Why do people confuse "British" with "English"?

[bhsup]

"English" is sometimes used to refer to English people in general, but that would include other ******** nations such as the US. I'm not sure it's an accepted definition to mean specifically British people - do you have a source?

Beg pardon?!? We're not "English people" and haven't been for over two centuries now. English people live in England, last I checked.

 

[Asher]

British does. English refers only to the people who come from the part called England

To us, it doesn't matter. You're all sufficiently similar to be lumped together. Why waste the time differentiating? You guys flatter yourselves with self-importance.

we seem to be doing quite well with a GDP of just over one sixth of the US and almost double Canada's. Maybe not so ******** after all.

Leave it to a Brit to make a GDP/sq meter metric.

UK GDP per Capita: $31,800
Canada GDP per Capita: $35,600

 

[Asher]

"English" is sometimes used to refer to English people in general, but that would include other ******** nations such as the US. I'm not sure it's an accepted definition to mean specifically British people - do you have a source?

When you say someone is "English", you're referring to a UK resident.

When you say "English-speaking", that means something else.

As for your request for a source -- are you serious? I'm going to pretend you didn't just do that.

 

[Asher]

That's fair enough. But the problem is with people who, knowing the origin of the person for whatever reason, still calls him English when he isn't.
Or else with people who have refused to grasp that there is a difference, despite being able to understand the nature of nationality when it comes to other nations.

Why does it matter? If they're foreign to you you can't expect them to bend over to your demands just because you think yourself better than people you're confused with.

It doesn't matter when the scope is global (eg, the person you're talking with is a world away). I'm sure it matters very much locally if somebody is Welsh or English, but when the scale is much larger, I genuinely want to slap people who focus on semantical quibbles with no real effect than to look at the big picture.

To you, British Columbians, Quebecois, and Nova Scotians are all "Canadian". Or perhaps you're like most Brits where Canadians and Americans are both "Americans". It really doesn't matter in the big picture.

 

[StarWorms]

Are Canadians more English or American?

Genetically speaking, more English, given that there are no native Americans left, and that Americans are mostly descended from people from the UK.

 

[Figaro]

Queen Elizabeth was the Queen of England. England had not joined with Scotland by then so there is an civ leader for a politically independent England.

No, but it was joined with Wales (Military Occupation 1282, Act of Union 1536). So there isn't. The last true King of England was Henry VIII.

And I don't get particularly annoyed when individuals in conversation mistakenly refer to us as English or whatever - as I said before, I can just correct them anyway. My issue is when people like Firaxis make the mistake, and by doing so actively spread ignorance and inaccuracy. Now I don't believe Firaxis HAVE to be 100% completely accurate and include every goddam' thing in history - it's just a game and all that - but I don't see how correcting it would seriously harm gameplay or anything.

To you, British Columbians, Quebecois, and Nova Scotians are all "Canadian". Or perhaps you're like most Brits where Canadians and Americans are both "Americans". It really doesn't matter in the big picture.

But it's not the same - British Columbians, Quebecois and Nova Scotians are all Canadians, in the same way that Welsh, English & Scottish are British - I'm not objecting to this. What I am objecting is refering to Welsh & Scots as English, because they're not. It's more like referring to all Americans as Californians.

And, for the record, I've never met anyone who actively refers to Canadians as Americans, and I really don't think anyone who wasn't fairly stupid would. Maybe people who might mistake a Canadian for an American due to unfamiliarity with the accent or whatever (I can't pretend I'd be any good at telling the difference); but I'm not complaining about people getting mixed up or confused; I'm complaining that people seem to have been misinformed.

 

[Asher]

But it's not the same - British Columbians, Quebecois and Nova Scotians are all Canadians

That's up for debate. Quebec has its own national parliament.

 

[Bugfatty300]

Ah alas, how hard you are on the dear poor Welsh. They have spent so
long learning to sing in tune, hobbitting in coal mines, developing a triple
consonant encrypted language, playing rugby rather than soccer,
pretending that a skinny vegetable is a flower. You are so heartless.

Take care. They have never forgiven us for stealing the long bow.

Sorry but what have the Welsh ever done done for me?

 

[sysyphus]

Sorry but what have the Welsh ever done done for me?

Catherine Zeta Jones.

