Where You From?

“Hello. Welcome. Where you from?”

How often have we heard that on our travels? Literally, hundreds of times. It might be a barman, or someone about to tempt you into their shop, offer their services as a guide, or someone just plain being friendly, but it’s the opening gambit for all manner of introductions. Once we English have answered, the next question is usually….

“Oh, England! Where? London? Manchester?” 

Although for one brief summer a few years back and for reasons which possibly only the English will understand, it was…

“Oh, England! Where? London? Leicester?”

A while ago, at the start of a long haul flight, we heard two people behind us introducing themselves to each other, an Aussie girl and a British guy. The usual question came from the girl, but the guy’s answer interested us.

“The UK’”, he said, and at that moment something dawned on us: we would never even think of replying “the UK” to that question. We would always – have always, probably will always – say “England”. I wonder why that is. What does that say about us? That we consider ourselves English rather than British – let alone European, one might add – is that it? We don’t have an answer, it was only when we heard that guy’s response that we realised we always answered that way.

Equally, if you ask, for instance, a Swede where they’re from, they will say Sweden; ask an Aussie, they’ll say Australia. Ask an American though, and they rarely say “the USA”, instead, they’ll will usually reply with their home state. “Where you from?” “Tennessee” or “New York State” or “Massachusetts” will be the answer.

Once we’ve established that we’re English and the follow-up, more specific, question, comes, we will always say, “about one hour from London”. It isn’t strictly true but it saves quoting a city which they won’t have heard of and then having to draw a map of where it is. 

The football question usually comes next in this sequential introduction process.

“Which team? Chelsea? Manchester United? City?”

“Ah”, I will say, “my team is at second level, not in Premier League”, thereby avoiding another convoluted discussion which leads nowhere. Let’s not bother bud, just take me inside your shop, it’s easier.

Only once has anyone asked why we said England rather than Britain, and all I could think of on the spur of the moment was to say that, if I’d said Britain, they might have thought I was Welsh, and you wouldn’t want that, would you. It was a joke of course. I think it was, anyway.

I wonder what would happen if we pretended we are Dutch. Would they say, “Oh, Dutch! Where? Amsterdam? Rotterdam?”. I suspect not.

Any road up, we will no doubt continue to respond England rather than UK. I don’t know why, we just will.