Even without saying where I’m from, I’ve had people mishear or assume my accent as being both Scottish or Russian…
I have a fairly flat south English accent.
My greatest linguistic success speaking French was in a bakery where when I, as usual, mangled my conversation and she asked me for clarification *in german* assuming that was my native language. It was the only time I wasn't picked out as English withing 2 seconds of opening my mouth. Only took 4 months of living there!
Geordie here, for obvious reasons I've had Scottish, but also Welsh, Irish, Australian and even South African. Its fair to say I don't sound like Ant or Dec or Spuggy, but the range of wild guesses is staggering
Supposedly the Scottish actually largely invented what we would consider "passing" in a modern sense, as a way of avoiding matching England's physical approach directly. In the early days of the game attacking in any way other than running with the ball towards goal was apparently thought of as almost shameful.
(source: I read Inverting the Pyramid once)
In the us I got asked where I was from, said England, then got told “ah yes you look like you’ve got the Scottish blood in you”. Still don’t know what she meant by that. My accent also got mistaken for Australian multiple times
I was on a bus in Nottingham once and got talking to an elderly couple with what was to me a clear Australian accent. They told me no, they’re from England, not even too far from Notts at all (I forget the place they said) and that they keep being taken for Australians.
I always figured Australia must have taken in a lot of people from the place they where from and brought their dialect with them…
I remember reading somewhere once that a lot of early Australian settlers were from East Anglia (Cambridgeshire / Suffolk / Norfolk) and that their local accent sounds quite similar.
I was taking a tour of Cape Kennedy and there was me, English with a Yorkshire accent diluted by years down south, and also two other brits i didnt know with very plummy RP accents. The Americans on the bus asked where we we from. I said England and they ooed appropriately. The couple said:
"Scotland, though we don't sound it"
To which the reply came:
"Oh you do, trust me you do!"
The couple and I exchanged glances...they sounded Scottish in the same way as the Queen sounded Scottish when at Balmoral. By silent assent we decided not to argue.
When I worked for a bank as a telephone banking operator, a lady from Morningside Edinburgh was appalled when I said she had a lovely Scottish accent lol
Scottish also. When getting instructions before zip-lining in Croatia, the instructor asked where I was from and I said Scotland, he followed up with “is English okay?” to confirm I could understand the instructions.
Since us lowlanders haven't spoke it in centuries probably not 🤣
It is a shame though, Scottish Gaelic is very likely to die off in the near future it just isn't spoken much outside the Isles anymore.
Those I know from the Isles who move down south tend to try ans teach it to there kids but it often won't stick.
I’m from Newcastle, I’ve been asked by a few Americans if I’m Irish or Scottish, I guess I just don’t sound like what they think English people sound like, ie. southern or posh!
When some of my Japanese friends moved to Newcastle they thought everyone was speaking German.
When I worked on a national emergency service call centre people would sometimes mistake my Geordie accent for Welsh
To be fair its like Yorkshire, i have heard people in towns 2 miles apart sound as different as scouse to glasgow. Or like how brummies sound nothing like people from Coventry even tho they are only a 20 min drive apart.
Highlands accents can be very odd in my experience traveling, some nights i stayed in towns where i could barely understand a word being said and others sounded like a scot version of received pronunciation.
Aye up in Caithness it has a but if a twang, so I could understand people from there being confused with Irish accents.
I love the Western Isles accent, best on earth in my humble opinion.
Back in 2001 I was in the US with the scouts and we were all wearing kilts. Someone asked one of the boys where we're from. Without missing a beat he just went 'Zimbabwe' in really sarcastic tone
I say Wales, I don't care if people don't understand me or don't know where it is.
I have found that in many US states, if you say the UK they say "ah, England", absolutely not.
Well most people actually say to me “oh, are you Irish?” or “are you Scottish?”
I respond no, I’m from Manchester in England. Most people recognise the name because of the football teams.
One of my favourite interactions was a guy asking where my friend and I were from (Teesside and the Cotswolds) and when I tried to simplify it with "she's from the south of England, I'm from the north", he looked at me completely serious and said "oh so you're from Scotland?". I explained no, Scotland is a different country, so then he was like "oh right... so you're Irish?" "No, that's a different island".
I'm Australian (when I'm not Sri Lankan) and I usually pick up on other Australians except for one colossal fuck up on the bus from Iceland's Keflavik Airport to Reykjavik where I thought someone on the bus behind me was from back home.
Turns out he was from Cornwall (he's there for the Eve Online tournament there which even has a digital banner up in the airport).
Correctly picked all the others on the bus home and then the airport, though at least.
I’m from Liverpool and I’ve been asked if I’m Irish, Scottish,Australian and even Polish.
I’ve only had 2 people guess correctly. One young kid (around 10) who watches football and one old guy who was stationed in the northwest during the war.
I usually say I’m from England. That’s because a majority of the people in the US don’t understand what the UK actually means.
I did have someone say that they “have friends from British.”
UK accents are so diverse, I'm not surprised at all that you get all sorts of weird guesses. I'm Canadian and when I lived in Iceland people asked me if I was from the UK because my accent was just "foreign" and they made their best guess haha accents are really hard to place sometimes...which is why I personally never guess haha
I’m a Geordie living in Spain and I get Scottish, Welsh and Irish all the time. I work in an Irish bar and people either assume that I’m Irish and get offended when I’m not, or ask me what part of Ireland I’m from and get confused when I say Newcastle
Yes I often respond with "manchester, like manchester United?" And that usually gets a positive response 😅.
Once in Turkey my dad went home to change out of his united shirt because of the amount of people coming up to him shouting "united" !! wanting a 5 minute conversation.
When I was backpacking, every single time a local asked me where I was from and I replied Manchester, the response was universal delight, often with hoots of, “Manchester United! My team, my team!” I once enthralled the staff at my hostel with tales of Traffic Jams Caused By United Traffic That I Have Known.
(My first house was very near to Old Trafford and when I moved in I spent quite a bit of time plodding to the retail park next to the grounds and back because they had all the furniture and electronics shops I wanted to browse for beds and hoovers and shit. I fucking never remembered to check if it was a match day and I was always getting stuck in the abominable traffic, banging my steering wheel and fruitlessly bellowing, “But I’m not even one of you!” at other stationery cars.)
I’d always say I’m from Manchester no matter who I’m talking to. Think it’s different if you’re from a major city since you can reasonably assume most people will have heard of it, even if they don’t know where in the country it is located. I’ve never met anyone who hasn’t.
