United Kingdom, Great Britain, England, Scotland, Ireland, Wales... CONFUSED???
Published 2018-12-04
NEXT, watch some of my other videos about life and customs in England and the UK:
1. DRINKING TEA IN ENGLAND: • Drinking tea in England
2. SHOPPING IN ENGLAND: • Shopping in England: Everything you n...
3. 3 POPULAR SLANG WORDS IN BRITISH ENGLISH: • 3 popular slang words in British English
4. THE BRITISH ROYAL FAMILY: • The British Royal Family: Everything ...
TRANSCRIPT
Hi, everyone. In this lesson we're going to look at the geography of the United Kingdom and we're also going to look at some culture related to all the different terms we use to describe Great Britain, England... All these different words, when do we use them? So we're going to break it down and look at that.
Let's start with the name. The official name is United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, but often we just say "UK" because it's such a long country name, so we just say UK. I drew a map. My map is not to scale. And I tried my best, but it was hard to do it with the pens on the board, so we're going to show you a correct map. We've got England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland. And the dotted line shows where Northern Ireland ends. This part is part of the United Kingdom; this part is not. More on that later.
So, the UK is a sovereign state or we could say a sovereign country. This means that they make all their own laws, and they govern themselves. So, the UK is a sovereign state or a sovereign country. But the reason that's confusing is that we... When we're talking or when we're describing a place in the world, we talk about Scotland, England, Wales, and Ireland as being countries. So, you think: "Is...? If the UK is a country, are Scotland, England, Wales, and Ireland also a country?" Well, they are, but they don't make their own laws. So, we have a word for it and we can call them "constituent countries". We can say England is a constituent country of the United Kingdom. We can say Scotland is a constituent country of the United Kingdom, etc. Okay.
Now it gets more confusing because when we're talking about the UK, we can say it's made up of those countries - Scotland, England, Wales, and Northern Ireland. We can also say it's made up of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. Great Britain is this land mass, this island shape, here; and Northern Ireland is part of the land mass, the island of Ireland. So, if we put this bit and this bit together, we get the United Kingdom.
Great Britain has three constituent countries. Remember, this is Great Britain, Scotland, England, and Wales make up Great Britain. Britain... Now we're getting smaller. This is Britain, England, and Wales. So, I can say: "I'm from Britain", because I'm from... I was born about here in London, so I can say: "I'm from Britain".
Now, we have another term called "The British Isles". The British Isles is a geographic term, so we use it to describe a place on the map. And the British Isles would include everything we see here. Actually, perhaps except these islands. These islands are called Jersey and Guernsey, and they're closer to France. But the British Isles could describe everything here in a geographic sense. And I wasn't able to draw all the islands, but there's actually over 6,000 islands up in Scotland, some down here as well. So, many, many islands.
But the trouble with that term, to say the British Isles is that some people in Ireland don't like that term to describe... To include them because it makes it sound like Ireland, it's British, even though Ireland is independent. Ireland is a sovereign country by itself. So some people object to calling this the British Isles.
If you do object to calling it the British Isles, you can say the North Atlantic-I can never say this word-Archipelago. Archipelago. And this means, like, collection of islands. And the place in the world is in the North Atlantic. Right. […]
All Comments (21)
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Can we just take a moment to appreciate that this was all done in one take? Even for native inhabitants, this is a seriously confusing subject. For example, I never knew Britain and Great Britain weren't synonyms.
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Jade has become my favorite in this channel. She's a genuine charm to teach, she's smart definitely my number 1.
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Also Scotland makes it's own laws!
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Thank you for making me find out answers to my questions about this confusing issue.
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Well, speaking as a citizen of a former British colony, I would have to say this video is very informative and opened my eyes to a lot of things I never realized before. British people no matter where they are from, England, Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland - have a lot to be proud of.
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that is a great and charm lesson, actually your channel is one of the most important channel here in YouTube. best wish for you,,
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love the way you explained such complex geography in a sweet and simple way .. appreciate your efforts as i learned a lot of new things which was unaware of.. thank you
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You're an excellent teacher. I greatly appreciate your work. Please keep it up!
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I’m 35 - just learned this today. Thank you!
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Thank you so much I learned a lot, your accents is a little bit hard for me understand, but it's good because I can learn much more, thank you again.
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Awesome, learned a lot about the UK :)
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I've had my Scottish pounds rejected by shops in London which was quite annoying.
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Thank you so much all the way from Richmond, Virginia. You broke it down perfectly. Now I just have to remember everything. Your students must love you.
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At 11:20 : THANK YOU, JADE. The naming of the Olympic team representing what I thought of as the United Kingdom was confusing to me. It seemed to be incorrect to name the team "Great Britain", since that is a geographic term, being the name of the largest island in the British isles archipelago. It seemed to be that it should be "team UK". However, it hadn't occurred to me what the situation was for athletes from Northern Ireland. Understanding a bit about the 20th century history of Ireland (the island), and how there came to be Northern Ireland, and the Republic of Ireland, it seems appropriate that athletes from Northern Ireland have the option to choose their team. Team GB seems a correct name.
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From this American : THANK YOU!!!! The UK is our closest ally, and our historical " motherland", yet this issue of names in context is not understood. You did a beautiful job explaining the political & cultural dimensions that encompass the entity that is the UK. The point about the name, used in the Olympics, cleared up confusion I used to have. Excellent!!!! 👍👍👍
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You're a perfect teacher of British Constitution. Congratulations! It would be great if you could add to your excellent lecture on Political Geography, lectures on British Government and Parlamentary procedures, as well as the British legal system (differences between English, Welsh and Scottish laws). Obviously in different videos. That would keep you busy for some time, but you're a very good lecturer. Thank you.
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This is the best explanation I've ever heard about this topic, thanks a lot.
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I found this video very interesting and informative. Jade is a good teacher. Being born and raised in The States, the terminology always confused me, such as England, Great Britain, the UK, The Commonwealth, et cetera. This video cleared out a considerable about of the confusion.
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Thank you for this effort! Much clearer explanation than many other videos. Ends somewhat abruptly. Thanks again. Much appreciated.
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Both good and interesting video. I am going to watch it once again. Greetings from México.
