Wednesday 2 February 2011

England, Great Britain and the UK. Do you know the difference?

The other day a friend of my daughter said: "I have lived in England for three years". " Have you?" I asked. "Yes," she said, "when we all lived in Scotland". The girl has just turned six, and I really do not blame her for not quite knowing the difference between England and Scotland. It is a fact, however, that quite many Norwegians do not know that England is only one of three countries in Great Britain, and that Northern Ireland is part of the United Kingdom and has Queen Elizabeth II as their head of state. I usually spend some time explaining this to my students, using the board and a map. Next time, however, I think I will play this video to them, simply because it explains it much better than I can do (even though he might consider making a new version where he speaks a bit slower...).