What accent do you really hate? and which one you love?

I use "You lot" when talking to my sisters Irish boyfriend, he doesn't seem to mind. I use "you lot" when refering to Scots, Welsh, Southeners, French etc. etc they are all "you lot" or "your lot".
I really dont think there is anyone that want's to begrudge Ireland its independance, I certainly don't, I'm extremely happy about the relationship Britain and Ireland are creating today. I take great offence at being compared to Adam, politicaly. I'm very much a left wing, liberal, Pro-European Union, live and let live kind of fella. All I was meaning was that i dislike the "celtic" attitude, it goes against my pro-European union mentality (after thousands of years of conflict over silly little differences, we have managed to stop). The feeling I get from it is that the English shouldn't even be in England, like we are some sort of alian culture that landed in the 1700s. Put it this way if a visit England advert started using pagen art work, what would you think? You might think that it was imitating an Irish one or what ever? Folk music aswell, apparently people in England didn't have music until the 1900s. (OK im going a bit overboard, but you get my little idea)

By the way, please understand that I may be coarse with my language, and may come across as being agressive in my posts, In fact it is the quite the opposite, im a very nice mild kind of guy, I really don't understand why some of my posts cause offence?!

Its my sence of humour I think, I dont think alot of people get it.

Everyone is different and have their own prospective of the world. I wasn't comparing you to Adam. You don't seem to be anything like him, at least not when your sober. Uriel was right; everyone does try to belong to a certain group. It seems that you just see yourself as a European. Personally, I think we will all have to become good little Europeans eventually even Adam, like it or not.

Well, in the past few days I've been reading a lot of comments (on other boards, not Antimoon) relating to group affiliation. I hear a lot of Europeans disdaining the evils of nationalism and touting the EU as a way to transcend national identities and create a larger identity as European, which they feel is far superior to the old system of identification, and to the American concept of national identity.

At the other extreme I've been reading an Australian kid's fervent embracing of all things Celtic (he wants to unify Australia and New Zealand, he gets upset about the treatment of Breton in France, he wants all other ethnic groups to assimilate into Australian culture NOW, hates the use of other languages, he's all about ANYTHING Anglo-Celtic) -- and in that I read a kid who is desperately looking for an identity, a group to "belong" to.

But it strikes me in both cases that the basic desire to have something to belong to is evident; they are just defining their terms differently -- wider in the first case, and ridiculously narrow in the second. And while both claim to find other forms of group identity reprehensible, in fact, they are blind to the fact that ALL forms, even theirs, are just permutations of the same drive!

Yes I see what you mean, it is the tribal thing, no man is an island. Like in Yorkshire, there is a bit of rivalry in the three ridings of Yorkshire, North east and west (south and humberside aswell now) but in the end we are all Yorkshiremen, and have the "stick together" attitude. There is no other county in England with this kind of thing, you don't get some one from Bedfordshire saying he is a Bedfordshire man above all, (though I could be wrong). But I suppose it has always been that way in Yorkshire. I'm Pro-European, but I still think there is a place for individual nations, and you certainly need to celabrate individual culture, including; Art, music, language etc. In other words I think it is great that the Irish,Scots,Cornish and Welsh celebrate their ancient history and are fighting to save their languages ( something the regions of England failed to do). My problem is with the whole "celtic" thing which seems to exclude other people, and in some rare cases is used as another way of saying "we hate the English, and every one else", I again say rare cases.

I suppose what I am trying to say is that there was no such thing as "The Celtic People", they were all induvidual tribes of Europe that had similar cultures, but in the end were all as individual as I am to you. And anyone can share in the history of this, after all if you are brought up in a country, regardless of where you and your's are from, you have the shared personality of that nation in you.

Ide like to hear what a "celt" thinks of this, I hope no one takes offence at all that, I just want to have a good discussion.

Face it Jim C, chances are you're a celt, even if you are descended in an unbroken line from pure Saxon and Viking invaders. Even those lovely people may have the odd vermin celtic ancestor.

Bit of a shame, from your tolerant point of view, but there you go.

"There is no other county in England with this kind of thing, you don't get some one from Bedfordshire saying he is a Bedfordshire man above all, "


What about Cornwall?

And, according to a survey, around 37% of people in Derbyshire and people in East Sussex consider their "nationality" of being that of their counties.

