The Scots May Speak English, But We Are Not English
Do you know your United Kingdom from your Republic of Ireland?
Call me British, or call me Scottish. But don’t call me English. Because I’m not, it’s as simple as that.
“Gee, you speak real good English for a Scotch person, how long you been learning?”
Nineteen-year-old me spent a frivolous summer lifeguarding on an American waterpark. Day in and day out of being yelled at,
“Hey, lifeguard, where are you from?”
Only for an entertaining barrage of presumptions and inaccuracies to ensue upon hearing I hailed from the bonny land of Scotland.
“Do you just eat haggis in Scotchland?”
“Do you have electricity in Scotchland?”
“Do you know William Wallace?”
In case you are wondering, no, yes, and no!
In fairness, it’s not just my enthusiastic American friends who mislabel the Scottish as English or the Irish as British (this is a tricky one, keep reading). My own beautiful mother-in-law is a French immigrant living in Ireland and regularly gets her countries of the United Kingdom confuzzled. I currently live in the Republic of Ireland, and my trips home to Scotland are met with “When do you return to England!”
All Scots are Brits, but not all Brits are Scots.
The United Kingdom, AKA The UK, comprises the countries of England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland.
Great Britain comprises England, Scotland, and Wales but not Northern Ireland.
If someone is a British citizen, they could be Scottish, English, Welsh, or Northern Irish.
Notice I’m adding “Northern” in front of Irish. Because the island of Ireland is divided.
Not all those who are Irish are from the UK. The Republic of Ireland is an independent country with nothing to do with the UK. They may be clumped together in sentences such as “The UK and Ireland,” when said like this, it means Scotland, England, Wales, and the entire island of Ireland — Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland.
My biggest bugbear is the lazy use of “England” when “the UK” is meant.
“We’re going to England, and while we are there, we are going to visit Edinburgh and also hike up Snowdon”
No, you Yankeedoodledum, you are going to the UK, and while you are there, you will visit Edinburgh, a wonderful city in Scotland, and then you will hike up Snowdon, the highest mountain in Wales.
Our countries may be smaller than some of the American states, but given we are represented by lions, unicorns, dragons, and um, (checks notes and says tentatively) … mountain hares — our magic, ferocity, firebreathing and um, mountain running should never be underestimated!
Thank you for reading Ali Hall 🤣