Dear US Postal Service (and your staff),
Here’s a quick guide to the United Kingdom (AKA Great Britain, British Isles, UK or GB — yes, many names, and not all meaning the same thing).
If I’m sending a parcel to England, it’s England in Great Britain. If I’m sending a parcel to Wales, it’s Wales in Great Britain. Same for Scotland.
Great Britain is made up of England, Wales, Scotland. Those countries plus Northern Ireland come together to form the United Kingdom. Imagine them as four states forming the USA.
When I bring in my parcel, neatly addressed to my friends in Wales, Great Britain and you write ENGLAND across the bottom, you are wrong. And you make me look like an idiot. I can just imagine what people must think – Ha! Lorna’s been in California so long she’s forgotten that Wales isn’t part of England!
And please don’t lecture me across the post office counter that I have addressed my parcel incorrectly.
I am from the United Kingdom, Great Britain, British Isles, UK or GB. I know the name of my country and how to write it on a parcel.
Can you imagine if you were sending a parcel to Vermont and I wrote Vermont, NEW YORK on it? Would that make sense? No.
So when I send a parcel to Wales or Scotland, please don’t write ENGLAND across the bottom. And I beg of you, please listen to me when I try and tell you it’s wrong. I’ve got that whole funny accent thing going on so maybe you should think I know what I’m talking about.
After all, I am both English and Welsh and from United Kingdom, Great Britain, British Isles, UK or GB.
Is that clear enough?
Yours truly,
Calif Lorna
Newport Beach,
California
NEW YORK
{ 20 comments }
Lechud Da! too true.
Please! Give petty bureaucratic tyrants the only freedom they have! The freedom to make bad mistakes and then insult customers.
Love this post!!! So funny! Honestly, the average American’s understanding of geography is almost unbelievable. And I thought I was bad enough…
Love it! Yes, always lots of confusion here about whether I am British, English or from the UK. (But I am definitely not Welsh……)
Wait, you’re both English and Welsh? Then that proves that England is the same thing as Walesland. Silly girl!
Hmmm. As an expat of sorts and a geography buff, I feel your pain. But I think there are a couple of possibilities here::
1) Parcels must be routed out of the US to other countries. Couldn’t it be that writing “England” on a package helps the sorters at the main USPS hubs route it more efficiently? After all it’s likely that all packages for Wales and Scotland go through the same funnel as those going to England.
2) I do data entry for the NY State Dept. of Tax and Finance. The standardized country code for all of Great Britain and, indeed, the UK, is “EN”. AFAIK that code is given to us by the USPS.
PS The codes for countries are different from internet domains because of clashes. For instance, to the USPS the code DE means Delaware, not Deutschland.
Very funny. And I love the sign off.
LCM x
London
UK
Isle of Wight
You’re completely right, but you’re also trying to sweep back the sea with a stick. Americans know with certainy that they speak English, use English weights and measures and they’re pretty darned sure that they beat the English in the war of independence. They have us beat by sheer weight of numbers, resistance is futile. The only way we will ever do away with these mistakes and take back our national identity is to rename our country, so everyone will be forced to re-learn it. Right, it’s not gonna happen – so the best we can do is to make like Tom the cabin boy in ‘Captain Pugwash’… smile and say nothing
This has pained me for too long. The thing is when US citizens use the term “England” on the whole they don’t seem to actually mean England… they seem to MEAN the United Kingdom.
(Note to pedants: yes, if they’re pointedly not including Northern Ireland, then they mean Great Britain).
But I’m certain that this is why they end up thinking that Scotland and Wales are in England. Because if “England” in US English describes a geopolitical entity which everyone else describes as “the UK”, then the aforementioned Kingdom and Principality ARE actually a part of it.
If you showed most US citizens a REAL MAP OF ENGLAND, they wouldn’t recognise it. So in common US understanding, England is an unknown concept – effectively it doesn’t exist. The UK does exist, but it’s called “England”.
