/5 km and I was again reminded of how bad traffic is at the wrong time of day. The wrong time of day is unfortunately quite along time. Almost all of those 3 miles were spent starting and stopping and crawling along at a snails pace. I am usually able to work from home so that traffic doesn’t affect me, but it is not always possible to avoid. If I’m going into London by car, I usually have to double the amount of time that my Sat Nav/GPS tells me it will take. Taking the train isn’t always possible. If I arrive at the train station car park later than 9:30 it will be full, so even if I want to take the train it won’t be possible. Sometimes it seems like they’ve just given up on even attempting to improve the transport infrastructure in the UK.

I survive by living outside the M25 (a motorway encircling all of London, some call it the UK’s biggest car park), often working from home and not having too many meetings in London.

In series 10, episode 5 of Top Gear, they made a race across London by bicycle, boat, public transportation and of course a car. According to my Sat Nav, the distance they travelled is 16.5 miles/26.5 km. Again according to the Sat Nav, it should take 53 minutes by car and 1 hour 18 minutes by bike. I suggest you see the episode yourself, it is 22 minutes long and I won’t spoil the fun by telling you who was first.

Posted in Quality Of Life | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Culture Shock

Posted on 6 January, 2009 by Bjørn

midI have just been reading on Wikipedia (the fount of all knowledge) about culture shock and it was quite informative to compare its information with my own experience. By all means, read the real thing, but here is a summary of the different phases of culture shock:

  • Honeymoon Phase
  • Negotiation Phase
  • Adjustment Phase
  • Reverse Culture Shock

As a teenager, I lived with a family and went to high school in the US for a year. I experienced some culture shock, so before our first move to the UK in 1991, my wife and I discussed how culture shock might affect us. Speaking for myself, I certainly went through the “honeymoon phase” were I regarded many (most?) things about the UK as wonderful. The “negotiation phase” is supposed to be the part where you find you dislike the country you are in and everything back home is much better. That happened to me when I was in the US, but it didn’t happen to me during that first stay in the UK. I went straight from the “honeymoon phase” to the “adjustment phase”.

Reverse Culture Shock

you are not supposed to find it difficult to return to your native country, are you?

When we returned however, we experienced what I have always called “reverse culture shock”. I always thought it was something only my wife and I had ever had because it seemed so ridiculous to experience culture shock when coming back to your native country. But it is on the list of the different phases of culture shock in the Wikipedia article. Our thoughts on returning to Denmark after 6 years in the UK were that Denmark had changed a lot while we were away. After some time the realisation came that maybe we had probably changed more than Denmark. Whatever it was, it was not easy to deal with because it was so unexpected. I mean, you are not supposed to find it difficult to return to your native country, are you? At least we thought it shouldn’t be. The reverse culture shock has certainly been one of the motivating factors in our decision to move back to the UK.

Second Time

I was however somewhat concerned that after being back in 9 years in Denmark and still not feeling completely settled back in. Would we be disappointed upon moving to the UK again? Where we seeing the UK through rose-tinted glasses? So what was it like the second time? Not sure, I don’t think my experience this time fits neatly into the phases above. I think I’ve been somewhat sad that we didn’t adjust properly back to life in Denmark. There are aspects of Denmark and life in Denmark that I miss more than last time. But it was an informed choice and overall I am satisfied with our decision.

We have met another Danish family here who went through the same experience of living in the UK for some years, moving back to Denmark and not settling back in and finally returning to the UK and with no plans to move back to Denmark again.

Posted in Culture | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Rain

Posted on 5 January, 2009 by Bjørn

Friends back in Denmark frequently ask me how I can stand all the rain here in the UK. They never quite seem like they believe me when I tell them that in my experience it doesn’t rain a whole lot more here compared to Denmark. So I decided to find the official truth. That wasn’t as easy as I thought it would be. It turns out the BBC and DMI (Danish Meteorological Institute) don’t agree on the numbers. The BBC is supposed to be very trustworthy, but I’ve decided to believe DMI on this one.

Rainy days per year:

  • London           119
  • Copenhagen    112

So there you have it, one more week of rain in London compared to Copenhagen for the whole year. Putting the numbers into a chart it becomes clear that in London the winter is wetter and the summer is drier compared to Copenhagen.

rain-london-vs-copenhagen

Posted in Quality Of Life, Weather | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment

Quality of life

Posted on 4 January, 2009 by Bjørn

This is old news, but my blog on living in the UK is new, and I wanted to boast tell friends and family about the cool place we live in the UK. So back in 2007, Wokingham (the borough where we live) was found to be the number one place in the UK to live in. What particularly pleased me was that we here have “90 minutes more sunshine each week than the UK average”

Unfortunately, the latest survey from 2008 has Wokingham in fourth place. I assume the 90 minutes of extra sunshine haven’t gone away though…

Posted in Quality Of Life | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Shopping to Save the World

Posted on 3 January, 2009 by Bjørn

2009-01-01_19-21-58January 1st used to be a day when we did nothing much at all. The last three years however we have gone into London on New Years day to shop. As consumers we have been told that “in the current economic climate” it is important that we all do our bit to keep the economy moving, so yesterday, not only did we get some excellent deals, but just like Gordon Brown (the British Prime Minister) saved the world I feel I can lay a claim to having helped save the world economy!

January 1st was an excellent day to go shopping the previous two years as very few people were out and about, but the streets in Knightsbridge (and Harrods in particular) were teeming with people and most of them didn’t even speak English! Well, neither did we actually. We also went shopping on Kings Road in Chelsea which was a much more civilised experience.

Anyway, we got some excellent deals on stuff that was on sale, and no, we didn’t actually buy anything in Harrods. I did take a look at the Jet ejector seats, a steal at £21.000. And of course I also had a look at the toy Hummer which could have been mine for £17.995 (delivery not included). Oh, and the fossils, I saw one priced at £14.500. The fossilised Dinosaur bone had been already sold… Seriously though, Harrods must be experienced if one lives near London!

2009-01-01_19-22-132009-01-01_17-29-072009-01-01_17-05-232008-12-08_12-46-04

Posted in London | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment