Legal Alien » UK

Video about “The difference between the United Kingdom, Great Britain and England (and a whole lot more)”

Bjørn — Sun, 06 Feb 2011 02:02:07 +0000

Some time ago I wrote my own blog entry about how England is not the same as the UK. I’ve now just seen a brilliant 5 minute video which explains the issue in greater detail and with graphics to make it easier to understand. The video is somewhat funny, and so are many of the comments! For almost anyone who hasn’t spent time in the UK it is bound to be very informative. Go have a look…

The above title has blatantly been copied from another blog. I ought to be more creative, but the title from the other blog is so descriptive.

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

Bjørn — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 00:33:38 +0000

I 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!

Clueless about Geography

Bjørn — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 00:40:13 +0000

The 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?

Culture Shock

Bjørn — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 10:15:42 +0000

I 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.