Hi!

I'm having English speaking exams soon and this is one of the questions I might be asked, I personally think this question is insanely weird because of how random it is for our class, we have never studied UK, and even if we did, how would we know what British people think of their country? We have never been to UK, and have never spoke to a resident of UK, so I think this question would have never had a reasonable answer from people that know barely anything about UK and it's residents

I know it's "share your opinion" kind of question, but I don't have an opinion on others people's opinions we haven't studied

So please, if it's not hard for you, help me by saying how would you describe your country?🙏

Thank you!

by oh_holy_no

39 comments

  1. Hey–English teacher here. It doesn’t matter what opinion you express, so long as you express it well. For example, it’s a good opportunity to show off the second conditional “If I were British, I would be proud of…”

  3. Well there’s options here. Which part of the UK and hoe many swear words

  7. “worst place on Earth, but I can’t complain” is the half joking answer. The other half of that is hours of complaining.

    But I’ll try to be more helpful, and actually more positive. There’s a lot we are proud of – our natural spaces (such as the Lake District), our cultural heritage (such as art, poetry, writing, science and engineering) and our plug sockets (seriously, the one thing we all agree on is that ours are the best in the world). We’re patriotic in a weird way, most of us love the country and so are deeply critical of it on a political level.

    We’re also very tribal. So people are very proud of where they’re from but (sometimes jokingly) make fun of other places similar to them. Most classically people from Manchester really dislike Liverpool.

  11. I’m actually sad that all the responses I’ve read are negative. Don’t get me wrong, of course there are times I feel like it’s a bit shit here but genuinely the majority of the time I’m blumming thankful to live in GREAT Britain!

  14. The more wordy the worse.

    “Class” or “Fucking class”

    “Wank” or “Total wank”

    Anything wordier than that and you must have asked some over opinionated bellend.

  17. You’re being way too negative about your country.

    Yes, it rains, there are rough estates and towns and it’s a bit sad seeing the old glory of times gone by in your big cities but nature is pretty (stunning), there are lovely mansions and gardens maintained by the National Trust, picturesque wee towns and villages to spend your holidays in and NHS (I know it’s in very bad shape, still many other countries can only dream of it).

    Don’t be so self-deprecating, travel more around the whole of UK and appreciate its beauty more.

  20. Not great but we are doing better than America. (as of now that would change if reform got in though and takes us down to a similar level America are at)

  21. As a British person myself I’d go with this:

    According to my research on Reddit British people would describe their country as a shithole full of cunts. They would however, take exception to a foreigner saying that.

  22. Which British people in particular? The ones who voted for Brexit or the ones who voted against it?

  23. Somehow small and vast at the same time. A place of both big ideas and small minds. Where hundreds of cultures, native and inherited, both blend and fracture. Where a scathing insult is an heartfelt endearment. Where a cup of tea is both a personal and social ritual. Where a wealth of history is both worn proudly and yet forgotten to our detriment. We are a country that encompasses a spectrum and a paradox. But, we are a country that despite its inability to agree on anything is still, somehow, will link arms in merry concensus on one simple fact:

    At least we aren’t American.

  29. Sort of triangular with a round bit on one side, sort of a backwards c shape on the other, and the top looks a bit like sideshow bob’s hair, kinda. The bottom left corner sticks out a bit more than the right.

  30. You know how Harry Potter feels when the dementors get close? It’s like that

  36. Difficult question, mostly because you can’t give a correct answer without a lot more swearing than is usually acceptable on a formal exam.

  37. I’m sorry but the only correct answer is “sarcastically”

  38. They hate it, but are utterly patriotic the moment a “foreigner” says anything negative. Ultimately they probably realise they are privileged to live in the UK, and accept very few people do anything to improve it (themselves included). It probably doesn’t help that the elected representatives seem intent on undermining the will of the people (regardless of the political party in power). Hard to get excited about anything, when the people running the country are either career politicians with no real world experience, or brown nosing cretins.

  39. Great plug sockets that we love talking about.

    You can go all alt right and complain about migrants a whole bunch.

    You can complain about trains being delayed, if it’s to hot, rains a tad more than usual, or there is a singular flake of snow. Also if a swan goes on the track it can’t be run over cause they all belong to the king, so swan on the train line means that train line is down forever. Yeah I’d go with the ranting about trains if that question comes up.

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