The United Kingdom, by Felipe Martins Matos
A foreign student who has just moved in to Manchester goes to Piccadilly train station and needs to meet his friend in Stockport.
- Excuse me, is this train heading to Heaton Chapel Station?
- I hope so, otherwise I’ve got the wrong train – answers a typical English guy.
Yes, his English was fine, as was his pronunciation. No, the English guy wasn’t being rude. That’s dry humour and you must get used to it when being in the United Kingdom, your current home and the first country to be analyzed by this “Country Profile” section.
First of all, we need to clear up some things about this region. Be careful when talking about it because England, UK, Great Britain and Commonwealth, though, used regularly referring to same thing are a bit different from each other. England is the country where we are now, which shares the island of Great Britain, with Scotland and Wales. The United Kingdom, on the other hand, encompasses Great Britain and Northern Ireland. And, finally, the Commonwealth is an intergovernmental organization formed by fifty-four countries, where sixteen of those share the same Queen, Elizabeth II, between them UK, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.
Let’s stick to the UK, the actual object of this section. The sixth largest economy and most famous monarchy in the world is only the twenty-second biggest population and the eighth by area, showing how strong the UK’s economy is.
One of the greatest discussions in the UK is the construction of a high-speed railway connecting London to Edinburgh, through Birmingham, Liverpool, Manchester and Glasgow, reducing the travel time between those two cities in about two hours. As viable as it sounds, some parties claim that this railway is not that necessary and it would be a waste of money (the estimated cost of the stretch between London and Birmingham is of £15.8bn) in such a time where the world is going through an economic crisis.
Due to its great influence in the world during past centuries, the UK conquered lots of territories around the Earth, such as Australia, India, Pakistan, Egypt, South Africa, Nigeria, USA and Canada. Thus, forming a multicultural Kingdom and reflecting in the UK of nowadays, where there is not any more the typical feature of its citizens. A British person can be black or white; blonde, brunette or red-head; Asian, Arabian, African or American descendent.
Nevertheless, this fantastic quality given to the UK has been poorly managed by the consecutive governments. Some examples of it are that in 2010 a half of black young people were unemployed whereas 30% among Asians and 20% among whites. Moreover, the prejudice starts to concern the government after Anders Breivik, the guy who carried out the havoc attacks in Norway, claimed to be a part of a right-wing group held in London.
On the other hand, the UK is an amazing place to visit and live exactly because of those many cultures comprised in such a small territory, easing everybody’s adaptation into the English lifestyle. Some places you must visit are: London, one of cultural capitals in the world; Cardiff, with its castles; Liverpool, the hometown of the Beatles; Oxford, which lent its university to some parts of the Harry Potter movies; Edinburgh, the so-called Athens of the North; and Glasgow, the stone city. Enjoy your stay in this amazing country and, by the way, don’t worry you’ve caught the right train.
- Excuse me, is this train heading to Heaton Chapel Station?
- I hope so, otherwise I’ve got the wrong train – answers a typical English guy.
Yes, his English was fine, as was his pronunciation. No, the English guy wasn’t being rude. That’s dry humour and you must get used to it when being in the United Kingdom, your current home and the first country to be analyzed by this “Country Profile” section.
First of all, we need to clear up some things about this region. Be careful when talking about it because England, UK, Great Britain and Commonwealth, though, used regularly referring to same thing are a bit different from each other. England is the country where we are now, which shares the island of Great Britain, with Scotland and Wales. The United Kingdom, on the other hand, encompasses Great Britain and Northern Ireland. And, finally, the Commonwealth is an intergovernmental organization formed by fifty-four countries, where sixteen of those share the same Queen, Elizabeth II, between them UK, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.
Let’s stick to the UK, the actual object of this section. The sixth largest economy and most famous monarchy in the world is only the twenty-second biggest population and the eighth by area, showing how strong the UK’s economy is.
One of the greatest discussions in the UK is the construction of a high-speed railway connecting London to Edinburgh, through Birmingham, Liverpool, Manchester and Glasgow, reducing the travel time between those two cities in about two hours. As viable as it sounds, some parties claim that this railway is not that necessary and it would be a waste of money (the estimated cost of the stretch between London and Birmingham is of £15.8bn) in such a time where the world is going through an economic crisis.
Due to its great influence in the world during past centuries, the UK conquered lots of territories around the Earth, such as Australia, India, Pakistan, Egypt, South Africa, Nigeria, USA and Canada. Thus, forming a multicultural Kingdom and reflecting in the UK of nowadays, where there is not any more the typical feature of its citizens. A British person can be black or white; blonde, brunette or red-head; Asian, Arabian, African or American descendent.
Nevertheless, this fantastic quality given to the UK has been poorly managed by the consecutive governments. Some examples of it are that in 2010 a half of black young people were unemployed whereas 30% among Asians and 20% among whites. Moreover, the prejudice starts to concern the government after Anders Breivik, the guy who carried out the havoc attacks in Norway, claimed to be a part of a right-wing group held in London.
On the other hand, the UK is an amazing place to visit and live exactly because of those many cultures comprised in such a small territory, easing everybody’s adaptation into the English lifestyle. Some places you must visit are: London, one of cultural capitals in the world; Cardiff, with its castles; Liverpool, the hometown of the Beatles; Oxford, which lent its university to some parts of the Harry Potter movies; Edinburgh, the so-called Athens of the North; and Glasgow, the stone city. Enjoy your stay in this amazing country and, by the way, don’t worry you’ve caught the right train.