That's really quite surprising, given that neither club has played in the top flight for over 40 years.
I would expect it to make a big difference for overachieving places like Burnley, Bournemouth, Wolverhampton or Luton. But I don't think Bristol is a city that anyone in the UK really associates with football.
I went to the US a few years back and told people I met I was from Bristol. Almost everyone had heard of it, one saying are you City or Rovers ... English football has really taken off over there 😅
My Mrs hates saying chicken in public even though I've never heard any one ever ask her to say chicken.
Now that we live in the Midlands, my London accent gets picked out more than hers!
I would say The UK/England but sometimes Canadians and Americans went further and asked where in the UK I was from. I eventually just used to say London, despite never having lived anywhere near there, because if I said anything else, then usually people just looked at me blankly.
Goodness knows why people that have absolutely no knowledge of British geography ask the question
It's a mixed bag for me. I'm from the UK but live in Canada. If I just say I'm from the UK, I get a "well *duh,* but where?", and if I'm more specific, I get a "idk where the fuck that is" from others
I did a tour through Uzbekistan a few years ago. That country totally needs to promote tourism more - I struggle to explain how much I was captivated by the places I visited.
Completely unrelated, but have you ever seen Bald & Bankrupt on YouTube? What did you think of his time in Uzbekistan? You never know with these guys whether they ham it up, or they're honest. Curious for your opinion, if you have one!
Hey don't worry, some of us Americans live in a region known as New England and we very much know how to pronounce it! We have our own Worcester (no shire). We also have a Leicester, Greenwich, Gloucester, Manchester, Yarmouth, etc. Outside of here...it's confusion beyond belief.
I feel like you guys pronounce half of them differently to us, though. Which means that we will each think the other is confidently incorrect, until we realise what's going on.
I say I'm British. Or I live in London. Technically I don't live in London any more, but I'm close enough for it not to be worth differentiating.
Never really encountered any confusion with either, including in the south of the US (Texas, specifically).
It gets to the point where it's easier saying "near London" or "I'm from London" to mean anywhere in England, if not mainland UK lol. Every time I've been to the US or Canada no one I've spoken to knows exactly where Liverpool or Manchester is (sometimes even Wales) but understanding dawns when you just say "near London". Makes sense when you think how big North America is so 3 hours away from London is just "near London" to them
As an Aberdonian, I remember travelling in Indonesia and being asked where I was from. I said Scotland and they didn’t recognise that. I said UK, and they still looked uncertain. So I said near England, and they said ‘ah, Wayne Rooney’. And I realised that football really is the international language.
I lived near the Canada / US border for 3 years and very quickly learned to not say I was from “the UK”. Canadians were much better educated but all too common I was often misheard as “the Ukraine”, or “the UAE”, or sometimes they’d just stare back at me blankly and say, “Oh… I thought you were British.”
So yeah, I just started saying the following as my go-to exchange:
- Them: “Where are you from? Your accent is so cool.”
- Me: “Oh I’m British.”
- Them: “Oh cool! London??”
- Me: “About 5-6 hours outside of London.”
- Them: “Oh that is basically living in London, silly!”
- Me: “Yep, basically.”
- Them: “Have you ever met [insert either the Queen / Mr. Bean / Beatles]?”
- Me: “Yes, on many occasions.”
- Them: “Wowwww.”
When we were in Singapore, my husband told people he was from Scotland although he's Manc born and bred. They all accepted it except one guy said 'No, you sound like Rashford. You're from Manchester!' My husband doesn't even sound like Rashford, his accent isn't as broad but he just accepted if haha
*in the states on holiday
Finland.
What?
We have come from Finland.
Ahh Canada, (shouts to his friend) yeah they’re a couple of Canadians from Newfoundland.
…
Funny you should say that because I used to say Pulp, and then you could see the cogs turning and glazed eyes and as soon as I said the others, the penny would drop haha
I say England. In the US I used to get either "your accent is so cute" or "do you know the queen then".
Caused chaos when I said "I don't really know her. But I've met her at a garden party or two"
My wife's great uncle was on friendly speaking terms with the Queen, I can never quite remember how or why, but I always have it as a response to that question and it gets big reactions lol
I’m from Scotland and I get that a bit even when working down in London. Although had a funny one recently:
“Oh you’re down from Scotland. We’ve got a guy in our team from Scotland, wonder if you know each other?”
“Well, we don’t actually all know each other up there you know.”
*points to their colleague*
“Ah right. Yeah, I went to Uni with that guy. Fair enough.”
I was born and raised in Singapore but British by heritage. Moved to the UK for Uni got a job in a large PR firm. Turns out the one other person who had lived in Singapore in my company (that I know of) also happened to be in my year group when they lived in Singapore... from the same school ... and we had multiple classes together.
I always spark up a conversation as if I've known them for years. And make up some wild shit about whatever. I look back and wonder just how much carnage it caused.
“Of course I know Dave! Did you hear about the accident at Christmas last year? Yeah came off the roof and the tree…. Well I don’t need to tell you what happened there! He’s not walked the same since! Poor guy…”
That's the sort of thing.
Melissa? Yeah. Did you hear that she's separated. She slept with someone else and her fella found out. He never should have left us in the pub that night. He knows I've always had a thing for her.
It depends on where I am and who I'm talking to. If I'm in Europe or talking to a European, I'll usually say "UK, Wales", or just Wales. If I'm talking to someone outside of Europe I might say "UK, do you know Wales?", and if they don't I'll say "it's right next to England".
But if I'm talking to someone that doesn't talk much English, then I'll just say England (a cardinal sin for a Welsh person, I know) or whatever England is in their language. It's surprising how many people don't know the UK or Britain/Great Britain, but do know England.
Edit: I've also had someone confuse me saying UK with Ukraine! That was in Budapest and I shouldn't have corrected them because I'd have had cheaper entry into the parliament building.
I was once asked by some Canadians who overheard me ordering a coffee if I was English, I said 'no, I'm Welsh'. They knew of Wales from a coach tour of the UK that they'd done and said 'yeah but that's the same as being English, right?' I replied 'yep, just as being Canadian is the same as being American', took a minute or two but then they started laughing and said 'yeah, got ya, sorry'. Had a lovely chat with them after that :)
The weirdest in i had was in Phoenix. I said “Wales, it’s the country west of England” and goes “i know where wales is dumbass, near Cardiff, Bangor, or are you out west?”
I used to say Wales, but have now reverted to UK mostly.
