Short Stuff: Great Britain

Now that it’s been 250 years since America split from England, we figure enough time has passed that we can finally learn the difference between the UK, Great Britain, and the British Isles. See omnystudio.com/listener https://omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:00Speaker 00

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• 0:04Josh Clark?

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• 1:11Josh Clark?

  Hey, and welcome to the shortstop. I'm Josh, there's Chuck and Jerry's here too, sitting in for Dave. And we're all dames and lads and knights and all that stuff here at Step You Should Know.

• 1:25Speaker 02

  Yeah, I feel like this one is long overdue because we have gotten a lot of email over the years about us screwing up the difference between Britain and England and the United Kingdom.

• 1:35Josh Clark?

  Never again.

• 1:36Speaker 02

  Well, hopefully never again, and hopefully we get all this right. I do want to say in our defense though, or at least my defense, a lot of times I have said England for somebody who was from England. And people have called me out and said, you can't just say England if it's, you know,

• 1:54Speaker 02

  Britain or the UK or something. And I'm like, but they're born in London. I can't say they're English?

• 1:59Josh Clark?

  What you didn't know is the person who called you out is from California.

• 2:03Speaker 02

  Probably so.

• 2:05Josh Clark?

  So yeah, we're gonna try to get this right and we will try to continue in the future, but hey, we're only human, but flesh and blood, some men, so we might get it wrong eventually at some point.

• 2:17Speaker 02

  That's right. So I guess we should start out by saying that the UK, the United Kingdom, isn't the same thing as saying Great Britain. The UK has a longer name. It's the United King- officially, it's the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.

• 2:31Josh Clark?

  With a mouthful.

• 2:32Speaker 02

  It is. So they just say UK, but it is a nation state of four countries, which is England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland.

• 2:41Josh Clark?

  That's right.

• 2:42Speaker 02

  So what's Great Britain?

• 2:44Josh Clark?

  Okay, that was the UK. I think we should go over it three more times.

• 2:47Speaker 02

  That's the stuff you should know way.

• 2:49Josh Clark?

  Great Britain is an actual geographical area, the physical landmass, that England, Scotland, and Wales share.

• 2:57Speaker 02

  The island.

• 2:58Josh Clark?

  It is. It's the island of, well, Great Britain.

• 3:02Speaker 02

  Yeah, like Greece.

• 3:03Josh Clark?

  It's the UK, except Northern Ireland is not part of Great Britain because it's on a different island, right?

• 3:10Speaker 02

  That's right.

• 3:10Josh Clark?

  It's still part of the UK, it's just not part of Great Britain. I don't think they care either.

• 3:15Speaker 02

  Yeah, Northern Ireland, as you would guess, is on the northern tip of Ireland.

• 3:21Josh Clark?

  Just the tip.

• 3:22Speaker 02

  Also an island next door to Great Britain. I'm so afraid we're gonna screw this up still.

• 3:27Josh Clark?

  We're not, we're not. We can read everything verbatim. How about that?

• 3:30Speaker 02

  I've not been this nervous in a long time, recording an episode.

• 3:33Josh Clark?

  Okay, so we've got Great Britain, it's an island. It's an island off the coast of mainland Europe.

• 3:40Speaker 02

  A big one.

• 3:41Josh Clark?

  England, Scotland, and Wales all share it. So to the west of Great Britain, as we said, is Ireland, a different island, and there's Northern Ireland and Ireland.

• 3:52Speaker 02

  Are we really doing this?

• 3:53Josh Clark?

  Sure. And the reason that there's Northern Ireland and in Ireland is that Ireland broke away from the British Crown in 1922. Northern Ireland said, no, we're going to stay, which is why Northern Ireland is part of the United Kingdom as well.

• 4:08Speaker 02

  That's right.

• 4:08Josh Clark?

  Just not part of Great Britain, everybody.

• 4:10Speaker 02

  That's right. We have another term that we need to mention, which is the British Isles. Also a geographical term. Can be a little dodgy as far as, I'm not sure like how controversial it is.

• 4:24Josh Clark?

  Pretty controversial.

• 4:25Speaker 02

  Yeah, so these islands are, like, there are thousands of these islands off the coast of Northwest Europe. A ton of them, like, you know, the Channel Islands, the Isle of Man. I guess, I'm just, boy, I'm very bravely going out on a limb and saying the Isle of Wight.

• 4:44Josh Clark?

  That's pretty brave. I would not do that.

