"I'm from Yorkshire" : anyone else notice this?

[Odilla]

Why do people from Yorkshire feel the need to tell you that? It is fairly unremarkable given that the collective Yorkshire counties form a large part of England so lots of people are from there.

Yet still they do. Repeatedly. And will shoe-horn this revelation into any given conversation. Eg "I'm from Yorkshire so I don't like spending money on heating". Well yes I'm sure this is true; nevertheless this is not a special circumstance given that most people do not enjoy spending money on heating. Or they take something that is particular to them and still gas on about Yorkshire eg "I'm from Yorkshire so I don't wear blue shoes".

Never have I met a crowd of people so keen to assert common identity yet so unaware as to how common identity actually works. Although ironically that's an identity of sorts.

@Delatron Stop telling people about our lovely beaches - let em stop in Cornwall and Devon and moan

@MoonOnASpoon

Absolutely. It's a dry sense of humour, given with a straight face but not to be taken literally. A complete lack of smarminess and fake social smiles.

Yes. The lack of fakery or “side”. Someone might be pulling your leg but warmth lies beneath. People can be very direct in ways that are often seen as rude elsewhere, but it’s in a friendly and funny way.

Its a lack of social skills. " pulling the leg" of people you have just met is just tedious, rude and lacking in social skills.

There was an " Im from Yorkshire" bore in my last job.
In a work setting with colleagues with of varying nationalities it comes across as parochial and boorish.

@Dita73 maybe it’s our ability to understand humour and sarcasm?

Ha yes @Allmyarseandpeggymartin they can stick
to all the overcrowded beaches down there.

@Genevie82

Love the post OP!! Soo true.. my DH is from Yorkshire .. you’ve no idea what I have to endure and yes there is always an announcement about being from Yorkshire and hence the tightness/ bluntness/ special relationship with Vikings .. at some point in a conversion …we’ve been to togeather for 10 yrs and he still brings it up!🤣 I do love Yorkshire thou! Xx

I really don’t understand this, I’ve heard this a lot. The Vikings invaded parts of England, brutally raped and tortured and pillaged… they were horrific, I’ll never understand why they seem so loved in some Northern parts of the U.K. Can’t imagine any other place talking with such fondness about their invaders.

@Dita73

A lot of people from Yorkshire are saying the OP and people agreeing are jealous that they’re not from Yorkshire. What exactly do you think they’re jealous of? Genuine question

Beautiful coastline Nice cities Amazing countryside Cheap housing Friendly people Lack of pretension Fresh air Strong Art and cultural scene

Of course you get these things in other places and not ALL of Yorkshire is like this but we do have all those things in one County.

The thing is, Hoppinggreen, that most counties have most of the things on that list. Yorkshire is much less unique than the people from there think it is.
I will concede that Mexborough Lidl is classier than your average Lidl, so maybe that’s where Yorkshire pride should be focused.

The entirety of Yorkshire doesn’t have “a lack of social skills”. It’s just a cultural / social style that can be misunderstood elsewhere. You get the same thing between countries, e.g. the idea of an appropriate personal space distance in one culture can make people in another culture feel uncomfortable, but it is not that the entirety of that culture lacks social skills.

To be honest it is not a long list of features that make Yorkshire special to me. It’s mainly just the landscape, and this cultural aspect of how people interact. I feel at home there because I feel people understand and “get” me and interacting with anyone is easy.

Beautiful coastline
Nice cities
Amazing countryside
Cheap housing
Friendly people
Lack of pretension
Fresh air
Strong Art and cultural scene

Of course you get these things in other places and not ALL of Yorkshire is like this but we do have all those things in one County.

We’ll lack of pretension and friendliness is subjective and generalising. Not everyone in Yorkshire is friendly, (our postie is from Yorkshire and the grumpiest person I’ve ever met!) so area has all friendly people!

With everything else though plenty of other counties have all in your list- Cornwall, Devon, Dorset (maybe except cheap housing but you can’t help prices being high because people want to move there or it’s affluent or it’s in good commuting distance - all positives imo).

Also counties in the south have all of this AND the weather is warmer 🤭

@RussianSpy101 no going by the people I know from there

Not

Sigh. Now I want to move back oop north. I thought I'd adjusted to the south east after four decades, but now I want that warmth and straightforwardness again. I want to strangers to chat to me and call me luv without sentimentality .

