Do you correct people if they call you British?

cutymonalisa · 27-01-2011 03:08PM

This just happened to me over Xmas while in Asia. There was this really annoying Canadian lady in her 60's on a tour I did - a teacher in an International School in Japan no less. After being in her company over some 2 weeks she asks me on the last evening to explain the 'British Isles' to her. She was convinced Ireland was part of the UK and I was British. It came as news to her that Ireland is a seperate soverign state - I even showed her my passport and she laughted really condecendingly and said 'but your still really British right?' Agggggghhhhhhhhhhhh:mad:

KeithAFC · 27-01-2011 03:09PM

Sisko wrote: »

Rofl, I guess said Unionists were born in Scotland then moved to northern Ireland then.

Nope. Culture plays a big part in it. Many different elements to your nationality.

RichieC · 27-01-2011 03:10PM

If they're a yank I just call them Mexican pr*cks.

cardwizzard · 27-01-2011 03:11PM

Yeah I always correct people if they assume that. Keith is right a lot of people in the North consider themselves not Irish, but their not British either. Dual passports and all that. Northern Irish I suppose. Have never heard of a place called Ulster Scottish.

56lcd · 27-01-2011 03:11PM

KeithAFC wrote: »

Well, i don't think many Unionists consider themselves Irish. I'd say a lot of them would put Ulster Scots before Irish. In Northern Ireland anyway.

It does not matter what they consider themselves to be because the reality is that they are Northern Irish people that reside in the united kingdom og britain and northern Ireland.
you can only be british if you are from Scotland, Wales or England .....
there is no such flag as the british flag , there is the union jack which is the flag of the united kingdom of britain and Northern Ireland.

De Hipster · 27-01-2011 03:11PM

cutymonalisa wrote: »

This just happened to me over Xmas while in Asia. There was this really annoying Canadian lady in her 60's on a tour I did - a teacher in an International School in Japan no less. After being in her company over some 2 weeks she asks me on the last evening to explain the 'British Isles' to her. She was convinced Ireland was part of the UK and I was British. It came as news to her that Ireland is a seperate soverign state - I even showed her my passport and she laughted really condecendingly and said 'but your still really British right?' Agggggghhhhhhhhhhhh:mad:

You'd think she might understand considering that most Canadians just LOVE being referred to as American.

hondasam · 27-01-2011 03:13PM

Everyone know the Irish are well liked in other countries and definitely more liked than the British. Perhaps sometimes it is just the English language that makes them ask are you English.

Luxie · 27-01-2011 03:14PM

Fratton Fred wrote: »

I think you'll find that Andy Murray gets called Scottish a lot more than Tim Herman used to get called English. This whole British when he wins, Scottish when he loses is a complete fancy.

Oh, you lot still keep claiming Arthur Guinness as Irish so I guess we are all guilty of that.

Daniel Day-Lewis is a bit of a grey area as well.

mikemac · 27-01-2011 03:15PM

56lcd wrote: »

you can only be british if you are from Scotland, Wales or England .....
there is no such flag as the british flag , there is the union jack which is the flag of the united kingdom of britain and Northern Ireland.

I'm pretty sure it's called the Union flag

It's only the Union Jack when it's on a ship like the Royal Navy

DOC09UNAM · 27-01-2011 03:15PM

starbelgrade wrote: »

*Pop goes the can of worms*

Look who's back :rolleyes:

Lumen · 27-01-2011 03:16PM

56lcd wrote: »

you can only be british if you are from Scotland, Wales or England .....

That's simply not true. "British" refers to non-identical geographical and political entities.

Applying smartarse pedantry to ambiguous words is...something something.

Unless your subtle de-capitalisation of "British" has some underlying meaning I've missed.

blaze1 · 27-01-2011 03:17PM

yup..

Im English not British

An tSaoi · 27-01-2011 03:17PM

There's a shocking amount of ignorance in this thread regarding the North. People there can choose to have Irish or British citizenship (or both), depending on which side they feel they draw their heritage from (if either).

They're not all Irish.

They're not all British.

They've not all got dual cizienship.

Even though it's not physically part of Britain, as long as they fill out the right form, they can have British citizenship just like anyone in England, Scotland or Wales. Ditto the Irish-leaning Northerners. It's their choice which nationality they consider themselves, regardless of borders or geography.

Come on lads, this is basic stuff.

KeithAFC · 27-01-2011 03:17PM

56lcd wrote: »

It does not matter what they consider themselves to be because the reality is that they are Northern Irish people that reside in the united kingdom og britain and northern Ireland.
you can only be british if you are from Scotland, Wales or England .....
there is no such flag as the british flag , there is the union jack which is the flag of the united kingdom of britain and Northern Ireland.

Yes i know. I fly the Union Flag from my house, the Ulster Banner, Ulster Scots banner. My culture and background is not Irish. Don't know what else to tell you.

blaze1 · 27-01-2011 03:18PM

De Hipster wrote: »

You'd think she might understand considering that most Canadians just LOVE being referred to as American.

haha in the same way call aussies brits, they love that

De Hipster · 27-01-2011 03:18PM

56lcd wrote: »

you can only be british if you are from Scotland, Wales or England .....

Or hold a British Passport - what the document is called.