• 4:46Speaker 02

  I didn't look that up, but I think so. But like I said, several thousand of these islands, and some of these islands, like the Isle of Man for one, are not part of the United Kingdom. They are like politically tied to a degree, but technically they are a distinct thing.

• 5:02Josh Clark?

  We think.

• 5:03Speaker 02

  That's right.

• 5:04Josh Clark?

  Let's take a break.

• 5:05Speaker 02

  All right.

• 5:07Josh Clark?

  Let's take a breath.

• 5:24Speaker 03

  First thought is like, wow, how are we going to do all this?

• 5:27Josh Clark?

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• 6:30Josh Clark?

  Sure.

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• 7:38Speaker 02

  All right, so there's... I hope it's been clear so far. We've said everything three times. The issue of governance is also at hand because at various times over the years, and we're not going to dig too deeply into this because we're trying to have fun here, but like there have been the idea that Scotland may want to break away, or Wales may want to break away. I think the last time Scotland tried was 2014. This notion has been lobbed out there before, but we're not going to wade too deeply into that. We just thought it was worth mentioning.

• 8:10Josh Clark?

  No, but it's... And yes, thank you for mentioning it, Chuck. You did a great job just now.

• 8:15Speaker 02

  Thanks.

• 8:16Josh Clark?

  But it, like you said, the United Kingdom is a nation state. It's a sovereign state and it's made up of four member countries, which again is England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland, right? So I, I didn't realize this at all, but it does make sense because you know that there's Scottish officials in Parliament, there's Welsh officials in Parliament, Northern Irish officials in Parliament, they're all coming together. Because Parliament, I always thought it was just English. Parliament is actually, okay, it's the, it's the governing legislating body of the entire United Kingdom, not England.

• 8:51Speaker 02

  That's right. Wales, I think, or I believe Northern Ireland, they established the Northern Ireland Assembly in 1998. I believe that Scotland did that in 1999. And also Wales, they all have their own national assemblies in addition to having their own parliamentary reps.

• 9:13Josh Clark?

  Right. Yes, people come and give short programs encouraging them to not do drugs. It's those kind of assemblies.

• 9:23Speaker 02

  Right.

• 9:24Josh Clark?

  And then England doesn't have a sovereign legislature of its own. Scotland does, Wales does, and Northern Ireland does, but not England.

• 9:36Speaker 02

  That's right. Until 25 years ago, none of them had independent lawmaking bodies. None of those countries did outside of Parliament. But like I said, the other three did, England still doesn't. The Union Jack, if you're wondering, is literally a union. That's I guess why it's called that, of the three flags of England, Scotland and Ireland. And Wales is just like, what about us? And they're like, no, you're not technically a kingdom. So you're not going to be a part of the Union Jack. And Wales is like, thanks a lot.

• 10:05Josh Clark?

  Right.

• 10:06Speaker 02

  We've got Christian Bale, though.

• 10:07Josh Clark?

  Well, then we're independent. I thought he was Irish, he's Welsh.

• 10:11Speaker 02

  Yeah, he's Welsh.

• 10:13Josh Clark?

  I know super furry animals are Welsh.

• 10:16Speaker 02

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• 10:24Josh Clark?

  You told me that.

• 10:25Speaker 02

  It's fantastic. What a band.

• 10:28Josh Clark?

  Let's just go one more step here, Chuck.

• 10:31Speaker 02

  Oh, boy.

• 10:33Josh Clark?

  So you said that you were called out for calling people from England, English, which is dumb. Not what you did being called out for, because it's true. Like, the people you would call English are people from England. You wouldn't call anyone else in the United Kingdom or Great Britain, English, because they're not English. They're either Scottish, Welsh, or Northern Irish.

• 10:53Speaker 02

  That's right. It gets a little dodgy, I think, because I think Americans are known for just hearing an accent and just saying English. I'm not one of those people. Like, I can, I can generally differentiate between certainly Scottish, Irish, and English. But Welsh, I don't know. Welsh is an interesting accent. And I've gotten decent at, like, some of the accents within England itself. But, uh, yeah, I think it's pretty easy to tell. You know, it depends on where you're from in Scotland and Ireland. But, um, I've had friends from both Scotland and Ireland over the years, and it's a very distinct accent.

• 11:30Josh Clark?

  I think the Scottish accent is probably my favorite accent in the world.