I have noticed this too. The main culprit is a friend of mine who is not from Yorkshire, but has lived there. She will tell me things thay she says, because she lived in Yorkshire, which my family, from Lancashire, also say, but I don't feel the need to tell her this!

@MoonOnASpoon

The entirety of Yorkshire doesn’t have “a lack of social skills”. It’s just a cultural / social style that can be misunderstood elsewhere. You get the same thing between countries, e.g. the idea of an appropriate personal space distance in one culture can make people in another culture feel uncomfortable, but it is not that the entirety of that culture lacks social skills.

To be honest it is not a long list of features that make Yorkshire special to me. It’s mainly just the landscape, and this cultural aspect of how people interact. I feel at home there because I feel people understand and “get” me and interacting with anyone is easy.

I didnt say it did. Those who do the " Im from Yorkshire" , talk at others and are generally boorish and rude lack social skills. Its not usually socially acceptable to be deliberately unpleasant, rude and dismissive of others based on their place of birth. Calling someone who smiles and greets you on first meeting fake or pretentious is bizarre. There is a wierd cynicism about it.

And the pudding!! Even that has to announce that it's from Yorkshire!!! 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

@saraclara

Sigh. Now I want to move back oop north. I thought I'd adjusted to the south east after four decades, but now I want that warmth and straightforwardness again. I want to strangers to chat to me and call me luv without sentimentality .

Sometimes things are a self filling prophecy. You except people are rude, you don’t engage, bingo people are rude!

I did this, moving from Wales to England, assumed people wouldn’t smile, say hi.

People aren’t different, we are all the same. Some people are having a bad day, some are just trying to get on with their day, people don’t engage for their own personal reasons, you don’t know their mental load. I don’t believe coming from a different part of the country, of coming from a particular country makes you x, y or z. Coming from s city might make you ‘busier’ or more wary but not rude. I’ve encountered very friendly people everywhere.

Expect* my brain isn’t working this morning 🤣

Red flag. LTB

I am from Yorkshire, left when I was 12, went back every year to visit relatives. We got up there in holidays sometimes still. I can't remember ever really mentioning it in conversation.

My work colleague though used to go on about being a Yorkshire lass, hence her superior budgeting skills and frugal existence etc..but...she had never lived there. Her dad had been a Yorkshireman. So, I definitely get what you are saying. For some people it seems to be a defining characteristic.

@toomanytwinkies I didn't say that people are unfriendly here at all. I've had a very happy life down here, feel positive about the area I live in, and of course my adult kids are southern born, and say grahss and bahth! I'm certainly not remotely one of those transplanted northerners who think southerners are unfriendly. There's just more of a reserve here. It's not wrong or undesirable. It's just different.
And when I go up to Yorkshire to visit my MIL in her nursing home, it's like being wrapped in a warm blanket.

You see this on dating apps - “yourkshire man here”.
I live and date in the far south west where we are known to not accept incomers until 9 of their generations have mined tin here. They do tend to announce that they are from Kernow at the first available opportunity also .

[quote saraclara]@toomanytwinkies I didn't say that people are unfriendly here at all. I've had a very happy life down here, feel positive about the area I live in, and of course my adult kids are southern born, and say grahss and bahth! I'm certainly not remotely one of those transplanted northerners who think southerners are unfriendly. There's just more of a reserve here. It's not wrong or undesirable. It's just different.
And when I go up to Yorkshire to visit my MIL in her nursing home, it's like being wrapped in a warm blanket.[/quote]
Ahh it was more a stream of consciousness rather than being directly aimed at you.

I think the warm blanket feeling is because it’s home, I get that with Wales. I have two homes now but where my family are is a little more special.

Ive always found people from Reading to be worse at this to be honest.

The Vikings invaded parts of England, brutally raped and tortured and pillaged… they were horrific, I’ll never understand why they seem so loved in some Northern parts of the U.K. Can’t imagine any other place talking with such fondness about their invaders

Well they're used to invaders you see; just look at all those tourists from lesser areas, keen to see something nice

Besides, the Vikings are so easy to rip off when they do all those re-enactments up on t'moors ... all it needs is a plain tunic, a poundshop hat with horns on and a suitably ferocious expression and they're just about there

Reading? People from Reading?
Is that something people are proud about?
I live near Reading, and think it's a perfectly good place (there's a good masala dosa restaurant, a lovely museum...) but i don't think i've ever heard anyone boasting about being from there. it's just not that kind of place. isn't it if anything a slightly embarrasing place to say you're from?
yorkshire on the other hand... i'm proud just to have married into it! .