LanguageSponge
Ex-Soldier
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So, what do I think of when I think of Britain?
Firstly I think of our history. Our history is very long and intertwined with more countries than I can count. I think it's partly because of this that we Brits have such a hard time defining just what we are. We are a fantastic melting pot of different peoples that have for a very long time lived, worked and fought together in a quite remarkable symbiotic way. The natives of the lands that make up the British Isles were once all Celtic and as a result of that and being part of the Celtic peoples myself, I think that Celtic culture is without question an important part of the conglomoration of factors that make Britain what it is. Celtic music makes me think of Britain without fail wherever I am in the world, whether it's just the Celtic sound and the feelings it calls forth in me or the actual languages of the Celtic peoples themselves.
Aspects of food make me think of our homeland, even though it is often pointed out that we brought many of the foods we consider British home from our days of empire building. Whether those things were originally British or not, they have, for us, become British, and so it counts. Curry is very British, even though people say that it was honed in India. If you ever go to India, try their curries, because they are very different. Curry itself is actually an English word. And to put a Celtic twist on that and the fish and chips idea, I love going home to Wales, ordering "curry half and half" and people not look at me as if I'm mad. That meaning, having curry half with rice and half with chips - a very Welsh idea, to me. What do you think of that Sprout? Fish and chips is also a very British thing to me, as well as its Victorian era East-London equivalent for the working classes which is pie and mash and stewed eels. Also the Brits do puddings very well, and I've never been able to associate cider with anywhere but Ireland and the south-west of England.
Also our accents are rivaled by no other country, despite the fact that we are a small collection of islands in the middle of no-where - Держай язык за зубами, Роccия (keep your mouth shut, Russia). I've travelled in Europe, Asia, in North and South America and a little in Africa and no-where other than in Britain have I heard such a mishmash of accents. I've lived in the UK for about 20 non-consecutive years and I can still hear accents I've never heard before or something I've struggled to understand.
The last thing I'm going to mention is pubs. I'm not going to be talking about drinking either. When I was growing up, I didn't think of these things as anything special, firstly because I wasn't allowed to drink, and secondly because I'd never seen drinking establishments in other countries. Hell, even when I turned 18 I didn't bat an eyelid with them at all - until I started drinking in other countries. And this goes back to history again and how ridiculously old Britain is. Pubs are places where people drank and socialised, yes, but they were once (and in many cases still are) the focal point of a town. In smaller villages you know you're in the centre if you've found the pub. It is very common for pubs at least where I've been to be well over four or five hundred years old or even older. I've drunk in pubs that still serve ale in tankards, that still have old wooden beams on the ceilings, maps of the immediate area from hundreds of years previous, huge wood fireplaces and the old signs you associate with the Middle Ages "Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese". The windows in many of them are still of smoked or frosted glass so that you can't see into them from the outside. You just don't get this stuff in other countries. Frankly, in other countries, I've always been disappointed by their "bars". Doesn't even sound as good. Having thought about it for a second, I may be doing Australia and New Zealand a disservice. I've not been to either of them, and since we shipped you Australians off over there in the 18th century, your pubs might be a bit more like ours. I know that much of Europe's and America's are not.
So, what do I think of when I think of Britain?
Firstly I think of our history. Our history is very long and intertwined with more countries than I can count. I think it's partly because of this that we Brits have such a hard time defining just what we are. We are a fantastic melting pot of different peoples that have for a very long time lived, worked and fought together in a quite remarkable symbiotic way. The natives of the lands that make up the British Isles were once all Celtic and as a result of that and being part of the Celtic peoples myself, I think that Celtic culture is without question an important part of the conglomoration of factors that make Britain what it is. Celtic music makes me think of Britain without fail wherever I am in the world, whether it's just the Celtic sound and the feelings it calls forth in me or the actual languages of the Celtic peoples themselves.
Aspects of food make me think of our homeland, even though it is often pointed out that we brought many of the foods we consider British home from our days of empire building. Whether those things were originally British or not, they have, for us, become British, and so it counts. Curry is very British, even though people say that it was honed in India. If you ever go to India, try their curries, because they are very different. Curry itself is actually an English word. And to put a Celtic twist on that and the fish and chips idea, I love going home to Wales, ordering "curry half and half" and people not look at me as if I'm mad. That meaning, having curry half with rice and half with chips - a very Welsh idea, to me. What do you think of that Sprout? Fish and chips is also a very British thing to me, as well as its Victorian era East-London equivalent for the working classes which is pie and mash and stewed eels. Also the Brits do puddings very well, and I've never been able to associate cider with anywhere but Ireland and the south-west of England.
Also our accents are rivaled by no other country, despite the fact that we are a small collection of islands in the middle of no-where - Держай язык за зубами, Роccия (keep your mouth shut, Russia). I've travelled in Europe, Asia, in North and South America and a little in Africa and no-where other than in Britain have I heard such a mishmash of accents. I've lived in the UK for about 20 non-consecutive years and I can still hear accents I've never heard before or something I've struggled to understand.
The last thing I'm going to mention is pubs. I'm not going to be talking about drinking either. When I was growing up, I didn't think of these things as anything special, firstly because I wasn't allowed to drink, and secondly because I'd never seen drinking establishments in other countries. Hell, even when I turned 18 I didn't bat an eyelid with them at all - until I started drinking in other countries. And this goes back to history again and how ridiculously old Britain is. Pubs are places where people drank and socialised, yes, but they were once (and in many cases still are) the focal point of a town. In smaller villages you know you're in the centre if you've found the pub. It is very common for pubs at least where I've been to be well over four or five hundred years old or even older. I've drunk in pubs that still serve ale in tankards, that still have old wooden beams on the ceilings, maps of the immediate area from hundreds of years previous, huge wood fireplaces and the old signs you associate with the Middle Ages "Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese". The windows in many of them are still of smoked or frosted glass so that you can't see into them from the outside. You just don't get this stuff in other countries. Frankly, in other countries, I've always been disappointed by their "bars". Doesn't even sound as good. Having thought about it for a second, I may be doing Australia and New Zealand a disservice. I've not been to either of them, and since we shipped you Australians off over there in the 18th century, your pubs might be a bit more like ours. I know that much of Europe's and America's are not.
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