What and Who is English

[brooksy 10]

Ithink your missing the point to be honest.Earlier people were saying if your born in a country then thats your country.My point is or was that ,ie Cliff Richards born in India is no more Indian than im a vulcan. Ok

[Bago 10]

brooksy: Shall I save you, or shall I not ?

 

liquid_pig: Anyway, hope you're not too overtly offended there Liquid_Pig. It's a bit of an 'in-joke' between myself and Brooksy here on what is defined as 'English'.

 

Please see this previous thread to which this whole thread was based on.

http://www.sheffieldforum.co.uk/showthread.php?t=108923&page=11

[likklesoph* 10]

i am english, i am a yorkshire lass born and bred and very pround ov it 2! xxxxxx

[Joanl 12]

My son is English but was born in Singapore. I am English as was his father.

His birth certificate says he is British by notification. I was in a Service Hospital.RAF Changi.

He now lives in Japan where he is known as the English man.

[Jabberwocky 46]

In response to the Are the English a dying breed? thread, I thought Id start a thread about exactly what it is or means to be English, but it appears that the subject was started a while ago.

 

Anyway, its worth a bump just to see if opinions have changed or if there are any new slants on the subject.

[Conspirator 10]

First question) Nothing but a concept

 

Second Question) Absolutely no-one, unless they believe themselves to be

 

[flamingjimmy 10]

Ithink your missing the point to be honest.Earlier people were saying if your born in a country then thats your country.My point is or was that ,ie Cliff Richards born in India is no more Indian than im a vulcan. Ok

 

Yeah my dad was born in Peking and his first language was chinese. And he, like me, doesn't like to call himself English, or Chinese for that matter, we are humans, citizens of the world, or something else similarly queer-sounding, who happen to live in England, which happens to be part of Britain.

[boyfriday 21]

On the other thread people are saying anyone born here is English whatever there crede.If i was Chinese for example i would class my kids has being chinese.

Don't you think it's the view of the children that's important Broosky and how they would describe themselves? Their experiences will be very different from those of their parents so they may see themselves differently.

If my parents were living in France and i was born there would that make me French if we returned home immediatley???

 

Again, it's how you would choose to describe yourself. If you'd only lived in France for a short period of time and returned home, then you might not consider yourself as being French, even if you were born there.

 

I know people who have lived a lifetime on the Continent who consider themselves still English, but their children feel very much part of the host culture and might respond differently, it's only a problem to those who seek to append labels to them.

[Warden 10]

Yeah my dad was born in Peking and his first language was chinese. And he, like me, doesn't like to call himself English, or Chinese for that matter, we are humans, citizens of the world, or something else similarly queer-sounding, who happen to live in England, which happens to be part of Britain.

 

Well precisely.

 

Who cares about what and who is English? What is the point?

[pk014b7161 11]

This royal throne of kings, this sceptred isle,

This earth of majesty, this seat of Mars,

This other Eden, demi-paradise,

This fortress built by Nature for herself

Against infection and the hand of war,

This happy breed of men, this little world,

This precious stone set in the silver sea,

Which serves it in the office of a wall

Or as a moat defensive to a house,

Against the envy of less happier lands,—

This blessed plot, this earth, this realm, this England.

King Richard II. Act ii. Sc. 1.

[Jabberwocky 46]

Well precisely.

 

Who cares about what and who is English? What is the point?

 

A lot of people seem to care though, to them its more than the piece of land theyre standing on- I dont understand it myself and dont think I ever will because to me, the human race is all the same physically apart from differing amounts of melanin under the skin.

 

There appears to be far more than a racial thing going on though even though it could easily be mistaken for racism, theres a cultural thing going on, among others.

 

Its an interesting subject.

[angle20 10]

But who and what is English? Is it colour (no racism please), just living in England or is English classing yourself English before your religion or the country your or your parents was born?

 

 

A definitive answer for you:

 

The English are a national origin racial group (established by the 2001 BBC Scotland v Souster employment case in the Scottish Court of Session).

 

The English of England are all those persons resident in England who actually or by belief are the descendants of the peoples who first created themselves as the English, those peoples being the pre-1066 population of the geographical area known as England, together with all other persons who have over the centuries since 1066 whether by integration or by merger or by amalgamation or by adoption or similar become part of said descendants such that they are not recognised by themselves or by the said descendants or by the Laws of England or by any part or emanation of the UK State as being members of a group distinct or distinguishable or discernible or separate in any manner whatsoever from the said descendants.

 

In English law a person is 100% of a racial group if that person:

(a) believes that he or she is a member; and

(b) other members of the racial group accept that he or she is a member; and

© that person is not also a member of a similar type racial group by virtue of the tests at (a) and (b) above.