I was in an Autorickshaw in India and was asked where I'm from, I said "Do you know where Wales is?" He said "Ah yes Walesis I know". Started to give up after that.
Most people abroad are familiar with London, but little else, so unless you're willing to enter an actual conversation about it, then best just to say West of London (in fairness other cultures have a very different conception of distance, so would think South Wales is actually very close to London).
Occasionally you get different ends of the spectrum in terms of responses (American - "Oh Wales, yeah I have a great uncle from Glasgow", or more rarely "Oh yeah, I lived in Abergavenny for 15 years") never can tell.
Haha, yes this all sounds very familiar! I've also said I live about 2 hours west of London, it's not far when you think about it. I sometimes use Gareth Bale as an indicator of where I'm from - lots of men know about him.
I've noticed that when I say UK or United Kingdom, many people think I'm talking about America, which is why I tend to say England now. It's just easier if you want to avoid a conversation about it, as you say.
Yeah I’ve had limited luck with explaining where Wales is before. I lived in Germany before moving to the US and couldn’t even get my German teacher to understand the differences, let alone teach me the German word for Wales.
I live abroad in a community of people from all over the world. I always say either UK or British. My Dutch friend keeps referring to me as English which winds me up because although I talk like I'm English I was born and lived in Glasgow for the first 8 years of my life...
Scottish by birth, British by the Grace of God, gobshite by inclination.
Been in the Netherlands for a while and the older people at the restaurant I work in say "Holland". When I first started, an older couple came in and he said "Holland" a few times and she corrected him to "the Netherlands" as a bit of a jab and it was so sweet - I think she was happy I was on side and joined in too.
I say I’m British too because Dad is Scots and Mum is English and I grew up in Singapore. All of which blows minds in the US. But if they ask where I'm from I say the UK or Edinburgh as that's where I was born. And then I get the whole story about how they're Scotch too
Oh that used to annoy me too. I never refer to being English or even really from England specifically (even though I am), and it annoys me that if I say I’m British or from the U.K. people take that to mean I must be English or from England without me having saying so.
I'll never forget debating with an Orlando taxi driver that thought my accent was Australian. I politely corrected him but then he stated firmly "yes but the country Australia is close to Britain" I politely corrected him with a smile.
He replied quite firmly..."no I'm pretty sure I'm right about this" MERICA
Something similar happened to me. When I was in Indiana I said I was from England and someone said 'Oh! I have a friend from New Zealand, that's near you right?'
Ummmm.....
I mean I wish it was given I have to travel between London and Sydney starting tomorrow (I'm stopping in Sri Lanka for about two weeks again because I just can't do the whole trip in one go with just a brief transit stop anymore). Being a much quicker trip would have been nice.
I live in China. I'm British of Indian ethnicity, I confuse the hell out of locals when I tell them I'm British! I refer to myself as English when speaking with the other Brits here. I confuse myself sometimes...
I live in Kent, so if asked I say near London, I suppose it is if you think about an hour and a half as near London.
If I said Kent, they would think I'm swearing at them.
It gets even more complicated being from Northern Ireland. My partner and I were in Florida and when staff in restaurants or shops asked where we were from I would say ‘U.K.’, reason being that we wanted to pay in Sterling using our credit card and if we mentioned ‘Ireland’ they would automatically assume we wanted to pay in Euros. They always answered ‘Oh, England?’ I quickly stopped arguing and just said yes but my partner insisted on giving them the full geography lesson about the difference between Ireland, Northern Ireland, Great Britain and the U.K. So many confused, bored faces.
When I was in Florida as a teenager, one of the American girls at our hotel thought we lived in mounds like the Hobbits in LOTR. Obviously I steered into it and made up a myriad of other "facts". Shot myself in the foot though, I made us sound so backwards she was confused when I asked for her MSN screen-name.
"I'm from the Channel Islands."
"Oh, Guernsey or Jersey?"
"Neither."
"That one where they can't own cars?!"
"No, it's the other small one that's got very little interesting going on."
I mentioned Guernsey to a class mate who was from Birmingham and he asked if it was in the south of England somewhere, lol. I guess Alderney would be even more if a struggle to know!
As an American, I can attest to the general confusion over here between the United Kingdom, Great Britain, England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland. And that’s leaving out the Crown Dependencies.
When teaching US history, there is a lot of focus on the historical elements of the US connection with the UK, a focus on the time when there was no UK.
We are taught about how English Pilgrims sailed to the shores of North America, how the English Parliament wanted to tax people without representation, how the English fought the colonists. . . . You get the picture. And we get a fair dose of English history at least through the Middle Ages and a bit about WWI and WWII. But there is a huge shift to focus on US history from the 1770s on.
So we learn about England, but not about modern England and its place in the UK. We aren’t taught much about Scotland, Ireland, or Wales.
I’m describing general public school curriculum here. It is certainly possible to take history courses that cover more of the UK and history, but you have to opt for them. Or be curious and read books on history.
Television has brought Scotland to our attention with Outlander, Wales with Dr. Who and Torchwood. And Ireland is where all those Irish Americans who get drunk on St. Paddy’s Day come from. But we get a lot more “English” television shows from the BBC.
So, yeah, Americans learn more about England than they do the rest of the UK. And that’s probably why we all call the entire island England.
Although not me, with the grandmother from Ireland and the grandfather from Scotland and the other grandfather from England. They were very educational. (My other grandmother was French-Canadian. She taught us how to cook.)
And of course in the pre 1776 period Wales was officially just part of England and had been since Henry VII. At least by legal definition. Terrifyingly that didn't change till the Welsh language act 1967. At which point legislation etc began to refer to England and Wales. Though almost always as a single phrase. Wales really didn't start getting separately legislated for until devolution in the 90s.
So *really* not surprising Wales didn't make the American education system. Not saying that is right but not surprising.
Interestingly Cornwall had more legal independence from England than Wales for much of the last millennium.
I probably usually say either that I'm from the UK or that I'm British, which seems to cause less confusion. If someone asks for more detail (or "oh, London?") then I'll say I'm from Manchester, which normally results in a blank look or in 90% of cases, a mention of Manchester United.
I once told a French-language tour group of the Canadian Parliament building that I was from "Angleterre" when the tour guide asked if anyone was from outside Canada and my in-laws outed me. For some reason that seemed to get a bit of a cold response from the group, perhaps they were expecting me to name a French-speaking country (or I should have said "Royaume-Uni")
For some reason Canadians very often expect me to drink Guinness and think they're making me feel at home by offering it to me... not sure what that's about.
