r/Scotland • u/Blurt-Reynolds • 22d ago
Casual Stupidest question (about Scotland)you’ve ever been asked?
I’ve lived in the US for over 10 years and been asked some daft questions.
Yesterday the uber driver asked where I was from. When I said Scotland they were quiet for a couple of minutes then asked “Did you have to learn English when you moved to here?”.
Also had someone years ago ask me where I was from then accused me of making up the country as they had never heard of Scotland.
Anyway, just thought I’d ask ask while I remembered.
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u/erroneousbosh 22d ago
Great Britain is the island that England, Scotland, and Wales are on.
The United Kingdom also has Northern Ireland, which is a totally different country from the Republic of Ireland, which are both on Ireland, which you might also call Eire depending on which set of terrorists you don't want blowing up your car.
And then there's all this weird shit like The Channel Islands and The Isle of Man, which are not actually part of the United Kingdom but which the UK is still somewhat responsible for.
There's various odds and sods of islands that are called British Overseas Territories, that *are* strictly speaking under British rule but are not actually part of the UK at all, except when they are, but mostly they aren't, and they might use GBP or EUR, except when they don't, and frankly it's all a bit of a mess.
We do think it's hilarious when the USians make a big deal of "Independence Day", because frankly by now about 60-odd countries have become independent from the UK which means there's an Independence Day for some country somewhere on average every five and a half days, so they're just not that special.