Britain From A to Z: X

Xenophobia

Union Jack, the flag of the United Kingdom

St George’s Cross, the flag of England

 St Andrew’s Cross, the flag of Scotland

 Y Ddraig Goch (The Red Dragon), the flag of Wales

 

Xenophobia is the fear (phobia) of strangers or foreigners (xeno). However, a milder definition of the word can be to fear losing one’s identity as a result of mixing with strangers or foreigners. It’s this latter definition that I am speaking to in this post.

For many years there have been struggles within certain countries as to the efficacy of being a part of the UK. We saw some of this while visiting Scotland and Wales. There are many in these two countries that feel that the needs of their respective countries would be better met as independent nations instead of being a part of the United Kingdom. Part of this is the fear of losing their national identity the longer they are joined with England.

One of the biggest aspects of a country’s identity is its language. Scottish Gaelic is considered to be the natural language of Scotland even though its official language is English. As expected, the farther north one goes into Scotland, and thus farther from England, the more people you find speaking Gaelic. Even so, the language is considered to be endangered. Similarly, Welsh is the natural language of Wales. But Wales actually has two official languages: Welsh and English. As expected, the farther West one goes, away from England, the more people you will find that speak Welsh, especially in the Northwest. Apparently the Welsh Language is not nearly as endangered as Scottish Gaelic. But there are fears that it is fading out as time goes by.

There have been and still are movements within Scotland and Wales to once again become independent nations. In fact, a national referendum is scheduled for September 18, 2014, in Scotland that will ask the question, “Should Scotland be an independent country?” It will be interesting to see how this referendum goes. I know of no such referendum scheduled in Wales, but there are those that promote independence. Apparently it is advocated primarily by the Welsh nationalist party Plaid Cymru.

While visiting Caernarfon, Wales, we stayed at the Celtic Royal Hotel. Over 20 people from Minnesota that had some level of Welsh heritage were on this leg of our tour. Interestingly, one of those Minnesotans had family connections back to a Member of Parliament. It was Baron Dafydd Wigley. Wigley had served as Plaid Cymru Member of Parliament for Caernarfon from 1974 to 2001. Since early 2011, he has been in the House of Lords.

As it turned out, Baron Wigley was at our dinner that night and had agreed to talk to our group afterwards and even answer some questions. Of course, this was not to be missed, so we attended. It was very interesting. Here is a photo I took of my son, Andrew, with Baron Wigley.

I personally have no opinion about whether or not Scotland or Wales would best be served by independence. I know that it could lead to strained relations with England. But if all countries keep their wits about them, it could be innocuous for international relations and end up helping everyone concerned. Occasionally, a state or part of a state here in the United States, becomes so disgusted with Washington DC that talk of secession crops up. Even I sometimes become so disgruntled with national politics that I begin to think breaking away from it would be a good thing. But on the other hand, it would be a sad state of affairs for the differences between our citizens to become so pronounced as to break up our nation.

Britain From A to Z: T

Traffic Signs

As I have already discussed, there are a number of words that are different in Britain than in the US even though we basically speak the same language. So, you might expect the same type of differences when it comes to traffic signs. And you would be correct.

Here are a few examples:

US Phrase                  Britain Phrase

Detour                         Diversion

Congestion Ahead       Queues Possible

Yield                            Give Way

Major Highway           Main Carriageway

Notice in the photo above that the road number is M40. M is used to designate main carriageways; what we call interstate highways in the US. Lesser roads are designated with an A or a B as seen in the photo below.

Also notice on the M40 sign above that there is a tenth mile designation. The small white post is also marked with a 66.4. These small tenth mile white posts could usually be seen every tenth mile on the M highways. Here in the US, our highways, including interstates, typically only have mile markers.

Although there are places in the US that have roundabouts, Britain seems to be full of them. Therefore, signs like the one on the right in the photo below are quite common. It shows the circle of the roundabout along with where you will be headed along each leg shooting off from it.

On some of the larger multi-lane roundabouts painted instructions appear on the pavement itself.