I say I'm British or from the UK. You could argue I'm English based on my accent but because my family is from all over the islands, British is the most accurate for me.
However this has reminded me of one interaction I had in the US . When I was in NYC I sat next to an older couple at a diner who were from, I want to say Michigan but I can't recall, one of the Northern States, and just out of passing polite interaction they clocked the accent and the husband asked where I was from, and I said the UK and he asked where in the South. I hadn't mentioned where but clearly he heard the accent. So I said which county, close to X place and he was like "Oh yeah, I know that area, I visited the RAF base there a few times". Turns out he was in the USAF in the 80s-90s and was fully aware of my non-interesting boring commuter town.
I also say UK. I think this is because it will generally be the one we select from drop-down menus, so I assumed this is what we’re known as world-wide!
I am English, British. Never lived elsewhere in the UK.
I live in NY but am from England. When New Yorkers ask me (rare) I say the UK, England and they all get that. When people from out of state ask me (all the time) I tell them “yeah, Im not from round here, I’m from NY”. I then wait to see if they follow up or just look a bit confused and move on. Usually it’s just a bit confused.
Britain, specifically Northern England.
It covers geography, why the accent isn't the RP accent they might be expecting, and it touches on the whole constituent country thing.
I live in Louisiana so I am well versed in deep south navigation. I am from Bristol but went to uni at Swansea. I say I’m from England and when they ask where in England I say Bristol. Inevitably they ask if that’s near London and then I explain it’s on the other side of the country on the border of Wales. Either that or they tell me about someone they know from London and I shrug and say I’ve only been there a couple of times. This usually surprises them. I think it’s good for them to know there are big cities outside of London.
I would say I was British. If they asked further, I would say the South Coast and leave it at that. I don’t live near any major city.
If they know their geography, then they know it’s England. If they don’t, British works fine.
My son always says British because he spent almost as long living in Scotland as he has down here. He also lived in North Wales for a couple of years.
I say "Inglaterra" (haven't really been abroad but travel to peru to see my boyfriend). Usually they just mention somewhere in England or mention that they like Britain which is nice and I can keep the conversation going.
In Europe, “Liverpool…” and if they don’t immediately know it “…UK.”
When I’m in the US, “Liverpool, England.”
It usually moves on to some Beatles chatter or weirdly, once, a guy comparing the Hudson to the Thames.
Americans have guessed Russian and Scottish from my Scouse accent, and one time it was easier to speak Spanish with the Mexican lady making my (Italian style) pizza in New Jersey.
I say I'm from the UK. Have also had people mishear it as Ukraine, and in French as Romania.
Even without saying where I’m from, I’ve had people mishear or assume my accent as being both Scottish or Russian… I have a fairly flat south English accent.
My greatest linguistic success speaking French was in a bakery where when I, as usual, mangled my conversation and she asked me for clarification *in german* assuming that was my native language. It was the only time I wasn't picked out as English withing 2 seconds of opening my mouth. Only took 4 months of living there!
I once got mistook for Spanish in Barcelona where people speak Catalan . Winner!
It could be how you look. I get people thinking I’m Scottish because I have a slightly ginger tone to my hair. I tell them I’m just unfortunate.
Bright blue eyes, so could be.
I have a proper "posh" home counties accent from growing up in Buckinghamshire. They always think I'm Australian in the states.
Geordie here, for obvious reasons I've had Scottish, but also Welsh, Irish, Australian and even South African. Its fair to say I don't sound like Ant or Dec or Spuggy, but the range of wild guesses is staggering
I just say Scotland. According to one American I told my English is very impressive 👍 Another Moroccan was very excited to say "AHHH...Ryan Giggs!!"
I was in a taxi in Singapore once and said i was from Scotland and he said "AAAH SCOTLAND. LONG BALL FOOTBALL!"
I mean there was a time that was a case for a long time. 😂
Supposedly the Scottish actually largely invented what we would consider "passing" in a modern sense, as a way of avoiding matching England's physical approach directly. In the early days of the game attacking in any way other than running with the ball towards goal was apparently thought of as almost shameful. (source: I read Inverting the Pyramid once)
In the us I got asked where I was from, said England, then got told “ah yes you look like you’ve got the Scottish blood in you”. Still don’t know what she meant by that. My accent also got mistaken for Australian multiple times
>“ah yes you look like you’ve got the Scottish blood in you”. Still don’t know what she meant by that. Are you a ginger?
Nope. Dark brown hair and eyes, no freckles, not pale
Must have been the claymore, blue woad and screaming freeeeeeedom.
Dead giveaway
Australians in American movies try too hard to sell it when they play Scottish characters.
Do you look like Mel Gibson?
My husband has a Lancashire accent and many many times in America people ask if he's Australian 🙄
I was on a bus in Nottingham once and got talking to an elderly couple with what was to me a clear Australian accent. They told me no, they’re from England, not even too far from Notts at all (I forget the place they said) and that they keep being taken for Australians. I always figured Australia must have taken in a lot of people from the place they where from and brought their dialect with them…
I remember reading somewhere once that a lot of early Australian settlers were from East Anglia (Cambridgeshire / Suffolk / Norfolk) and that their local accent sounds quite similar.
I was taking a tour of Cape Kennedy and there was me, English with a Yorkshire accent diluted by years down south, and also two other brits i didnt know with very plummy RP accents. The Americans on the bus asked where we we from. I said England and they ooed appropriately. The couple said: "Scotland, though we don't sound it" To which the reply came: "Oh you do, trust me you do!" The couple and I exchanged glances...they sounded Scottish in the same way as the Queen sounded Scottish when at Balmoral. By silent assent we decided not to argue.
“the same way the Queen sounded Scottish when at Balmoral” is probably the funniest thing I'll read today. Thank you, and well done.
When I worked for a bank as a telephone banking operator, a lady from Morningside Edinburgh was appalled when I said she had a lovely Scottish accent lol
Scottish also. When getting instructions before zip-lining in Croatia, the instructor asked where I was from and I said Scotland, he followed up with “is English okay?” to confirm I could understand the instructions.
How awesome would it be tho if they could reboot Gaelic and English actually became a second language in scotland 👀🤔
Since us lowlanders haven't spoke it in centuries probably not 🤣 It is a shame though, Scottish Gaelic is very likely to die off in the near future it just isn't spoken much outside the Isles anymore. Those I know from the Isles who move down south tend to try ans teach it to there kids but it often won't stick.
