Scotland & England (lighthearted)

[chocolatecakemakesmefat]

Not really an AIBU but thought I'd post in here for traffic , we have in laws who come from England and Wales , they were here visiting and we got onto the subject of differences ie they'd never heard of buckfast or Irn-bru didn't have a clue what the orange walk was and the education seems to be different ie they say there 'going to school' at 3 when here it's nursery and year 1 year 2 etc , we have p1,p2 etc , I found it weird that there so many differences when we're only a few hours drive away anybody else ?

[OurBlanche]

YABU... as you seem to assme they are a bit dim for not knowing... the not so smiley faces suggest as much.

But Buckies isn't known much South of the border. Irn Bru is pretty much reviled and sold in very few shops. An Orange Walk would be a total non thing to most people outside Scotland and Ireland too.

Scotland wanted its own education system, so why would you expect them to use the same phrases as you do?

I bet there are loads of 'obvious' things that you wil be equally clueless over. It's a good thing. It shows that we still have national characteristics and are not one homogenous lump!

Celebrate the differences

[chocolatecakemakesmefat]

Didn't mean it to seem like I'm being rude and there far from dim it was supposed to be lighthearted , I just found it strange that they didn't know so many things that as you said seem so 'obvious' here

[SaucyJack]

Irn-Bru was quite popular when I was kid in the 80s- and I grew up on the Sussex coast.

I didn't realise it was supposed to be a Scottish thing until much later in life.

[OurBlanche]

Oh! Just shoot me... you did say lighthearted... it is strange, but I live in a very rural backwater. Locals here have no idea about some of the villages 8 miles away - cos they are somewhere else and don't share a bus route!

So I am surrounded by people who take umbrage at near neighbours for not knowing about the 'special daffodils' - and probably have done for generations

And as a newcomer I am so very, very dim, suspicious and, occasionally, only welcome if accompanied by at least 3 known persons

[chocolatecakemakesmefat]

Wow that is strange , we come from a fairly large town just outside Glasgow so there's lots of 'locals' the one that got me is there's not much football rivalry down south , here you are either rangers or Celtic , or hibs - hearts Edinburgh side , and as much as I don't associate football with religion if anyone were to ask what football team you supported they would know what school or religion you we're we Scottish are strange creatures

[Salmotrutta]

To be fair Orange Walks are mostly a Glasgow event.

And the rest of us up here don't really encounter them.

And Scotland didn't so much "want" it's own education system - it's always been different historically!

[Salmotrutta]

And again, all the football and religion thing is a Glagow phenomenon.

Totally irrelevant in Dundee, Perth, Inverness etc.

Nobody would really care about that outside of Glasgow.

[chocolatecakemakesmefat]

Is that right hmm don't know too much about it dads in the orange order and so is uncle we don't bother with it though , it's came up in discussion before and the likes of Liverpool , Manchester and Liverpool have them but never here anyone talking about it

[chocolatecakemakesmefat]

The football thing is Edinburgh , Fife , Falkirk etc too

[pearlylum]

Scotland wanted its own education system ourblanche, I'm not sure what you mean by this, Scotland has a long history of Education starting long before the Union of the Crowns.
It isn't as if Scottish education broke away from the English system, it has a long tradition and has evolved separately.

[backwardpossom]

It's definitely a Glasgow thing. I'm from the north east of Scotland and I'd never heard of an orange walk until I was about 17.

[OurBlanche]

I didn't say anything about the timing of it, pearly. Is that a bit of referendum hangover

[bluebloom]

We were down south once & someone asked me "do you have tesco in Scotland?" while looking v wide-eyed.

[WhenTheDragonsCame]

Buckfast is made in Devon, though drank more in Scotland and irn-bru is sold in loads of places. I do live in a city though so probably sold more here than a rural location.

I have heard of orange marches but only in relation to Ireland rather than Scotland.

I would say my DC started school aged 4 and went into reception. Before that they were in nursery or preschool.

[chocolatecakemakesmefat]

Really blue I find it a bit strange all the shops shut early and there shops shut on a Sunday I'd be screwed I don't do food shopping till 8-9 pm at night

[OiWithThePoodlesAlready]

I didn't know what an orange March was until I moved to Glasgow for uni. I was brought up in the Highlands.

Wish I could go back to not knowing tbh.

I'm always puzzled on threads where people talk about their child in year 8/9/10 or whatever. I have no idea what ages that would make. Just as they would be puzzled if I started talking about s1/2/3 etc.

[bluebloom]

Yep! I thought they were going to ask if we had electricity next I couldn't cope with shops closing either, so strange.

[ExcuseMyEyebrows]

bluebloom, my ex SIL (from London) once asked me if we had department stores in Scotland - and street lights?

[WhenTheDragonsCame]

Poodles secondary schools in England were 1, 2 ect until around 1994 as they changed just before i left

[Eigg]

I work for an English firm and was surprised at the of the Indyref fm how little my English colleagues understood/knew about Scotland and that most of them had never visited us.

People didn't realise that the voting at 16 thing was because you become an adult at 16 not 18 in Scotland.

They didn't have the least idea of the impact of the Tories and the poll tax had on 1980s Scotland or the strength of feeling that still engenders.

They didn't know (as shown above) that Scotland has historically had its own education and legal system.

They didn't know some pretty basic Scottish cultural traditions like Hogmanay and ceilidhs or any Scortish history.

They didn't understand the language differences between the two versions of English.

I'm not saying that they necessarily should know these things but I suspect the lack of general understanding about quite how different Scotland is to most if England has led to political misunderstandings too.

Perhaps we need to do more work selling ourself as a nation and educating our next door neighbours.

[Eigg]

Oh and you only have to look at MN every October to see multiple threads taking about Halloween as a recently imported American tradition.

Hello

[MrsJayy]

16yr old Scottish teens cant vote in General elections,

[WhereYouLeftIt]

I moved to England over 25 years ago now.

I still miss Lee's Macaroon Bars.

[MrsJayy]

My English friend thought all of scotland was hill and fecking glen she came for a holiday and said ooo you have towns not even joking

[PinkBuffalo]

Is the orange walk like the Orange parades in Northern Ireland?
If so, being descended from Irish Catholics, and catholic myself, I would be very aware what that is/meant.
Aware of irn bru as well. And I know the education and legal system is very different (e.g procurator fiscal etc)
But then I have family in Shetland, and work with several people from Scotland so wouldn't have an excuse to not know these things
No idea about buckfast!