 

[Figaro]

These distinctions are important, to maintain the distinctness and dignity of the different tribes.

We all know the Celts were displaced when the Angles and Saxons invaded.

The Picts mainly stayed behind the wall, and invented fried Mars Bars.

The Welsh... are simply Irish who could not swim....

The modern day Irish are the people who lived in Ireland. The modern Welsh are the people who lived in Wales & England and have really very little to do with the Irish, so I don't what the "could not swim" is about. The modern day Bretons were colonists from Britain. The modern day Scots are a mixture of local Picts and Irish colonists. And the modern English are Germans.

 

[Figaro]

That's up for debate. Quebec has its own national parliament.

Well so do Scotland and Wales, so are we even British any more?

 

[sysyphus]

Well so do Scotland and Wales, so are we even British any more?

It's kind of a silly joke. Quebec has a provinicial government like every other province, they just call it the National Assembly.

 

[Figaro]

Didn't the Quebecois vote 49% in favour of independence in a referendum or something? Or am I talking rubbish?

 

[sysyphus]

No, you're correct, but there's a bit of contreversy around it.

 

[Bill3000]

And the modern English are Germans.

Nah, there's plenty of brythonic blood within the English genepool; they took the language of their conquerers.

 

[GinandTonic]

Call us whatever you fancy - if you get it wrong you only proove your ignorance.

What confuses me is why the Ozzies call us POM's, when clearly they are the POM's.

 

[Brighteye]

Why does it matter? If they're foreign to you you can't expect them to bend over to your demands just because you think yourself better than people you're confused with.

It doesn't matter when the scope is global (eg, the person you're talking with is a world away). I'm sure it matters very much locally if somebody is Welsh or English, but when the scale is much larger, I genuinely want to slap people who focus on semantical quibbles with no real effect than to look at the big picture.

To you, British Columbians, Quebecois, and Nova Scotians are all "Canadian". Or perhaps you're like most Brits where Canadians and Americans are both "Americans". It really doesn't matter in the big picture.

Most Brits? Are you sure? I have never met anyone who thought that, except in the sense that everyone from the continent is American.
The difference is, of course, nationality. All those are Canadian. The Welsh are not English. It's like calling Japanese people Chinese, or calling Germans Spanish.
"Oh you're not from my country, so you're all barbarians anyway"
If you really can't cope with these 'semantic quibbles', it just shows how narrow-minded and ignorant you are. Continuously calling a Japanese man Chinese and then slapping him when he suggests that you listen to his corrections would be regarded as the height of bad manners and stupidity, and yet when it's Welsh and English suddenly it's perfectly acceptable?

To us, it doesn't matter. You're all sufficiently similar to be lumped together. Why waste the time differentiating? You guys flatter yourselves with self-importance.

It's not self-importance to ask that someone get your nation right when you talk to him. It's expecting common courtesy.
Figaro here does not understand why people are incapable of extending that courtesy to him, as a Welshman, when often the same people would be appalled if a person showed the same discourtesy towards a different nationality.

 

[Asclepius]

The modern day Irish are the people who lived in Ireland. The modern Welsh are the people who lived in Wales & England and have really very little to do with the Irish, so I don't what the "could not swim" is about. The modern day Bretons were colonists from Britain. The modern day Scots are a mixture of local Picts and Irish colonists. And the modern English are Germans.

Actually, as so many Anglo-Norman settlers were planted or moved to the area stretching from Cardiff to Pembrokeshire, there are very few Welsh from southern Wales who don't have any English ancestors. Modern migration has also accelerated that trend. It is also a bit of a myth that the Scots are a mix of Celt and Pict as they all have just as much Scandinavian and Saxon blood as the northern English. In fact after the Norman conquest, the Lowlands of Scotland were basically repopulated by English (or Saxon, to make a distinction) refugees. The English certainly are predominantly of Germanic descent but "German" they are not.

 

[Asclepius]

Nah, there's plenty of brythonic blood within the English genepool; they took the language of their conquerers.

This late 1980's early 1990's, politically correct myth has been completely debunked by gene testing.

There really is a genetic difference between the English and the northern Welsh.

 

[Steph]

Well, I don't confuse them. There's is easy way to tell.

If someone from the rainy islands up to the North is unpleasant, it's an English, if he's a nice guy, is probably a Non-English British.