No chance, there’s at least 12 people doing Gaelic on Duolingo
Have you ever had the "You're Irish?" question?
"I'm Irish too. My great great grandparents came to America in 1883"
You just described my friend. He and his parents are born in the US and he would say, "People in Ireland do this...." Very odd.
I’m from Newcastle, I’ve been asked by a few Americans if I’m Irish or Scottish, I guess I just don’t sound like what they think English people sound like, ie. southern or posh!
When some of my Japanese friends moved to Newcastle they thought everyone was speaking German. When I worked on a national emergency service call centre people would sometimes mistake my Geordie accent for Welsh
Irish, Scandinavian, Israeli....but yeah Irish a few times
Aye I get it regularly even in England when visiting family. The Highland accent must be relatively unknown.
To be fair its like Yorkshire, i have heard people in towns 2 miles apart sound as different as scouse to glasgow. Or like how brummies sound nothing like people from Coventry even tho they are only a 20 min drive apart. Highlands accents can be very odd in my experience traveling, some nights i stayed in towns where i could barely understand a word being said and others sounded like a scot version of received pronunciation.
Aye up in Caithness it has a but if a twang, so I could understand people from there being confused with Irish accents. I love the Western Isles accent, best on earth in my humble opinion.
Back in 2001 I was in the US with the scouts and we were all wearing kilts. Someone asked one of the boys where we're from. Without missing a beat he just went 'Zimbabwe' in really sarcastic tone
Absolute mad man
I say Wales, I don't care if people don't understand me or don't know where it is. I have found that in many US states, if you say the UK they say "ah, England", absolutely not.
We were in Chicago and got asked where we’re from. My boyfriend said he’s Welsh. They replied loudly “Barry Island! Gareth Bale!” It was hilarious 🤣
Same, Always Scotland, never UK/GB. I work in an NYC school and if the kids ask I just say Jersey though to watch the confusion.
You could say York and see them really get confused
>According to one American I told my English is very impressive "Better'n yours, pal"
Well most people actually say to me “oh, are you Irish?” or “are you Scottish?” I respond no, I’m from Manchester in England. Most people recognise the name because of the football teams.
One of my favourite interactions was a guy asking where my friend and I were from (Teesside and the Cotswolds) and when I tried to simplify it with "she's from the south of England, I'm from the north", he looked at me completely serious and said "oh so you're from Scotland?". I explained no, Scotland is a different country, so then he was like "oh right... so you're Irish?" "No, that's a different island".
"Australia?" "No, that's a different hemisphere"
I'm Australian (when I'm not Sri Lankan) and I usually pick up on other Australians except for one colossal fuck up on the bus from Iceland's Keflavik Airport to Reykjavik where I thought someone on the bus behind me was from back home. Turns out he was from Cornwall (he's there for the Eve Online tournament there which even has a digital banner up in the airport). Correctly picked all the others on the bus home and then the airport, though at least.
In fairness to you there is a reasonable cornish diaspora in Australia I think. If you know any miners then that could also be why.
I’m from Liverpool and I’ve been asked if I’m Irish, Scottish,Australian and even Polish. I’ve only had 2 people guess correctly. One young kid (around 10) who watches football and one old guy who was stationed in the northwest during the war. I usually say I’m from England. That’s because a majority of the people in the US don’t understand what the UK actually means. I did have someone say that they “have friends from British.”
UK accents are so diverse, I'm not surprised at all that you get all sorts of weird guesses. I'm Canadian and when I lived in Iceland people asked me if I was from the UK because my accent was just "foreign" and they made their best guess haha accents are really hard to place sometimes...which is why I personally never guess haha
I get Scottish often, less commonly Welsh, never English. I’m Geordie though so that’s probably expected.
I’m a Geordie living in Spain and I get Scottish, Welsh and Irish all the time. I work in an Irish bar and people either assume that I’m Irish and get offended when I’m not, or ask me what part of Ireland I’m from and get confused when I say Newcastle
Geordie in Scotland and I get Irish all the time. I've also had South African, Australian and Norwegian once??
Yes I often respond with "manchester, like manchester United?" And that usually gets a positive response 😅. Once in Turkey my dad went home to change out of his united shirt because of the amount of people coming up to him shouting "united" !! wanting a 5 minute conversation.
When I was backpacking, every single time a local asked me where I was from and I replied Manchester, the response was universal delight, often with hoots of, “Manchester United! My team, my team!” I once enthralled the staff at my hostel with tales of Traffic Jams Caused By United Traffic That I Have Known. (My first house was very near to Old Trafford and when I moved in I spent quite a bit of time plodding to the retail park next to the grounds and back because they had all the furniture and electronics shops I wanted to browse for beds and hoovers and shit. I fucking never remembered to check if it was a match day and I was always getting stuck in the abominable traffic, banging my steering wheel and fruitlessly bellowing, “But I’m not even one of you!” at other stationery cars.)
I’d always say I’m from Manchester no matter who I’m talking to. Think it’s different if you’re from a major city since you can reasonably assume most people will have heard of it, even if they don’t know where in the country it is located. I’ve never met anyone who hasn’t.
American response: Oh, New Hampshire??
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with an English accent?
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I get the Irish question regularly when I'm in England. I guess the Highland accent isn't that well known.
Yea, I’ve been surprised how many people have heard of Bristol (my closest large city) just due to football.
The stool chart too
>due to football Both ways of ranking shit in order.
That's really quite surprising, given that neither club has played in the top flight for over 40 years. I would expect it to make a big difference for overachieving places like Burnley, Bournemouth, Wolverhampton or Luton. But I don't think Bristol is a city that anyone in the UK really associates with football.
My friend at university in the US said she knew Bristol Rovers because she and her dad watched a lot of ‘soccer’ together.
I went to the US a few years back and told people I met I was from Bristol. Almost everyone had heard of it, one saying are you City or Rovers ... English football has really taken off over there 😅
Yep.
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I say Liverpool which is either met with ‘Oh like the Beatles?’ or ‘say chicken’
My Mrs hates saying chicken in public even though I've never heard any one ever ask her to say chicken. Now that we live in the Midlands, my London accent gets picked out more than hers!
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I once had a consultant ask me to say it despite the fact we were working in a hospital in Liverpool! People can be strange
Chicken Kitchen
I just say London. I have lived in Essex my whole life. Noone really gives a shit,so keeps it easy.