Allright, obviously there are other counties like that, Cornwall being the most obvious.

As for having a bit of celt in me, my grandad is a Scot, and my great grandad was Irish, so according to you I most probably do. Actualy my Step Grandad is a Scot as well, so ive been brought up with all the scotishness, Haggis on my birthday (burns night) etc.

The "vermin Celt" comment is a bit harsh, Its like your saying that people in England regard them selves as "purebloods" or something? Impossible with the mix there is inside your average Englishman, and there will be ancient Briton inside there as well.

The impression I get is that "Celtic" seems more like a proclamation of being "pure blood" than anything, obviously not intended as that, but thats the way it can be read.

What I was trying to say was, there were no Celts, just ancient tribes, that had no affiliation with each other.

celt was a term used by the Irish,Scottish,welsh as their way of saying we are independant countries,we do not belong to the united kingdom we differentiate ourselves from the english.But things are different now,only a minority of "oh I hate the english they stole our land and murdered us" exist.Pro european is fine with me,but as you pointed out Jim C,every country/nation has the right to maintain their individuality(be it throught traditions,art music w/e)while been part of a bigger community.

I wasn't implying the "you lot" or "your lot" was a derogatory term when speaking about the Irish,or the french or other nations,it's just whenever I heard it in the past there was a certain tone associated with it,sort of like "oh those people" if you get me.But perhaps its paranoia on my part.While we're on the subject of reviving language and tradition,I personally dislike gaelige(or Irish Gaelic)even though Irish and english are core subjects of the Irish education system(junior cert -leaving cert)I always prefered the English language.I

But I do respect those parts of Ireland that use Irish as part of their daily lives and are trying to preserve our native language.Believe me there is no distain for the english on my part,most of my cousins live in england,I visit London every year and other parts,I enjoy the premiership football and have been to anfield and old trafford on many occasions,something we do not have here in Ireland(eircom league football is not on the same scale)and a lot of Irish youths have to go to english football clubs to make names for themselves.So theres no denying the english/or england has done many great things for Ireland,and the relationship between both countries is very strong.

I guess to summarize,in my opinion anyone who has to use a word or revert back 200-300 years as justification for hating someone-in modern times-when they don't even know that person/or people is pretty stupid.Just saying:-)

"whenever I heard it in the past there was a certain tone associated with it,sort of like "oh those people" if you get me.But perhaps its paranoia on my part"

Probably not paranioa, Im sure it has been said that way, I suppose what you were describing about a minority of "oh I hate the english they stole our land and murdered us" works both ways as well, and I dislike those Englishmen that have that similar attitude.

I dunno bout the way your sports work, I like the fact that you have to be from a town or village to play in their team, does keep a lid on the stupid wages footballers etc. get elsewhere in Europe.

"I guess to summarize,in my opinion anyone who has to use a word or revert back 200-300 years as justification for hating someone-in modern times-when they don't even know that person/or people is pretty stupid.Just saying:-) "

I agree completly

It's interesting...

By reading some of your posts it seems that the more things change, the more they stay the same. No matter left or right, efforts for unity are still not as effective as hoped. Well, at least that what is evident through the internet anyway where people can be as candid as they would like.

Where are all the positive people!??!!!

As for accents 'snobby' or whatever, the English accent is my favorite. I'm still learning about all the different kinds of English accents so obviously, I am not a native Brit.
I'd rather have someone sound snobby and correct than ignorant and arrogant and with a huge chip on their shoulder.

I wouldn't say that there are any accents that I hate..we're all of different cultures and so that makes it an interesting world.


SO THERE

Hey, I thought I was pretty positive! ;P

Not being British, I don't have a lot to say about Celts, or any real opinion on the subject. To me, British people are all roughly the same in ethnicity, but of course, ethnicity is something everyone defines for themselves, right? So it's interesting to hear the various viewpoints.

The Guest above is moi, by the way. I try to be posotive, but often what I say gets taken out of context. I think Uriel hit the button square on, were no different to each other apart from the small stuff.

What's so special about Celtic???

Ah, it's a British thing, you wouldn't understand.... ;)

Just kidding, lu. It's just an ethnic group. I suppose it's special to people who belong to it, just as other ethnic groups are special to their members.

But since you're on an English forum, and English was invented in Britain, you'll hear Celtic and Anglo-Saxon and various opinions on them pop up from time to time.