English or British?

Question

i prefer to say i'm english not british :) it gets on my nerves when i see americans on TV talking about england and how they love the "british" people but english and british are two different things...british could mean scottish irish and welsh too but i don't think they realise that. not all americans of course, but it is quite annoying. anyway, my question is do you say you're british or are you proud to be english? :D same if you're from scotland etc. too do you prefer to say you're scottish or british? :)

ok america doesn't count lol but if you are american you do know there's a difference right?

oh and 'afrowoman' your answer doesn't make sense :S i live in england, therefore i'm english. england is in great britain, therefore i could say i'm british what do you think the whole point of the question was!?

Answer 1

I agree with lulu in that other British nationalities such as Scottish, Welsh, and Northern Irish people tend to make the distinction so I do on occasion, especially as I lived in Wales when I was doing my degree and if you asked more or less any Welshie what their nationality was, they'd usually say "Welsh" rather than "British".

Before I lived in Wales, I considered myself and everyone else in the UK&NI (although admittedly NI is a bit confusing so I try not to 'go there' on the subject of nationality) to be British. However once in Wales everyone else made the distinction between English & Welsh and I realised that as an English person I had never really thought about how Welsh & Scottish people thought of their nationality; I had always assumed they thought of themselves as being British too!

Nowadays I am once more at peace with my Britishness, but then I do live in England once again. But I am English, and I acknowledge that now, although if asked my nationality I will say British.

This is going off on a bit of a tangent, but I've noticed that supermarket suppliers tend to label their milk according to its nationality - in Wales, Tesco always proudly proclaimed that it was Welsh milk on the shelves. In England though, it's British. I live in North East England so occasionally some of the supermarket milk comes from across the border in Scotland and that is branded "Scottish milk". My point is that if you are going to make the distinction for Scotland & Wales then it is a bit rude to label the English milk as British just because you assume you might offend the other nations that comprise the UK! I feel as if they consider 'English' to be offensive to non-English people. I know it's petty and I'm not as riled up about it as I probably sound, but either label it English milk or label all the milk in the UK as British.

I bet I sound like some BNP supporter now, don't I?!?! :oP

Answer 2

OK, i am not British" nor "English", but it happens the same here in the American Continent, maybe you do it too, but to us it is really funny and fool listen somebody from anyplace in Europe talking about the "Americans" referring to the ppl from the U.S, and where are the others Americans?, i mean the Canadians, Mexicans, Brazilians, Argentinians, etc??(we are also Americans!
And it is a therm -Americans-that the ppl uses a lot, why? So what i wanted to tell you is that i do understand you, and the next time i will be more specific with the differences between geography, culture, etc... But u know, i hate it too, when the ppl don know the differences between north America and south America, and Caribbean, what can i do?? but thanks for ur explanation.
Bye.

Answer 3

Actually I tend to think of British as the Welsh who were there long before the Angles, Saxons, Normans and Danes forcibly settled. I tend to think of people from England as English (my husband is from Norfolk, I'm American).

Answer 4

Scottish then British.

Answer 5

English = Saxon
British = Before Romans

Answer 6

Greetings!! I'm very proud to be Scottish and very happy to be British...sometimes i say I'm from Scotland and sometimes the UK.
I don't want to be separate from Wales, Ireland and England...i hope we all stick together...
guess i'm Scottish then British..but i still love ya..x

Answer 7

Although I'm English, I call myself British as I have lived in Wales for the last 7 years. Anyway, we're not very popular over here...:-(

Answer 8

I am proud to be both English and British, i prefer to call myself British though :D

Answer 9

I say I'm English, as i was born in England, but i don't mind being referred to as British.

The only thing with being called British is it's a bit like calling a Spaniard a European, i mean it's right but doesn't quite sound right does it?

Answer 10

I live in England and am proud to say I am British, I live in the queens country and i am proud of it