My accent is estuary/Essex and Americans often think I’m Australian 😂
I’ve had that from people abroad before, I think it’s my overuse of the word mate!
Several years ago I had a bunch of Glaswegian kids think I'm Australian (I grew up in Bucks).
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Estuaralian
"Near Lakeside"
I would say The UK/England but sometimes Canadians and Americans went further and asked where in the UK I was from. I eventually just used to say London, despite never having lived anywhere near there, because if I said anything else, then usually people just looked at me blankly. Goodness knows why people that have absolutely no knowledge of British geography ask the question
It's a mixed bag for me. I'm from the UK but live in Canada. If I just say I'm from the UK, I get a "well *duh,* but where?", and if I'm more specific, I get a "idk where the fuck that is" from others
Because they want to tell you they have heard of 'insert major football team' but it only really works for London, Manchester or Liverpool
When I say Cambridge people always know what I mean, so not just a football thing.
I live in Uzbekistan. Taxi drivers ask me all the time. I say I am from "schotlandia". 90% of the time they say "ah, Mel Gibson!" In reply
I did a tour through Uzbekistan a few years ago. That country totally needs to promote tourism more - I struggle to explain how much I was captivated by the places I visited.
Completely unrelated, but have you ever seen Bald & Bankrupt on YouTube? What did you think of his time in Uzbekistan? You never know with these guys whether they ham it up, or they're honest. Curious for your opinion, if you have one!
Worcestershire, in England. You know the pace that you can not pronounce.
Oh so you're from England, whereabouts in England? Well, it's hard to say.
I'm from Worcester,, I always defaulted to "it's near Birmingham".
The definition of Stoke-on-Trent is "you know that bit between Birmingham and Manchester? There!"
warchester ? WUSTAH
washyoursister
Washyoursistershire
Hey don't worry, some of us Americans live in a region known as New England and we very much know how to pronounce it! We have our own Worcester (no shire). We also have a Leicester, Greenwich, Gloucester, Manchester, Yarmouth, etc. Outside of here...it's confusion beyond belief.
I feel like you guys pronounce half of them differently to us, though. Which means that we will each think the other is confidently incorrect, until we realise what's going on.
I say I'm British. Or I live in London. Technically I don't live in London any more, but I'm close enough for it not to be worth differentiating. Never really encountered any confusion with either, including in the south of the US (Texas, specifically).
It gets to the point where it's easier saying "near London" or "I'm from London" to mean anywhere in England, if not mainland UK lol. Every time I've been to the US or Canada no one I've spoken to knows exactly where Liverpool or Manchester is (sometimes even Wales) but understanding dawns when you just say "near London". Makes sense when you think how big North America is so 3 hours away from London is just "near London" to them
“Yeah I’m sort of South London….” “Oh yeah, where abouts?” “Portsmouth.”
“Yeah I’m sort of North London….” “Oh yeah, where abouts?” “Aberdeen.”
As an Aberdonian, I remember travelling in Indonesia and being asked where I was from. I said Scotland and they didn’t recognise that. I said UK, and they still looked uncertain. So I said near England, and they said ‘ah, Wayne Rooney’. And I realised that football really is the international language.
Yeah I told a chef in a restaurant in Japan I was from Wales and he said "Gareth Bale!?" Blew my mind.
This is exactly every conversion I have in a foreign country! 🤣
I lived in Australia for a bit and when I said I was from England they asked if that was in London. I had no words.
I lived near the Canada / US border for 3 years and very quickly learned to not say I was from “the UK”. Canadians were much better educated but all too common I was often misheard as “the Ukraine”, or “the UAE”, or sometimes they’d just stare back at me blankly and say, “Oh… I thought you were British.” So yeah, I just started saying the following as my go-to exchange: - Them: “Where are you from? Your accent is so cool.” - Me: “Oh I’m British.” - Them: “Oh cool! London??” - Me: “About 5-6 hours outside of London.” - Them: “Oh that is basically living in London, silly!” - Me: “Yep, basically.” - Them: “Have you ever met [insert either the Queen / Mr. Bean / Beatles]?” - Me: “Yes, on many occasions.” - Them: “Wowwww.”
British is definitely the correct response if you want people to understand
When we were in Singapore, my husband told people he was from Scotland although he's Manc born and bred. They all accepted it except one guy said 'No, you sound like Rashford. You're from Manchester!' My husband doesn't even sound like Rashford, his accent isn't as broad but he just accepted if haha
They did end up kind of getting the right answer despite the wrong reasoning, funnily enough.
*in the states on holiday Finland. What? We have come from Finland. Ahh Canada, (shouts to his friend) yeah they’re a couple of Canadians from Newfoundland. …
That’s incredible
To be fair, locals do pronounce Newfoundland as roughly “New Fenland/Finland”. Outsiders pronounce both D’s.
I always say ‘’Sheffield, England, same as Arctic Monkeys, Sean Bean and Def Leppard’’. It’s usually a good conversation starter.
The home of football. And hendos
Took me a second to realise you meant relish, and not premarital jubilations.
You go far enough down south and they don’t know about Hendos, never mind where it’s from lol
My dad, a Sheffield man, moved to Eastbourne 10 years ago and has to stock up when he comes up to visit. Also crawshaws pies.
Can’t believe you leave out Pulp.
Funny you should say that because I used to say Pulp, and then you could see the cogs turning and glazed eyes and as soon as I said the others, the penny would drop haha
Full Monty
"Oh, where the cutlery is from?" Once said to me by a Chinese waitress in in Melbourne.
Human League/ Heaven 17
I was thinking knives when you said Sheffield
I just blurt the term 'Alrreet me loverrr', to confuse them more. In France I was like ''Wheres the properr cheese, you got no cheddar?''
Cheers Drive
gert lush that is
Quite right too, and don't get me started on their poor imitations of Somerset brie!
'ere love, comin back to moine for a cider and a massarrge?
I got a brand new combine harvester
I say England. In the US I used to get either "your accent is so cute" or "do you know the queen then". Caused chaos when I said "I don't really know her. But I've met her at a garden party or two"
My wife's great uncle was on friendly speaking terms with the Queen, I can never quite remember how or why, but I always have it as a response to that question and it gets big reactions lol
When I was in Manhattan I had many people ask me if I knew -insert random name here- as if there aren’t 60 million people on these few islands
I’m from Scotland and I get that a bit even when working down in London. Although had a funny one recently: “Oh you’re down from Scotland. We’ve got a guy in our team from Scotland, wonder if you know each other?” “Well, we don’t actually all know each other up there you know.” *points to their colleague* “Ah right. Yeah, I went to Uni with that guy. Fair enough.”