• 11:34Speaker 02

  Scottish and Irish are both, and then it depends on where you're from. Like, if I had a friend from Glasgow in college, Cotton, and I could barely, like, when her friends came over, I could barely understand a word they said when they got to drinking too much. And even Cotton at times, I won't call her Karen. But I eventually, after being friends with her for a couple of years in college, could sort of, sort of work it out. It's much easier outside of Glasgow for me to understand.

• 12:00Josh Clark?

  Yeah.

• 12:01Speaker 02

  But I do a lot of subtitles with Irish and Scottish cop shows, for sure.

• 12:05Josh Clark?

  Yeah, for sure. You have to. Definitely.

• 12:08Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 12:08Josh Clark?

  Yeah, even like, English, sometimes, like, an English show, if they start talking fast, they can't quite keep up.

• 12:14Speaker 02

  Yeah, or it depends on where they're from. Oh, man, what was the one?

• 12:18Speaker 02

  Oh, I can't remember. It was a great little short series about a series of murders in the 70s.

• 12:25Josh Clark?

  The Yorkshire Ripper one?

• 12:26Speaker 02

  Yeah, maybe that was it.

• 12:27Josh Clark?

  The Long Shadow was amazing.

• 12:28Speaker 02

  Yeah, that Yorkshire accent was really something.

• 12:31Josh Clark?

  Yeah, I watched that whole thing on subtitles, too.

• 12:36Speaker 02

  Yeah, what was the word that they used a lot? I can't remember.

• 12:41Josh Clark?

  Mate?

• 12:41Speaker 02

  No, no, no, no, no, no. What else you got, smart guy?

• 12:46Josh Clark?

  Pop instead of coke?

• 12:47Speaker 02

  Pudding.

• 12:50Josh Clark?

  But they're talking about dessert. It blows my mind.

• 12:52Speaker 02

  I can't remember. There was one word that they used a lot, just in the everyday vernacular that, you know, the subtitles helped me out with it, but I thought it was a cool accent. I liked it.

• 13:02Josh Clark?

  Yeah, if you haven't seen it, it's definitely worth watching. It's very, very well done.

• 13:05Speaker 02

  Yeah, very good. Agreed.

• 13:07Josh Clark?

  One other thing, though, if you are ever talking to somebody from the UK who's not English and you comment on their English accent, how much you like it, and they call you out, the way out of it is to say, no, I was commenting on how you are speaking the English language. I love the accent you use for that. And they will start getting stars and birds swirling over their head and you just creep away while they're confused.

• 13:30Speaker 02

  Yeah, and as far as like saying whether or not somebody is British, obviously if they're not from England, they're not English, but if they're part of Great Britain, I don't know how people personally feel about that. My guess is that people from Scotland are like, I'm Scottish, and they wouldn't refer to themselves as British. And somebody from Northern Ireland, Ireland, or from Wales would say, I'm Irish or I'm Welsh, and not British. But, I mean, maybe they say, I'm Scottish and then British or something. I don't know. They probably don't even put it like that. That's probably just some dumb American thing.

• 14:04Josh Clark?

  Well, this was Dave Ruse's joint on how stuff works, and he talked to his, I think, brother-in-law, Tim, who's from England. And Tim says that the English are more likely to say that they're British first and English second. So the opposite of the Welsh and the Scottish and the Irish.

• 14:21Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 14:22Josh Clark?

  So one other thing, Chuck, not only is there the United Kingdom, but the United Kingdom also technically includes the Commonwealth nations that include Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Jamaica, Bermuda, which we're gonna be at on our Virgin Cruise.

• 14:38Speaker 02

  That's right.

• 14:38Josh Clark?

  Mind-blowingly, the Virgin Islands, which also ties into our Virgin voyage.

• 14:44Speaker 02

  Yeah, the British Virgin Islands. Because aren't there American Virgin Islands?

• 14:48Josh Clark?

  Yeah, the AVI and the DVI.

• 14:51Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 14:51Josh Clark?

  And then the Caymans, which apparently is not a great shelter for your money like it used to be in the 80s.

• 14:57Speaker 02

  Did you try to move some?

• 15:00Speaker 02

  Got stymied?

• 15:01Josh Clark?

  Yeah. Uh, I think that's it, right?

• 15:05Speaker 02

  Yeah, I got nothing else. I just, I'm so ready for this one to be over before I say something wrong, even though that probably happened like five times already.

• 15:11Josh Clark?

  I think you did a great job, man. I really do. Congratulations, buddy. We're done and we'll never get it wrong again.

• 15:17Speaker 02

  That's right.

• 15:18Josh Clark?

  All right, short stuff is out.