How do you define being british?

Question

It's complicated because we have english culture, welsh culture, scottish and northern irish. We also have Britain's ethnic minorities as a legacy of its empire. I personally consider myself a british citizen of african-carribean descent. But I'm british first.

Answer 1

Favourite answer

if you are brought up in Britian, you will have absorbed British culture good and bad, we all came from somewhere else (ice covered Britian) so whatever your ethnic origin,if you were raised here, work here and are going to die here then your British

Answer 2

I don't think just being born in Britain makes you British. For example, if you were born in Britain, and when you were about 2 your parents emigrated to America with you and you were brought up there, I would consider you to be an American.

I think that you have to grow up in Britain to be British, if your earliest memories are of Britain and you grew up here, then I'd say that you had the right to call yourself both British, and whatever ethnic minority you happen to be.

I also think how you personally think of yourself is important. I knew someone who had lived here their whole life, but was ethnically (not sure if that's a word) from Sicily, and they didn't think of themselves as British at all. So if someone doesn't think of themselves as British, then their not.

I don't think someone who moves here when they've grown up can be British though, because British culture hasn't been an influence on them while they were becoming the person they are today.

Answer 3

Being born in Britain makes you British. All this "Britishness" talk however is rubbish, it's a new concept, there's no one trait that defines Britishness and it didn't even exist before the 17/1800s when England and Scotland had different monarchs. English is different to Scottish is different to Welsh is different to Northern Irish, and we're all British in the same way that we're all European.

The EU motto "United in Diversity" applies as much to the UK specifically as it does to Europe as a whole.

Answer 4

the people of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland

language of ancient Britons: the language spoken by the ancient Celtic people who lived in southern Britain

http://encarta.msn.com/encnet/features/dictionary/...

British is the adjective and demonym associated with Great Britain and the United Kingdom. It may refer to:

People

British people, or Britons, citizens of the United Kingdom, of the Isle of Man, one of the Channel Islands, or of one of the British overseas territories, and their descendants

Britons (historical), ancient Celtic inhabitants of the southern portion of the island of Great Britain

British nationality law, which governs the citizens of the United Kingdom, the Channel Islands and the British Crown dependencies

Language

British English, the forms of the English language used in the United Kingdom

British language (Celtic), also known as Brythonic, the ancient Celtic language once spoken in Britain, ancestral to Welsh, Cornish and Breton

Geography

British Isles, are a group of islands off the northwest coast of continental Europe that include Great Britain, Ireland and over six-thousand smaller islands

British Islands, a legal term describing the United Kingdom, the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man, collectively

British Empire, the dominions, colonies, protectorates, mandates, and other territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom

http://www.answers.com/topic/british

Answer 5

If you were born in Britain and you have a British citizenship then you're British. You're effectively asking someone how they define their nationality. You're not expected to encompass every corner of your country of nationality in the way you feel. Someone from New York doesn't know what it's like to be from Alabama. Actually in the UK we're more united despite having constituent countries than the USA because we have common law.

To Dewey I bet you're an obese illiterate f*ck.

Answer 6

British means of the country Britian. British is not an ethnicity but specifying the country you were born and probably raised in

Answer 7

If you support British troops or British football team against an injust aggressor which unfortunately seldom happens. I am a briton of Pakistani descent.

Source(s): Media, history

Answer 8

this is the problem. in europe you have ethnics (such as ethnic germans ethnic dutch) but in britain you have english, scottish, welsh and northern irish.

im British and English!

Answer 9

Being born in Great Britain.

Answer 10

What it should be - is like one putting themselves up for 'adoption' and being 'British' should include being a Protestant Christian and being into "God bless our gracious Queen". - an 'extended family' matter. [ a future for some ] Good thing Jesus is due soon - one 'generation' doesn't last all that long.

When we stop the accelerated and extended "global warming" the Sahara should become fertile again.

Whose finger in who's 'pie' already.