I was born and raised in Singapore but British by heritage. Moved to the UK for Uni got a job in a large PR firm. Turns out the one other person who had lived in Singapore in my company (that I know of) also happened to be in my year group when they lived in Singapore... from the same school ... and we had multiple classes together.
I always spark up a conversation as if I've known them for years. And make up some wild shit about whatever. I look back and wonder just how much carnage it caused.
“Of course I know Dave! Did you hear about the accident at Christmas last year? Yeah came off the roof and the tree…. Well I don’t need to tell you what happened there! He’s not walked the same since! Poor guy…”
That's the sort of thing. Melissa? Yeah. Did you hear that she's separated. She slept with someone else and her fella found out. He never should have left us in the pub that night. He knows I've always had a thing for her.
I met Princess Beatice today.
It depends on where I am and who I'm talking to. If I'm in Europe or talking to a European, I'll usually say "UK, Wales", or just Wales. If I'm talking to someone outside of Europe I might say "UK, do you know Wales?", and if they don't I'll say "it's right next to England". But if I'm talking to someone that doesn't talk much English, then I'll just say England (a cardinal sin for a Welsh person, I know) or whatever England is in their language. It's surprising how many people don't know the UK or Britain/Great Britain, but do know England. Edit: I've also had someone confuse me saying UK with Ukraine! That was in Budapest and I shouldn't have corrected them because I'd have had cheaper entry into the parliament building.
I was once asked by some Canadians who overheard me ordering a coffee if I was English, I said 'no, I'm Welsh'. They knew of Wales from a coach tour of the UK that they'd done and said 'yeah but that's the same as being English, right?' I replied 'yep, just as being Canadian is the same as being American', took a minute or two but then they started laughing and said 'yeah, got ya, sorry'. Had a lovely chat with them after that :)
Yeah people quickly get it when you flip it back on them!
Oh my god. Super embarrassing. Canadians, of everyone, should KNOW that most people don't want to be lumped in with their nearest neighbour...
The weirdest in i had was in Phoenix. I said “Wales, it’s the country west of England” and goes “i know where wales is dumbass, near Cardiff, Bangor, or are you out west?”
I used to say Wales, but have now reverted to UK mostly. I was in an Autorickshaw in India and was asked where I'm from, I said "Do you know where Wales is?" He said "Ah yes Walesis I know". Started to give up after that. Most people abroad are familiar with London, but little else, so unless you're willing to enter an actual conversation about it, then best just to say West of London (in fairness other cultures have a very different conception of distance, so would think South Wales is actually very close to London). Occasionally you get different ends of the spectrum in terms of responses (American - "Oh Wales, yeah I have a great uncle from Glasgow", or more rarely "Oh yeah, I lived in Abergavenny for 15 years") never can tell.
Haha, yes this all sounds very familiar! I've also said I live about 2 hours west of London, it's not far when you think about it. I sometimes use Gareth Bale as an indicator of where I'm from - lots of men know about him. I've noticed that when I say UK or United Kingdom, many people think I'm talking about America, which is why I tend to say England now. It's just easier if you want to avoid a conversation about it, as you say.
Yeah I’ve had limited luck with explaining where Wales is before. I lived in Germany before moving to the US and couldn’t even get my German teacher to understand the differences, let alone teach me the German word for Wales.
Which is tragic, because it is Wales lol
I live abroad in a community of people from all over the world. I always say either UK or British. My Dutch friend keeps referring to me as English which winds me up because although I talk like I'm English I was born and lived in Glasgow for the first 8 years of my life... Scottish by birth, British by the Grace of God, gobshite by inclination.
Then it’s only fair that you refer to his country as Holland instead of the Netherlands
Been in the Netherlands for a while and the older people at the restaurant I work in say "Holland". When I first started, an older couple came in and he said "Holland" a few times and she corrected him to "the Netherlands" as a bit of a jab and it was so sweet - I think she was happy I was on side and joined in too.
I say I’m British too because Dad is Scots and Mum is English and I grew up in Singapore. All of which blows minds in the US. But if they ask where I'm from I say the UK or Edinburgh as that's where I was born. And then I get the whole story about how they're Scotch too
Oh that used to annoy me too. I never refer to being English or even really from England specifically (even though I am), and it annoys me that if I say I’m British or from the U.K. people take that to mean I must be English or from England without me having saying so.
I'll never forget debating with an Orlando taxi driver that thought my accent was Australian. I politely corrected him but then he stated firmly "yes but the country Australia is close to Britain" I politely corrected him with a smile. He replied quite firmly..."no I'm pretty sure I'm right about this" MERICA
Something similar happened to me. When I was in Indiana I said I was from England and someone said 'Oh! I have a friend from New Zealand, that's near you right?' Ummmm.....
I mean I wish it was given I have to travel between London and Sydney starting tomorrow (I'm stopping in Sri Lanka for about two weeks again because I just can't do the whole trip in one go with just a brief transit stop anymore). Being a much quicker trip would have been nice.
I live in China. I'm British of Indian ethnicity, I confuse the hell out of locals when I tell them I'm British! I refer to myself as English when speaking with the other Brits here. I confuse myself sometimes...
I bet that is confusing. They’re aren’t a ton of immigrants of immigrants in China.
Totally. My kids are even more perplexing as their dad isn't British or Indian 🫠
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I would usually phrase it "I'm British" but I would say that I'm from England - no idea why there's that distinction in my brain but there it is.
I live in Kent, so if asked I say near London, I suppose it is if you think about an hour and a half as near London. If I said Kent, they would think I'm swearing at them.
You feckin Kent!
Southampton. You know the titanic? Where that sailed from.
It gets even more complicated being from Northern Ireland. My partner and I were in Florida and when staff in restaurants or shops asked where we were from I would say ‘U.K.’, reason being that we wanted to pay in Sterling using our credit card and if we mentioned ‘Ireland’ they would automatically assume we wanted to pay in Euros. They always answered ‘Oh, England?’ I quickly stopped arguing and just said yes but my partner insisted on giving them the full geography lesson about the difference between Ireland, Northern Ireland, Great Britain and the U.K. So many confused, bored faces.
When I was in Florida as a teenager, one of the American girls at our hotel thought we lived in mounds like the Hobbits in LOTR. Obviously I steered into it and made up a myriad of other "facts". Shot myself in the foot though, I made us sound so backwards she was confused when I asked for her MSN screen-name.