I blame US TV. I also blame the teachers. But most of all, I blame the parents.
This is so funny! I say the UK, but I had wondered about it and never looked into it. I’m French but have lived in Australia for over 15 years and I thought England was the translation of Angleterre which I thought meant the UK… So I am glad to have learn something today.
One USPS employee told me that it had to be United Kingdom, not UK, as addresses are read by machine, and the machines aren’t programmed to read UK. I didn’t believe that.
Re Alan L’s comment, I have to disagree. I think the English are the worst culprits. I am English, and when we moved to Scotland, I was shocked at how often I referred to “English” when I meant “British”. I’d never noticed before, but of course it started showing up. If I said “we English do this”, it was a statement of difference, when I usually meant it to mean “we all do this”.
I make a point now of using British/Britain (and I’m guessing it might be a bit irritating sometimes to my blog readers – perhaps it comes across as pedantic).
It’s not really fair to blame the Americans for something that we get wrong ourselves. I know a lot of Brits don’t know the difference between GB and UK.
Lovely to have found your blog. Very funny post. Made me smile and remember a holiday I went on where I met a couple from northern England, who told me that Scotland (where I am from) was not a country, but a part of England. Tried to tell them that no, it was in fact an actual country in it’s own right, but they were having none of it. That was me told.
Yours Englishly,
Fiona
This is like a firend of mine wanting me to bring back chocolates from Sweden. “Isn’t that what they are famous for?” I think she meant Switzerland.
I admit I am sniggering a bit at the thought of you having a big shout at the USPS person (maybe you should take a map next time?), but I’m totally with you on the irritation.
Except that I’m also with Iota, because we (the English) do, shamefully, do it too. Like Iota, until I married a Scot I had no idea how often I said “England” when I meant “the UK” or “English” when I meant “British”. Now I am not only married to him, but also live North of the Border (note, it’s a BORDER, that means a different country; if it was a county boundary they’d call it that….) I too bridle every time I hear others (including my parents, all the blinking time) do the same thing. It’s one of those tiny things that isn’t offensive at all, until you realise it is….
ps my parents-in-law, when sending us postcards, always just put “Scotland” or “Ecosse” (they’re in France at the moment as it happens). No GB, no UK, no nothing. Everything’s got here so far….
Oh em gee! For real? It’s such a good thing they’ve started teaching world geography over there in the schools again isn’t it?
It may well be that they write ENGLAND on the package because that’s the destination of the aeroplane. Packages destined for Wales invariably arrive at Heathrow. So from the USPS perspective, their internal destination actually IS England.
yeah nice
I typed in “Why isn’t Wales just part of England?” and came up with this, I enjoyed reading everyone’s posts. I live in California, and looking at a British Isles map, I just didn’t see why the 2 countries would be separate. States I can see, but not “countries.” Same with Scotland. All my ancestors are English, Irish and Scottish, hence my interest in the UK. Your post actually taught me a good bit, thank you
@Ellen – the constituent ‘countries’ of the ‘United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland’ are actually a lot more like US states than independent countries. It’s the same currency, same language (for the most part, although Wales, Scotland and Ireland do have their own languages), free transit (no border control). We have central government in Westminster and regional subordinate government in Scotland and Wales. Administratively, it’s a lot like US states. The reason for the ‘country’ designation I would guess is deeply historical and linked with the way the union was formed. The sense of national identity is also stronger between the UK’s ‘countries’ than it is between US states, I think (I’ve lived in both and this is my perception).
When I was going through my US citizenship process I handed a form in to an INS agent; under nationality I had written ‘British’ and she with a stare and a flourish crossed it out and wrote ‘English’. I’ve been here for 15 years so I know not to cross the INS – but this seems to back your point up perfectly!! I have a brilliant youtube clip that explains UK/British/English confusion and differences perfectly. When I get a minute to myself today (ha!) I will post it to my blog and link back to you.
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