To point out yet again to the geographically challenged of Britain....

[AnnabelleLee]

THAT northern Ireland is in the UK. Ireland is an entirely separate country. Like,properly different,with its own currency and culture and laws and all that.
FFS.

janine he was born in 1918. His older brother also served in the British Army in the same regiment because they wanted to stick together.

AFAIK all his siblings had British passports. He definitely did.

Yes, because he was born in the United Kingdom (then, Great Britain and Ireland), he would have been entitled to a British passport.

now now Maryz don't forget to be all inclusive and include the most popular graffiti from 'the other side' which would be REM 1690. Or in the case of graffiti on a wall I used to drive past regularly REM 1960 Made me laugh every time I drove past it. Especially because there was more graffiti in the same street promising to shoot 'durg dealers'

"Brit" is a very user-friendly term, and perfectly accurate insofar that it describes someone from Britain. It is a pity that so many British people are getting so precious about their local identity that the term offends them. The distinctions between the various parts of the island of Britain, or the UK as a whole, are of no relevance or importance to 99.9999999% of people round the globe, and from their perspective, such differences are probably pretty minimal anyway.

"Brit" is a very user-friendly term, and perfectly accurate insofar that it describes someone from Britain. It is a pity that so many British people are getting so precious about their local identity that the term offends them. The distinctions between the various parts of the island of Britain, or the UK as a whole, are of no relevance or importance to 99.9999999% of people round the globe, and from their perspective, such differences are probably pretty minimal anyway.

"Brit" is a very user-friendly term, and perfectly accurate insofar that it describes someone from Britain.

Sorry don't know what happened in the previous post

But I'd just like to offer p*ki, for instance.

Just because you find it convenient, doesn't mean to say people who know better than you aren't allowed to politely correct you as to an offensive faux pas.

I am so confused. I call British people, Brits, for short. I can see how it can be used in a hateful way though.

I'm Icelandic and the question of whether Iceland (and Greenland, and Faroe Islands) is Scandinavian seems to confuse a lot of people Technically, Norway, northern Finland and Sweden are Scandinavian (on the Scandinavian peninsula) but usually the term is the political/economic one, so Norway, Sweden and Denmark. Not Finland! However, culturally, Sweden/Norway/Finland/Denmark are very close (+ Iceland and the Faroes). Which is why generally, 'Nordic' is probably an easier term to use, and Western Nordic for Iceland/Faroes/Greenland.

I know nobody is interested but I work in tourism- this week, I have been asked seventeen different times if Iceland was Scandinavian (of those, four were English, six were Scottish and one was Northern Irish) so it's getting on my nerves.

Good example. Paki is a perfectly neutral term for Pakistanis where I come from (NZ). So you find it in newspaper headlines when an important cricket game against Pakistan is on.

Let's just agree that whatever term we use is bound to be used by SOMEONE and bound to offend someone ELSE and all try not to get so het up about words, eh?

It's time the old "sticks and stones" ethos made a comeback.

Islenka I'm not going to get up in the air about it from you or people like you because you're using it innocently.

But it is a loaded term in certain circles and it's extraordinarily crass to say: 'Oh people are just being sensitive'.

I'm a Londoner. I hesitate to use the word Scouser to describe someone from Liverpool because people from that city have had such shit over the years and it's been used as a term of derison. I've been told it's okay to say Scouser, but I wouldn't just to be on the safe side.

Woman from Liverpool or Liverpudlian covers it for me because I don't want to offend.

Just because you find it convenient, doesn't mean to say people who know better than you aren't allowed to politely correct you as to an offensive faux pas.

Of course, totaly agree there :-)

But still would like to add that I do not see how Paki or Brit could be both seen as the same kind of insulting term....but again, I am speaking from my perspective which is entirely different and I would have no issue to be much more careful with how descriptions of folks are understood and viewed within the society I am referring to are perceived by its members... :-)

Paki is generally not okay in Britain themaltesefalcon so I'd advise you not to use it any time you come here soon.

I imagine there are offensive racial terms in New Zealand. What are they, btw, just in case I pop by?

What a wonderful world we live in.

I'd never blame someone for getting it wrong out of innocence worldcitizen. I am the person who didn't realise that Asians could be Christians. They soon put me right on that one.

Bloody hell, my mum died the other week and I defended someone for blundering into a funeral cortege when some people were saying she was terrible

What's wrong is being told that what you're upsetting people and why and insisting on doing it anyway.

But I think I'm pushing on an open door with you

I know nobody is interested but I work in tourism- this week, I have been asked seventeen different times if Iceland was Scandinavian (of those, four were English, six were Scottish and one was Northern Irish) so it's getting on my nerves.

See, earlier there were not so kind references made about U.S. Americans when asking questions or displaying not-enough-knowledge about UK/GB etc.
But again knowledge about other regions, which are not even THAT far away and THAT alien can be in fact just that. Simply alien. Simple as that.

Thanks to everyone who is kind and patient enough to educate and clarify

I spent several years living in Luton of all the beautiful places in Britain (ha!), so I am well aware of the difference in usage. :)

We don't have racism in New Zealand, thanks to .

Yep limited, totally preaching to the choir

And my condolences to you

Sorry about your mother, limited.

Thanks world. that's okay.

It was probably me making disparaging remarks about US citizens, but I was trying to joke

And there are important questions about Idris Elba that haven't been answered dammit.

And you maltese. I'm not trying to pull the dead mother card

Yes, Im not saying anything about those- I was trying to show how varied it is and how confusing geography is, not make a point about British people. Even I started out confused.

I will stop using Brits then. I thought it was very innocent I think the world/geography is very confusing...

This thread is another example how important it is that people should never stop communicating and have dialogues.
Be able to differentiate and be empathic to hefty emotional reactions, simple words and descriptions can evoke.

Identity, land, nationality, culture, home countries, language religion, ethnicity, culture, traditions etc.(I do not use and accept race, as to me there is just one race - the human race)
are very important....to some more to others less....but exchange and dialogue is so important. I really believe this, reagardless of how cliched it might sound.

No, don't stop using Brits islenka.

It's just a small thing. Even people like me who don't like it will realise you're not doing it to be offensive. It just makes me bristle.

Is Greenland an independent country btw or is it part of something else?

I realise it's not part of Iceland but being in tourism you might know.

And I still want to know whether Idris Elba's Baltimore accent was authentic. And any other Idris facts...

Sorry to go back to the 'British Isles' thing, but a lot of the issues Irish people have with the term derive from the misunderstanding that it is left over from British rule.

It is not - the islands now known as Great Britain and Ireland were referred to as the Pretanic (Pretannike) Islands by the ancient Greeks. It was largely because the Romans never made it to Ireland that the other island (Albion) became specifically known as Britain (Britannia).

These islands were the British Isles long before Ireland, Scotland, Wales or England ever existed.

limited don't know about Idris Elba as I have not seen the series, but for example Gillian Anderson (X-Files) I think is her name. I always thought she is American, but after seeing a film called The Mighty Celt I realised she must be Northern irish and in this film was also Robert Carlyle, which I am never sure what he is??? Scottish or Northern Irish, he seems to speak both???

He is Scottish, she is American but was raised in England and seems to be pretty good with accents, possibly because of the moving about.

Greenland belongs to Denmark and makes it one of the largest countries in the world!