Is the term "British" offensive?

[Goliath]

I should show "Dish and Dishonesty" in my British-history survey course.

The trouble is--I like talking about 18th-century British politics too much. And the real-life examples of rotten boroughs are every bit as funny as Dunny-on-the-Wold. As my supervisor put it, Old Sarum was "just a pile of rocks," while Dunwich had crumbled into the sea.

I do show a couple of episodes from Blackadder Goes Forth in my class on War & Society in 20th-Century Britain, as an illustration of the negative popular memory of the Great War.

I used to show Oh! What a Lovely War!, but Blackadder is shorter and funnier.

 

[137th Gebirg]

A Toast to the Four Kingdoms

First, here's to the Welsh, who pray upon their knees and prey upon their neighbors;

Second, here's to the Irish, who keep fightin' for it...if only they knew what "it" was;

Third, here's to the Scots, who keep the Sabbath...and anything else they get their bloody hands on;

And last but certainly not least, here's to the English who, by claiming to be a self-made race, have absolved Almighty God of a heinous responsibility.

 

[cultcross]

Though I don't particularly like Rowan Atkinson I have watched all of Blackadder just to see Tony Robinson as Baldrick.

A cunning plan.

 

[Deckerd]

It's a turnip, sir.

 

[Broccoli]

Well, if he was from Ireland then he isn't from the United Kingdom

Northern.

And I guess I've made my own feax pas by not identifying him as such.

What has always ticked me off is when people refer to my country as "Holland". There is no such country! Holland is just an area consisting of two provinces.
I am a Netherlander!

When I was in school, they taught us the country was called "Holland." I guess I learn something every day.

From Seinfeld:

George: What is Holland?
Jerry: What do you mean, "what is it?" It's a country right next to Belgium.
George: No, that's the Netherlands.
Jerry: Holland is the Netherlands.
George: Then who are the dutch?

What's wrong with calling Americans "Yanks"? I'm a Yank in a town that was once taken over by the Dixies. We kicked them out but good.

Well, like I said: it's too colloquial for academic work.

It would be like letting students write, "So the Confederates said, "we can has independence?" And the North said, "ROFL, no way, n00bs, all your states are belong to us!" Etc.

Haha. Win.

 

[Rincewiend]

I could understand it if they'd called someone from Scotland English.
What has always ticked me off is when people refer to my country as "Holland". There is no such country! Holland is just an area consisting of two provinces.
I am a Netherlander!

You are Dutch...

 

[Count Zero]

So why are the Dutch called the Dutch? Is it an English approximation of what they called themselves at the time? Or was it a prank by Germans who claimed to be from the Netherlands?

 

[ManOnTheWave]

From Seinfeld:

George: What is Holland?
Jerry: What do you mean, "what is it?" It's a country right next to Belgium.
George: No, that's the Netherlands.
Jerry: Holland is the Netherlands.
George: Then who are the dutch?

This is not unlike conversations had between high school teachers which I have witnessed.

 

[Mark de Vries]

So why are the Dutch called the Dutch? Is it an English approximation of what they called themselves at the time? Or was it a prank by Germans who claimed to be from the Netherlands?

In ye olden times anyone from the northwest of Europe (modern Netherlands, northern Germany, probably bits of Belgium and Denmark too) could be considered Diets. In fact, the Dutch national anthem still has that word, claiming the Dutch or 'of Dietsen blood'. That word later developed into Deutsch, which is what the Germans call themselves, and Dutch, as the English call us, but we don't call ourselves any longer. Apart from our national anthem, no word like Diets is commonly used in Dutch.

 

[Shatmandu]

But there are divides. The Welsh hate the English and the Scots, The Irish hate the English and the Welsh, The Scots hate everyone and the English refuse to get involved as we know we are superior anyway. That's why the United Kingdom is ironic.

What's also ironic is that the rest of the planet thinks of you all as shit from the same bag.

It's almost like religion.

Joe, godly

 

[Hermiod]

But there are divides. The Welsh hate the English and the Scots, The Irish hate the English and the Welsh, The Scots hate everyone and the English refuse to get involved as we know we are superior anyway. That's why the United Kingdom is ironic.

