What not to say in Scotland

[Petra Pan]

Yours truly:
> > When in Scotland, never refer to 
> > anything Scottish as being English.  
> > British?  Maybe.  English?  Only if 
> > you want to [be] glared at!  No one 
> > believed that it was just a slip of 
> > the tongue as opposed to complete 
> > ignorance of Scottish history on my 
> > part...<g>

Marley:
> You didn't did you? Do you have
> a death wish?

<giggle>  Well now, at least I didn't 
call the single-malts "English!"  See, 
this is what happens when you nod off 
on the plane before you finish reading 
the tourist advice book with the cheat 
sheets that remind you of stuff like 
this...

IIRC, someone had asked me about 
whether I am getting used to the food 
yet.  Since I was just in London the 
day before, I said something about 
hoping to try some real English food 
(like my personal favorite, fish and 
chips instead of the Big Mac at the 
train station, on my way back to the 
airport).  I think they thought I was 
referring to the haggis in front of 
me...<oops!>

Marley:
> I'm surprised all you got was
> glares - you must have been in
> a polite area like Edinburgh,
> if you said that here (Dundee)
> you'd get a little more than
> glares.

Luckily, I am a fast learner.  :)  
But it was VERY strange to realize 
that for once, I am glad of the 
fact that as a 'lassie' who's also 
the 'ignorant Yank,' no one is all 
that likely to take a swing at me.

Marley:
> Not that I approve of this
> terrible racism that the 
> Scots have against the English,
> but I do find myself shouting at 
> the TV when American programmes
> call Great Britan 'England'. I 
> think I better shut up now,
> before I offend too many people.

<sigh>  Yes, here in the US, the 
general public thinks of everything 
that is British as being English.  
In fact, when I related my faux pas 
to co-workers, only one person 
understood why the Scots took 
offense...and she only knew about 
this because she's a huge Mel Gibson 
fan and has seen Braveheart about a 
dozen times.  OTOH, one young Scot 
(half-kiddingly?) wondered why I 
didn't sound more like Scarlet 
O'Hara even after I said that I live 
in California.

And yes, you guessed correctly.  I 
was in Edinburgh in September of 
2001 (where various people tried in 
vain to teach me the proper 
pronunciation of "Edinburgh" and 
"Gaelic").  I suspect the glares would 
have been even less potent if I wasn't 
speaking in an American accent only 
days after Blair had seemingly 
committed UK to war.

Petra
a
n  :)

__________________________________
Do you Yahoo!?
The New Yahoo! Search - Faster. Easier. Bingo.
http://search.yahoo.com