A useful feature along some sections of the M highways was the chevrons. There would be a sign instructing drivers to keep 2 chevrons apart. On the road would be painted chevrons. If you kept at least two chevrons back from the car in front of you and you were driving the speed limit, you would know you were a safe distance away in case of an emergency stop. This is much easier than trying to determine if you are one car length per 10 miles per hour of driving speed. However, you can see in the second photo below that not everyone obeys the two chevron rule. They better not get caught. Following closer than two chevrons carries a penalty of 10 years hard labor in a salt mine. Just joking; I think.

In towns with buildings on most corners, the names of the streets were often posted on the side of the buildings. It’s a bit disconcerting if you are not used to it, but quite cost effective. No post is required.

In towns and cities it is common to see signs such as the one below showing a great amount of detail about what is where and in which direction.

Finally, I’d like to mention the use of bilingual signs in Britain. Since English is the main language of England, the signs there are monolingual. However, in Scotland there are a significant number of people who speak Scottish Gaelic. This language is more common in the northern parts of Scotland as you distance yourself from England. The same is true in Wales. Welsh is spoken by a significant number of citizens, this being more common in the north than the south. Here’s a sign welcoming visitors to Fort William, Scotland. Notice the Scottish Gaelic at the top of the sign.

In Wales it was interesting that the signs in the south usually had English first, then Welsh, whereas the signs in the north had Welsh first, then English. Here’s an example. The first photo is what we saw as we entered the capital of Wales, Cardiff, in the south.

Compare that to these photos taken further north in Wales.

I originally thought, “How different it is to live in a place needing bilingual signs.” Then I realized that the US is becoming more and more bilingual, with Spanish on the rise. For instance, here is a Wet Floor sign I saw at our local YMCA. I’m sure the bilingual signs are even more common in the parts of the US bordering Mexico.

Well, that’s all folks. To paraphrase Bill Engvall, “There’s your sign!”

Britain From A to Z: L

Language

It's difficult to find another country to travel to where the language is exactly the same as your native country. Hey, in larger countries, like the US, it's difficult to travel to other parts of the same country and have the language be the same. Yeah, a lot of it will be the same, but accents will differ, pronunciations will vary, and some idioms may be unique. Since Britain is mostly an English speaking place, these were the differences we noticed there. However, some Scots speak Scottish Gaelic, and some Welsh people speak Welsh.

For instance, to say "Good Afternoon" in Scottish Gaelic you say "Feasgar Math". Personally, I would have thought you were talking about some type of math invented by a guy named Feasgar. "Good Afternoon" in Welsh is "Prynhawn Da". To me, you might as well be a parent talking gibberish to a baby.

But things were different for my son, Andrew. He became interested in the Welsh language some time ago and can converse with others to a limited degree. It's still a mystery to me why he became interested in Welsh, but I do know the Finch name most likely comes from either England or Wales. Perhaps some long dormant gene activated in my son that took him back to his roots from many generations ago. I do know that he was extremely excited about visiting Wales, and he made an impression on a number of natives as a Welsh speaking Alabamian. Heck, he even impressed me seeing him in action. A telltale indicator that a dormant gene has activated in Andrew was his response to my wife's statement near the end of the trip. Kathy said, "I'm ready to go home." Andrew responded, "I am home."

Apart from the alternative languages spoken by some in Britain, there were a lot of interesting differences in their version of English. The accent is the first you notice. There is a distinctly different accent in Scotland vs England vs Wales. There are also differences within countries. Some I can distinguish; some I cannot. My son is much more attune to this, sometimes being able to narrow a person's accent down to a specific area within an individual country.

There were many cases of the wording for things differing with what I am used to. One that really stood out was the restrooms. In Britain they are mostly called toilets. Even the signs in stores read "Toilets". They knew what you meant if you asked where the restrooms were, but that's just not how they referred to them. Later I noticed that places for rent had signs that said "To Let". Yes, we use that term here in the US, but not as much as "For Rent". Early in our trip, I saw a large "To Let" sign from a distance and thought it read "ToiLet". I was at a loss as to why a toilet sign was so big and why they would capitalize the L. But then I realized it actually read "To Let", and started laughing about the closeness of the signs "Toilet" and "To Let".