What's also ironic is that the rest of the planet thinks of you all as shit from the same bag.

It's almost like religion.

You're American, right ?

You really can't talk, then, about being universally hated. It was only when you elected the fly swatter dude that sales of Canadian flag stickers dropped.

 

[Ethros]

What's also ironic is that the rest of the planet thinks of you all as shit from the same bag.

It's almost like religion.

Joe, godly

That reminded me of another post I read of yours the other day. Don't really get it. Rather than typing all that out why not just write "I'm a cunt"
It'd save time

 

[cheeseyfatmonkey]

But there are divides. The Welsh hate the English and the Scots, The Irish hate the English and the Welsh, The Scots hate everyone and the English refuse to get involved as we know we are superior anyway. That's why the United Kingdom is ironic.

What's also ironic is that the rest of the planet thinks of you all as shit from the same bag.

It's almost like religion.

Joe, godly

When the Supreme Leader of Iran calls us the most evil nation on the planet the you know we are full of win and awesome.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/8109685.stm

 

[Ethros]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/8109685.stm

"Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has described the UK government as "evil"."

Is he annoyed about the whole MP-expenses-thing as well then?

 

[ITL]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/8109685.stm

"Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has described the UK government as "evil"."

Is he annoyed about the whole MP-expenses-thing as well then?

When he first read about it in The Daily Fail, he was so incensed he was heard to exclaim: "BARBARA! Fetch us another pair of trousers, love - I've spat me cuppa all over these....it's those bloody MPs in the UK again! It beggars belief, I'm telling you...a damn good pair of trousers, they were....Ruined! Bloody ruined! Is there any jam left? No? *mumblegrumble some bugger's been at the jam again mumblegrumble never bloody save me any, do they? mumblegrumble."

Or something.

 

[Thestral]

But there are divides. The Welsh hate the English and the Scots, The Irish hate the English and the Welsh, The Scots hate everyone and the English refuse to get involved as we know we are superior anyway. That's why the United Kingdom is ironic.

What's also ironic is that the rest of the planet thinks of you all as shit from the same bag.

It's almost like religion.

Joe, godly

What, am I the only one that saw this as tongue-in-cheek?

 

[Canadave]

For the record... As much as the Spanish-speaking cultures cry about it, they are not "Americans". You never hear Canadians and Brazilians fighting to be called Americans (the Canadians are likely to kill you if you try).

Well, not necessarily.

 

[Count Zero]

So why are the Dutch called the Dutch? Is it an English approximation of what they called themselves at the time? Or was it a prank by Germans who claimed to be from the Netherlands?

In ye olden times anyone from the northwest of Europe (modern Netherlands, northern Germany, probably bits of Belgium and Denmark too) could be considered Diets. In fact, the Dutch national anthem still has that word, claiming the Dutch or 'of Dietsen blood'. That word later developed into Deutsch, which is what the Germans call themselves, and Dutch, as the English call us, but we don't call ourselves any longer. Apart from our national anthem, no word like Diets is commonly used in Dutch.

Thnaks for the explanation. I've heard the Dutch anthem a number of times, but never made that connection.

 

[Me-Ike]

So why are the Dutch called the Dutch? Is it an English approximation of what they called themselves at the time? Or was it a prank by Germans who claimed to be from the Netherlands?

In ye olden times anyone from the northwest of Europe (modern Netherlands, northern Germany, probably bits of Belgium and Denmark too) could be considered Diets. In fact, the Dutch national anthem still has that word, claiming the Dutch or 'of Dietsen blood'. That word later developed into Deutsch, which is what the Germans call themselves, and Dutch, as the English call us, but we don't call ourselves any longer. Apart from our national anthem, no word like Diets is commonly used in Dutch.

Thnaks for the explanation. I've heard the Dutch anthem a number of times, but never made that connection.

I once read that deutsch, dutch, anything related to this means "people" (or "Volk" in German, which I find to be a little more precise).
That might also explain why so many called themselves that.

 

[Smiley]

^Is that the reasoning behind Volkswagen's name? It's the car of the people?