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At every point in a British person’s life, there comes that moment where you have to explain the difference between England, Britain, the UK and Ireland to a foreigner. It starts off with insufferable smugness as you point and laugh at their ignorance but then descends into total existential dread as you realise what an incredibly ridiculous, byzantine and unnecessarily convoluted system we’ve made for ourselves and we only have ourselves to blame for it.
Them: “So what’s the difference between England and Britain”?
Me: “England is a country that’s part of Britain. All English people are British but not all British people are English”
Them: “Ok but Britain and the UK are the same thing, right?”
Me: “No, Britain is the name of the island that includes England, Scotland and Wales. Northern Ireland is part of the UK but not Britain. We are all citizens of the UK which officially stands for the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. The name of the actual sovereign country that issues passports and is represented at the UN is the UK”
Them: “But I thought you said England was the name of the country not the UK”
Me: “No, the UK is a country made up of four different…ummm…*countries* in a union of…countries united together to form one single country 😐 stfu it makes total sense to us why can’t foreigners ever seem to get it right it’s not that hard”
Them: “Ah ok I think I get it now. So English people are British…”
Me: “Yes.”
Them: “…And *Scottish* people are British…”
Me: “Yes.”
Them. “…And *Welsh* people are British…”
Me: “Correct”
Them: “…But Northern Irish people aren’t British because they’re from the UK but not part of Britain?”
Me: “Yyy…well, um…sort…no…well…it’s ummm….a bit complicated so can we not?”
*Boring*
It’s my birthday today, so I fulfilled a teenage weeb trash dream and got myself a can of cold coffee from a vending machine just like in the millions of animes I watched as a kid. I even used cash for maximum effect. It was nice.
Today I learned that in Japan you get on the bus in the middle and get out on the front. If you are in rural Japan where busses operate with cash, there’s a table which shows how much you have to pay depending on where you get on the bus, so you pay while leaving by dropping cash in the box. The driver has no idea where you got on or how much you paid, so you just have to be honest. Don’t try to pay in advance like I did and scare the poor guy.
Also, in addition to seats ferries have areas where you can take your shoes off and sit or recline on the carpet floor. It’s sooo nice.