On 1 January 1983, upon the coming into force of the British Nationality Act 1981, every Citizen of the United Kingdom and Colonies became either a British Citizen, British Dependent Territories Citizen or British Overseas Citizen.

bonerm · 27-01-2011 03:20PM

Nah I only correct them if they call me Scottish.

sensibleken · 27-01-2011 03:20PM

KeithAFC wrote: »

Yes i know. I fly the Union Flag from my house, the Ulster Banner, Ulster Scots banner. My culture and background is not Irish. Don't know what else to tell you.

you fly 3 banners from your house? and it the other guys who are called nationalists???

An tSaoi · 27-01-2011 03:21PM

Give it up 56lcd, you've been proved wrong.

jimthemental · 27-01-2011 03:22PM

Fratton Fred wrote: »

Oh, you lot still keep claiming Arthur Guinness as Irish so I guess we are all guilty of that.

Is that a racial slur by any chance?

Guinness was from Kildare and from a family with British roots, I'd say he'd be considered fairly Irish.

cardwizzard · 27-01-2011 03:23PM

KeithAFC wrote: »

Yes i know. I fly the Union Flag from my house, the Ulster Banner, Ulster Scots banner. My culture and background is not Irish. Don't know what else to tell you.

Is the thread not about Irish people being called British? How come it has turned the other way?

KeithAFC · 27-01-2011 03:23PM

sensibleken wrote: »

you fly 3 banners from your house? and it the other guys who are called nationalists???

Whats wrong with that?

charlemont · 27-01-2011 03:25PM

KeithAFC wrote: »

Nope. I am British.

Of course you are, We were in Portugal having a few drinks with some Unionists from North Down and the funny thing was the English people with us in the bar would keep referring to us all as Irish, coming over **** talking about the Troubles, all in good humour though..

I was in Utrecht and some Dutch guy called me an English Mother****er and spat at me, I punched him quick and yelled I was Irish, No problem after that..

KeithAFC · 27-01-2011 03:25PM

cardwizzard wrote: »

Is the thread not about Irish people being called British? How come it has turned the other way?

Dunno. He kind of tried to dictate in the thread about nationality.

the_syco · 27-01-2011 03:27PM

KeithAFC wrote: »

You thought everyone in Northern Ireland thought of themselves as Irish? You only have to travel to Northern Ireland and you would see that isn't the case.

I have a rule: when in NI, I don't ask their nationality or their religion, as it usually offends. The only time I feel it's of any interest to me is if staying with friends in Belfast, is if the estate is nationalist or orange, as most of the places I've stayed at tend to be one extreme of another (either Falls road, or an estate as they so nicely put it "it was a troublesome spot 10 years ago, but it's quite now. Just don't mention you're Irish, as everyone claims to know an ex-UDA, or have been one"). That, and as my mate drives a car with a free state reg, so we gotta be careful.

R P McMurphy wrote: »

Used to get it in France quite a bit and then see a dramatic change in their attitude towards you once corrected

Aye. When asking a French person if they speak english, asking if they speak "english" will get a "no", and there'll be no rooms in the hotel. Asking if they speak "irelanda", you'll get a yes, and find that they/their mother/father/brother/sister/uncle/grandfather/cousin is/has holidayed/studied/worked in Ireland. Heck, we once asked someone to ring a taxi for us, and when he found out that we were Irish, he gave us a lift to our destination.

=-=

People have mistaken me for German/english/culchie/Nordic/etc. I usually correct them, and move on.

cardwizzard · 27-01-2011 03:28PM

KeithAFC wrote: »

Dunno. He kind of tried to dictate in the thread about nationality.

Fair enough. So do you think all people from the North are free to decide what nationality or whatever the want to be? Just curious no malice.

KeithAFC · 27-01-2011 03:29PM

charlemont wrote: »

Of course you are, We were in Portugal having a few drinks with some Unionists from North Down and the funny thing was the English people with us in the bar would keep referring to us all as Irish, coming over **** talking about the Troubles, all in good humour though..

I was in Utrecht and some Dutch guy called me an English Mother****er and spat at me, I punched him quick and yelled I was Irish, No problem after that..

The English are famous for that. Just ignore them.

Bottle_of_Smoke · 27-01-2011 03:31PM

Yeah I usually just say "I'm Irish''

To someone with basic English its a pretty easy mistake to make. A lot of Dutch have said its a lot easier to distinguish a Scot from an Englishman than an Englishman and an Irishman.

No one ever uses the term British apart from Americans who say it when they're referring to English people.

They also seem really disappointed when you explain you're not anti-English.

Fratton Fred · 27-01-2011 03:31PM

jimthemental wrote: »

Is that a racial slur by any chance?

Guinness was from Kildare and from a family with British roots, I'd say he'd be considered fairly Irish.

I dont know? It wasn't meant to be, unless lot has another meaning and the Irish have suddenly become a race.

Arthur Guinness was Anglo Irish and from what I can gather, the Anglo Irish are viewed in two ways.

We like him = He was Irish
We hate him = he was English.

KeithAFC · 27-01-2011 03:31PM

cardwizzard wrote: »

Fair enough. So do you think all people from the North are free to decide what nationality or whatever the want to be? Just curious no malice.

Yeah. I don't see why not.

Do you correct people if they call you British?

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