For those of you who don't know me, I was born and brought up in Bonnie Scotland, brought up in Glasgow city, Scotland's largest city. I am a very proud and patriotic Scot. I have lived in Glasgow nearly my whole life, let's just make it simple and say, I have lived in Scotland my entire life. We are a nation of proud people, and as everyone would recognise us Scots for, is our unique identity by either accent or how we talk. You could ask anyone and they should know that Scotland has it's own distinct dialect, practically it's own unique way of speaking. Perhaps a large influence basing off from Scandinavian, Gallic and English in general. I have always been a person who has been fascinated with accents and I adore different various different accents, even those from different parts of Scotland. I suppose it's all due to the fact that I grew up in Glasgow, and I'm too used to hearing my own people talk from my own city.
For years I have came across ignorance, largely coming from people from the United States of America, why? Simply because we speak our own dialect. It some what pisses me off and has done for quite a while. In fact, you ask many Scots what they hate the most, they will tell you the wrong stereotyping of our accent, the ignorance of certain people. I cannot count the many times I have come across certain Americans who have came across and said "Speak English, no one understands what you're saying". I think the irony of that is the fact that many people from foreign countries across Europe, that don't speak English as a first language, can understand perfectly fine what I'm saying. This indicates to me that it's not that they don't understand, it's that they're completely ignorant. I mean there has been times I've said simple sentences with words like 'tae' for 'to' and the response surprisingly that's came back to me, is that they don't understand what I'm saying?
To be honest with you, it's not just myself, but Scotland in general. Our people are absolute sick and tired of American people like that. And I'm not generalising all Americans with the one brush, because that's clearly not the case. In fact, I know a lot of Americans who adore the Scottish accent and how we talk. I generally love how Americans talk and sound, in fact I do love the American people, so in a sense when you come across people like that, it becomes disheartening and makes you think twice at times. The sad thing is, I've not just came across a few of them that have came out with that type of ignorance, but quite a number of them. But one thing I do have to bare in mind is the fact that, the country has a population of 300 million. That's no excuse though, because even although Scotland has a population of 5 million people, you'd have to go through at least a thousand Scots to come across real ignorance, and I think that shows a difference.
Of course I'm not saying Scotland is perfect, oh believe me, it certainly isn't perfect, and I'm not speaking as if our people are simply better, because that's clearly not the case. I was speaking to a friend on YouTube and she told me that people asked her where she was from, and she said 'Scotland', they then asked 'Where's Scotland?'. There's no chance people could be as stupid as that, not a chance in hell. We all know that Scotland is part of the United Kingdom, are they seriously trying to say they don't know where the United Kingdom is on a map? Because if they don't, they seriously need help BADLY! Which again, this resorts back to nothing other than just pure plain ignorance. I'll fire off some other examples of plain ignorance:
"I remember my mum telling me a story about an American visiting Scotland in the 60's and saying (imagine American Accent here) "Oh wow I didn't realise that you had electricity and runnning water in Scotland!"
I don't know about you, but the fact a certain American didn't realise we had electricity and running water in Scotland, can you not hear alarm bells ringing? I mean seriously, is this person seriously that stupid, or are they trying to just degrade our country for the sake of it? Here's another one
"The one that took the biscuit was lately when again I was working as a cashier. A woman asked where I was from (they still ALL ask) and she proceeded to tell me she was a high school teacher. I asked what she taught and she said English as a Second Language. She described her job and how challenging it is for her poor Mexican students to learn English - then she added - "of course, you'd know how difficult that it is" - I said "excuse me?" and she clarified - "you know how difficult it is to learn English from when you had to". My jaw slammed onto the floor and I picked it up informing her that I can't speak any other language - just English!! I guess my argument was too complex for her to grasp because she left the store still going on about how well I spoke English!!!!"
I think that just about says it all and why I make this blog, why I had spoken my mind about it in a light hearted manner. And believe me, it's been light hearted. I mean that last example really throws it off, just think what any Scottish person would think reading that, not just myself, but so many other Scots that would growl with the ignorance in that quote. I must remind you however, that not all Americans are like that, a lot of them are really nice people and wouldn't put themselves across in that manner, but you can understand the frustration and why certain Scots would certainly hate Americans.
I often get asked the question though, "Do Scottish people hate Americans?" I would say no! Scottish people in general love the American people. Yes there are certain Scots who hate Americans, but I'd say they are more than willing to give Americans a chance if they bump into them on the streets of Scotland, they wouldn't talk to them ignorantly. I think it's the stereotypes that's the problem and with the examples above, you can more than understand why. From what I have researched, American people have more or less said that when they've went home, they regarded Scottish people as very friendly and loved Scotland. That to me signifies that our people haven't mistreated them, just because they're American.
Why are these certain Americans so ignorant towards our country, what have we done to them? Is it because they feel the whole world hates on them, that they see the rest of the world as a target to dish out ignorance to? But here's the thing, there's a reason why the country is hated, and instead of looking at themselves as the problem, they point the blame elsewhere. I will also say, it's very unfair that people stereotype Americans all with the one brush and that the people are often labelled because of the corruption of the US Government. I think it's fair to say that both the US and British Government's are very much corrupt. Like I would say to my own people, "sure there's a lot of ignorant folk over in America, but there are certainly a lot of wonderful people over there, it's just a case of overlooking these certain ignorant fools".
I have several friends who are from the United States of America, I love them to bits, I think they're absolutely wonderful people, people I treasure in life. They're some of the most friendliest, non-parochial, open minded individuals I could've came across, which proves that the stereotypes aren't all true. Maybe true to certain 'individuals', but not everyone.
Of course, there is also a problem in England with Scotland, but I would put that down to certain nationalist fools who are just anti-Scottish for whatever reason. But even with England, like America, there are actually a lot of wonderful people down south. I have no intention of offending either country. I mean I could sit here and run down my own country for it's problems to do with football and sectarianism that resides in Scotland and is a massive problem in our society, but that's a different story.
What is so difficult about respecting people for the different way that they speak? Even if they speak a foreign language and can't speak English one hundred percent, it doesn't mean that someone should be ignorant to them. If I can't understand what someone is saying, I'll ask politely and look to try and understand them, without ignorance, neither is better than the other and just because I speak English as a first language, doesn't mean I'm better than another. Now of course I speak Scottish with a strong Scottish Dialect. My Scottish dialect is pretty strong because I grew up in Glasgow's east end. But these ignorant fools should learn to respect the fact that in Scotland, we have a pride for the way we talk, it's our own unique identity, it's what makes us Scottish and it is who we are.
Bare this in mind, my country fought long and hard for it's independence, against a country where the modern English language originates from. A lot of us Scots are proud for the way we talk. I mostly talk proper, or near to proper English than what I usually do when it comes to talking to people who are not from my country. It's pretty obvious why I would, because then it helps them better understand me of course. I wouldn't expect foreigners to understand slang Glaswegian or other Scots dialect, however, when you have someone who cannot understand simple Scottish dialect that's nearer to proper English, then it becomes evident that there is pure ignorance involved.
I will say however, that regardless of these people, and knowing the friends I have from the United States, I won't hate Americans due to the number of ignorant folk I come across. I simply will never let them cloud my judgement of the country itself. So all in all, it inspired me to make Scottish translation videos, to help people better understand Scottish dialect, which I hope remains helpful for people either visiting Scotland or for whatever reason, look to learn the Scottish accent.
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