Is there cultural differences between the 4 countries of the UK?

forgive me if I interpret this as 'I can't actually pick out what's wrong so I'll just make a snarky comment.'

if you really are a teacher aren't you inspired to, you know, educate me?

do kids in England not start school until 7?
do they not study maths, English, science?
if you get a degree from Bristol are you not allowed to teach in Cardiff?
am I mistaken and the school year in Wales actually starts from August like in Scotland or ends in June like in Ireland?

come on, you know you want to get that red pen out....

nobody has said that the two systems are completely identical. Just that they are more similar than different, and have more in common with each other than pretty much any other country's educational systems.

If you're going to say they aren't similar "at all" and cry with laughter to indicate how ludicrous the very idea is, the onus is on you to explain why....

Yes obviously!

Robert Burns.

"Fareweel to a' our Scottish fame,
Fareweel our ancient glory;
Fareweel ev'n to the Scottish name,
Sae fam'd in martial story.
Now Sark rins over Solway sands,
An' Tweed rins to the ocean,
To mark where England's province stands-
Such a parcel of rogues in a nation!
What force or guile could not subdue,
Thro' many warlike ages,
Is wrought now by a coward few,
For hireling traitor's wages.
The English steel we could disdain,
Secure in valour's station;
But English gold has been our bane -
Such a parcel of rogues in a nation!
O would, ere I had seen the day
That Treason thus could sell us,
My auld grey head had lien in clay,
Wi' Bruce and loyal Wallace!
But pith and power, till my last hour,
I'll mak this declaration;
We're bought and sold for English gold-
Such a parcel of rogues in a nation!"

It was not popular in Scotland. There was widespread dissent & rioting outwith the aristocracy & landed gentry.

Also, the Darien scheme failed because ultimately the East India Company succeeded in lobbying for the English Navy to be used to extort punitive "safe passage" taxes on non-English merchant shipping. This also affected the Dutch, Spanish & French too but Scottish aristocrats & other Darien backers did not have the financial clout to survive this.

NB Elizabeth's Sea Dogs is an insightful read into how the English in particular became such good mariners.

Oh my gosh. There's so much wrong with this comment, I can't be bothered to even start 😂 Just no.

It does. Meaning is defined by usage . Scotland is no longer known as ‘North Britain’. Most people would have no idea what one meant if used that term.

I've lived and worked for extended lengths of time in 3 of the 4 countries. In my experience, there are more differences within each nation than between them. The biggest distinctions I've come across are between social classes, wealthier and poorer areas, big cities and smaller towns / villages and rural areas.

There's often a lot of emphasis on supposed cultural differences between the nations by people who want to be identified with specific qualities / histories and for tourism / commercial purposes.

But I've found them very similar. I do love language / dialect variety and old customs. The less violent ones.

really?
the school term dates are (apart from minor individual differences by council or inset days) the same
the ages at which children are in each school year, the names of each school year and the gaps at which they are broken up into different stages are the same
the subjects studied are the same (apart from Welsh being compulsory)
the main exams taken are the same and at the same age
the exam boards are the same
the method of allocating/choosing schools is the same
the use of school uniform is broadly similar
there's a specific assessment body for each that does regular inspections
things like sports played, food offered, building style, methods of addressing staff, school hierarchy, etc are all similar
the qualifications needed to teach in either are the same
the options available (state comprehensive, private or religious) are the same. Yes there is also the option of grammar in England but only in some counties.

Sounds pretty similar to each other to me, and pretty different to systems in other countries.

quoting the sun as evidence? 😂Even in the redtoprag they state "No exact, direct comparison is available between Scotland and England performance in long waits, as England's NHS waiting times figures are measured in a different way to Scotland's"
Not from Scotland, live in Edinburgh 20y and have never found the service here to be impeccable. 3 children (so lots of appointments!0 DP and I have both had health issues in the last number of years. Always able to get a same-day appointment at GPs too (of which there have been many amongst the 5 of us. And, again, this is NHS. Same with optician and Dentist (albeit not same day in these, except in emergencies...)

That does not change it's definition

As a teacher in Wales, our education system is not similar to England's at all.

not everyone has the same view on the meaning of those 2 words is essentially the nub.

You must be English if you are having to ask that question.

Yes, for sure there are distinct cultures in wales / scotland / NI. We are more united than we are different though & that's the main thing.

But we're not talking about historically

the specific meanings that people in the UK attribute to the words 'country' and 'nation'. And indeed he usage of the phrase/name United Kingdom/UK has changed extraordinarily in the past generation. Some of this due to devolution of course...

I’m sick of the lazy generalisations too. Any difference in socialist outlook or chattiness or anything else are so marginal to be totally insignificant.

Overly simplistic pish.

Only about 1-2.5% of the population are able to speak Gaelic to some degree. Scots in its original form really isn’t spoken by anyone. Every region/city/town/village has its own dialect and accent but if you ask the vast majority of Scots what language they speak, they would say English.

There are plenty of private schools which are elitist by nature.

Scotland is historically culturally Protestant but this has been in rapid decline for decades. There absolutely are cathedrals - Glasgow (St Mungos), St Giles, St Mary’s. They’re not governed by bishops but retain the title.

Golf is generally a middle class sport, shinty is played in the Highlands, and curling is very niche. Football is very obviously the most popular sport in Scotland as it is in England. Rugby probably second.

I would agree that Scotland is more left leaning and socialist, but 34% of Scots who voted in the EU referendum voted to leave.

The maiden name thing may have been a social or traditional norm at one point but it’s now very much the choice of the family (speaking as someone who’s lost a lot of female relatives in the past 20 years and all have both their married and maiden name on the inscription). It’s definitely not a hard and fast rule.

The Scots don’t “talk to everyone”. A working class Glaswegian is very different to a middle class person from Edinburgh, who’s very different to an islander from North Uist.

Yes, there are obviously cultural differences between the four nations, as there are in all of the different regions within them, but this type of lazy generalising does my fucking nut in.

Sincerely, a Scottish person who actually lives here.

Education and Health are devolved in Wales. Our education system is similar to, but not the same as England. Our GCSE amd A levels still have letter grades, we have Estyn instead of Ofsted etc etc.
I move ot Wales 15 years ago. It's different to England.

What is?

There are huge differences between the countries.

it's actually a remarkably recent construction though, people didn't this linguistic structure 20 years ago...

This is true I'm west mids but live in se, and an ancestry in all 4 countries as are many from industrial areas.

Depends on the context which it was used. Which as you say you have a master's in the subject you would know well.

Even within England there are cultural differences, particularly the NE. Also, lots of us are mongrel British. I have a NI father and a Scottish mother and have lived on both sides of the Scottish border. I am just British.