Item — HN Reader

"I studied engineering in Europe. When I went to Boston or London to work it was like I was the boss or something because I was much better prepared than Americans or British."

What do you mean by "I studied engineering in Europe"? London is in Europe.

2 comments

I work in London. The natives here consider the UK as a separate entity from Europe. They talk about the mainland as Europe, and compare themselves to "Europeans", not to "other Europeans". This is the British culture of "us vs them", or "we are too good to be associated with you" that I live in now :P

I understand that in the campaigns for upcoming elections, some parties pledge to arrange a referendum about whether UK should stay in Europe, or float across the Atlantic.

Reminds me of the perhaps apocryphal Times headline:

Fog In Channel Continent Cut Off

That's a bit different though. It's typical in Ireland and the UK to refer to mainland Europe as 'the continent', whether they consider themselves European or not. The likes of the Faroe Islands, Iceland, Cyprus, Malta, the Channel Islands, &c. wouldn't be considered part of 'the continent', though some might consider the Mediterranean islands to be 'continental'. 'Continental Europe' is not the same thing as 'the continent of Europe', but a subset of it that excludes its island parts.

This is not unlike the way that the 48 contiguous states of the US are considered 'the continental US'.

Frankly, I find the attitude of some English people towards the continent and Europe as a whole to be somewhat silly.

That one is classic.

You weren't shocked by the low status of Engineers in the UK.

"What do you mean by «I studied engineering in Europe»? London is in Europe."

I understand your objection, but on the other hand there is also a reason of compacting the message sent across that may work for other European countries too. Instead of saying "somewhere outside my country, but here in Europe nevertheless", it goes just "in Europe" taking the speaker's location as a relying context (opposed to "in here", as "in this country").