"I'm from the Channel Islands." "Oh, Guernsey or Jersey?" "Neither." "That one where they can't own cars?!" "No, it's the other small one that's got very little interesting going on."
I’m from Guernsey. I hate to admit it but I’ve told plenty of people I’m from England just cos I couldn’t be arsed to explain.
I mentioned Guernsey to a class mate who was from Birmingham and he asked if it was in the south of England somewhere, lol. I guess Alderney would be even more if a struggle to know!
England and then explain where in relation to London or Bristol if they know it.
As an American, I can attest to the general confusion over here between the United Kingdom, Great Britain, England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland. And that’s leaving out the Crown Dependencies. When teaching US history, there is a lot of focus on the historical elements of the US connection with the UK, a focus on the time when there was no UK. We are taught about how English Pilgrims sailed to the shores of North America, how the English Parliament wanted to tax people without representation, how the English fought the colonists. . . . You get the picture. And we get a fair dose of English history at least through the Middle Ages and a bit about WWI and WWII. But there is a huge shift to focus on US history from the 1770s on. So we learn about England, but not about modern England and its place in the UK. We aren’t taught much about Scotland, Ireland, or Wales. I’m describing general public school curriculum here. It is certainly possible to take history courses that cover more of the UK and history, but you have to opt for them. Or be curious and read books on history. Television has brought Scotland to our attention with Outlander, Wales with Dr. Who and Torchwood. And Ireland is where all those Irish Americans who get drunk on St. Paddy’s Day come from. But we get a lot more “English” television shows from the BBC. So, yeah, Americans learn more about England than they do the rest of the UK. And that’s probably why we all call the entire island England. Although not me, with the grandmother from Ireland and the grandfather from Scotland and the other grandfather from England. They were very educational. (My other grandmother was French-Canadian. She taught us how to cook.)
And of course in the pre 1776 period Wales was officially just part of England and had been since Henry VII. At least by legal definition. Terrifyingly that didn't change till the Welsh language act 1967. At which point legislation etc began to refer to England and Wales. Though almost always as a single phrase. Wales really didn't start getting separately legislated for until devolution in the 90s. So *really* not surprising Wales didn't make the American education system. Not saying that is right but not surprising. Interestingly Cornwall had more legal independence from England than Wales for much of the last millennium.
In Orlando Bus driver, Where you guys from ? Me, Scotland. Bus Driver, now very excited, ‘I’m half Scottish, Half Irish ,and half Italian’. !!!
“From Liverpool in the UK”. Usually goes down ok!
I probably usually say either that I'm from the UK or that I'm British, which seems to cause less confusion. If someone asks for more detail (or "oh, London?") then I'll say I'm from Manchester, which normally results in a blank look or in 90% of cases, a mention of Manchester United. I once told a French-language tour group of the Canadian Parliament building that I was from "Angleterre" when the tour guide asked if anyone was from outside Canada and my in-laws outed me. For some reason that seemed to get a bit of a cold response from the group, perhaps they were expecting me to name a French-speaking country (or I should have said "Royaume-Uni") For some reason Canadians very often expect me to drink Guinness and think they're making me feel at home by offering it to me... not sure what that's about.
Everyone has heard of London so I say that
I absolutely hate the idea of admitting American defeat like this.
Yes, I say ‘near London’ as it’s easy and frankly people are asking from politeness, rather than actually wanting to know
Always used to get "Is that near London?".
I say I'm British or from the UK. You could argue I'm English based on my accent but because my family is from all over the islands, British is the most accurate for me. However this has reminded me of one interaction I had in the US . When I was in NYC I sat next to an older couple at a diner who were from, I want to say Michigan but I can't recall, one of the Northern States, and just out of passing polite interaction they clocked the accent and the husband asked where I was from, and I said the UK and he asked where in the South. I hadn't mentioned where but clearly he heard the accent. So I said which county, close to X place and he was like "Oh yeah, I know that area, I visited the RAF base there a few times". Turns out he was in the USAF in the 80s-90s and was fully aware of my non-interesting boring commuter town.
I also say UK. I think this is because it will generally be the one we select from drop-down menus, so I assumed this is what we’re known as world-wide! I am English, British. Never lived elsewhere in the UK.
I hate those menus that are ordered by country code, so when you look for United Kingdom it’s hiding up way higher because it’s using the code GB.
In the Olympics we’re GB and I think that has a big influence.
I live in NY but am from England. When New Yorkers ask me (rare) I say the UK, England and they all get that. When people from out of state ask me (all the time) I tell them “yeah, Im not from round here, I’m from NY”. I then wait to see if they follow up or just look a bit confused and move on. Usually it’s just a bit confused.
Britain, specifically Northern England. It covers geography, why the accent isn't the RP accent they might be expecting, and it touches on the whole constituent country thing.
I'm from England, I just say England.
I live in Louisiana so I am well versed in deep south navigation. I am from Bristol but went to uni at Swansea. I say I’m from England and when they ask where in England I say Bristol. Inevitably they ask if that’s near London and then I explain it’s on the other side of the country on the border of Wales. Either that or they tell me about someone they know from London and I shrug and say I’ve only been there a couple of times. This usually surprises them. I think it’s good for them to know there are big cities outside of London.
I studied in the US for a bit, I usually went British -> south of London -> Brighton (if they kept asking)
I would say I was British. If they asked further, I would say the South Coast and leave it at that. I don’t live near any major city. If they know their geography, then they know it’s England. If they don’t, British works fine. My son always says British because he spent almost as long living in Scotland as he has down here. He also lived in North Wales for a couple of years.
>long story short Proceeds to type out 7 further paragraphs 😂
I say "Inglaterra" (haven't really been abroad but travel to peru to see my boyfriend). Usually they just mention somewhere in England or mention that they like Britain which is nice and I can keep the conversation going.
I say north of England near Manchester, although I’m not most people only know Manchester and London outside of the UK lol
In Europe, “Liverpool…” and if they don’t immediately know it “…UK.” When I’m in the US, “Liverpool, England.” It usually moves on to some Beatles chatter or weirdly, once, a guy comparing the Hudson to the Thames. Americans have guessed Russian and Scottish from my Scouse accent, and one time it was easier to speak Spanish with the Mexican lady making my (Italian style) pizza in New Jersey.
Wales.
Yeah same, you then have to explain to them that Wales is in fact a country that exists, every gotdamn time