There were a couple of interesting statements made by our tour guide. He would say something like this, "We will be stopping in [city name], and we'll be here long enough for you to have a wander." Have a wander? You have to wonder what that means. It's really quite obvious. You can wander about. I just don't remember ever hearing someone say have a wander. Here in the US, we would more likely say "take a stroll" or "walk around" or even "wander around".

Our tour guide would also talk about the people who live "in the street" as opposed to "on the street". I'm quite certain he wasn't talking about homeless people. But when you think about it, "on the street" sounds just as much like being homeless as "in the street". It kind of reminds me of George Carlin talking about getting "on the plane". He said he wasn't about to do that, he was getting "in the plane". So, perhaps for people who reside in a house we should say that they live "alongside the street". What'da'ya think?

Another idiom we encountered came from automated voices in elevators. We would step in and the voice would say something like, "The doors are closing. Please mind the doors." Mind the doors? I've not heard that one before, but you know the words mean, "Watch the doors" or "Be aware of the doors". Of course, all of these really mean, "Get your butt inside and don't get caught when the doors close." But I guess that's a little too verbose and a bit too direct.

One last word: Yip! I don't remember hearing this in Scotland or Wales, but it was quite ubiquitous in England. It was used frequently by female servers at restaurants. Here's a typical exchange. (You might better understand it if you have already read the F in this series for Food at http://rcfinch.blogspot.com/2013/09/britain-from-to-z-f.html)

Server: Can I take your order?

Me: I'll have the Fish and Chips.

Server: Yip!

Me: Does it come with tartar sauce?

Server: Yip!

Me: I'll also have a Diet Coke with that.

Server: Yip!

(Pause)

Server: Would you like mushy peas with that?

Me: Yes.

Server: Yip.

This was then followed by a similar conversation with my wife and son. At first it seemed that these Yippee servers were being a bit curt with us, but I eventually realized that was simply their way of acknowledging they heard what we said.

Interestingly, we were recently dining at Ricatoni's, a local Italian restaurant. I noticed that our server had an English accent, so asked her where she was from. It was a small town in southern England. I told her about the Yippees we encountered in England and she was familiar with them. She could even Yip herself. Epic!

I'll stop at that. I will discuss more language differences in a later post. Yip!

Britain from A to Z : A

During the latter half of July 2013, my wife, son, and I took a trip to Great Britain. Specifically, we visited Scotland, England, and Wales. This trip was primarily intended to be our son's college graduation gift. Andrew is a huge fan of Wales and has been studying its geography, history, and language. We debated whether to do the trip on our own or as part of a tour. Ultimately we decided on the latter and booked Icons of Britain from CIE Tours. It lasted 15 days, starting in Glasgow, Scotland, and ending in Windsor, England. Our days were jam packed with travelling and activities. While there we observed a number of interesting similarities and differences with the USA. I decided to write a series of posts discussing these, using topics that began with the letters A through Z. So, without further adieu...

Accent

In Britain, essentially everyone speaks English. Some Scottish people also speak Gaelic while some in Wales speak Welsh. For all the English speakers, there is a wide variety of accents. This is just like the USA where the people in various regions speak English with different accents. In reality you could say that the whole of the English speaking world speaks with different accents. The Scottish accent is different from the English accent which is different from the Welsh accent which is different from the American accent. There was a couple on our tour from Australia. They had yet another accent. And within these individual countries, there are regional accents. It is very interesting how different accents can be, yet still be understandable. However, there were those few cases where we met someone with such a thick accent, we could barely understand them. Our tour guide, Tom, liked to say to our tour group, which was mostly Americans, "You people are the ones with the accent." Yet I dare say that there are citizens right there in Britain whose accent would stump other lifelong citizens of the UK.