Those English Pigs

[Stanley Edwards]

I'm officially Welsh these days. No-one seems to know where Wales is and it does get a bit complicated. I've lied so many times I'm believing it myself. May have been born in Birmingham, but I have Welsh blood in me and grew up on the borders. It's close enough. I feel no pride in being an Englishman in Spain.

This morning someone asked me where I was from, so I replied 'Gales'.

'Is that in Europe?' they asked

 

[goldenecitrone]

I'm officially Welsh these days. No-one seems to know where Wales is and it does get a bit complicated. I've lied so many times I'm believing it myself. May have been born in Birmingham, but I have Welsh blood in me and grew up on the borders. It's close enough. I feel no pride in being an Englishman in Spain.

This morning someone asked me where I was from, so I replied 'Gales'.

'Is that in Europe?' they asked

I never had any problems being English when I lived in Zaragoza. Mind you, there was a US airbase nearby whose denizens would often descend on the city centre at the weekend to misbehave, thus making me look quite genteel by comparison.

 

[ice-is-forming]

TBh i have usually found being English in australia to be an advantage....theres been the odd moment or 2 but either i'm really thickskinned (which is a possibility) or they don't mind the english too much here.

 

[upsidedownwalrus]

Us Scots don't have that problem abroad, in fact, some of my English friends, , say they're Scottish when they go abroad, because they're embarassed to say they're english and the stigma that's attached to it.

Not me here in China. China gets relatively few Britons as it is, so I have no need for navel-gazing/self-hatred/embarrassment.

 

[upsidedownwalrus]

(and besides, given the way some locals behave, any British people here would have to behave pretty outlandishly to get called 'pigs'. Pissing on a statue? Meh. I've seen people SHIT in the street in China)

 

[Johnny Canuck3]

That's not my experience, I think the problem is that for many people

British = English

When we travel, we wear canadian flag pins, so people will know we aren't american.

 

[Johnny Canuck3]

You should just put maple leafs on your backpacks like we do.

Oi! You're going to wreck it for us!

 

[Johnny Canuck3]

Some American soldiers were beaten to death in Istanbul for peeing on a statue of Ataturk a few years back.

I googled that, and couldn't find it.

 

[Johnny Canuck3]

TBh i have usually found being English in australia to be an advantage....theres been the odd moment or 2 but either i'm really thickskinned (which is a possibility) or they don't mind the english too much here.

Do they still tug their forelocks in your direction?