they often mean Great Britain. There are three countries in Great Britain – England, Scotland and Wales; and each country is very different from the others. If you tell a Scotsman or a Welshman that he’s English, he gets very angry!
England’s one of the few countries in the world that haven’t got a national costume. The bowler hat isn’t a national costume: it’s what the Englishman wears when he goes to his office; and it’s worn much less today then it was forty years ago. There aren’t many old English songs and dances, either: the English enjoy music much less than the Welsh and the Scottish.
The Scottish national costume is the kilt. The Scottish don’t wear it every day: only at important times. And the answer to the question that everybody asks is. . . No, the men don’t wear pants under their kilts!
Scottish music’s played on bagpipes, and there are a lot of Scottish dances that are danced to this music. The most important day of the year for a Scotsman is the thirty-first of December, when all the families have big parties, dance all night. . . And drink a lot of whisky!
The Scottish are usually shorter than the English! and a lot of them have got red hair. Always remember to call them Scottish. They’ll tell you that only whisky’s called Scotch.
The Welsh are quiet people who enjoy music and poetry. Every year, thousands of Welsh people meet for a week to listen to poetry and the music of the harp. At this time, they put on their national costume. The women wear tall, black hats and long dresses, and the men wear short jackets and wide trousers. The Welsh are very good singers, and each town’s got a large choir.
A lot of Welsh people speak two languages – English and Welsh. They write their poetry in Welsh and watch Welsh television. Some Scottish people who live in the North of Scotland and on the Scottish islands also speak two languages – English and Gaelic. Both Welsh and Scottish people speak English with accents, and it’s possible that you won’t understand them: a lot of English people don’t!
The Union jack isn’t the flag of Great Britain: it’s the flag of the United Kingdom. The United Kingdom is English, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland; and the Union jack’s made of the English, Scottish and Irish flags. People from all four countries have the same passport, the same Queen and the same government. But each country likes to think it’s got the best footballers!