"Shez" <UseReplyAddress@nospam.uk.invalid> wrote in message
news:ghLW9WMRVJSBFwYz@zerex.nospam.co.uk...
> In the faraway land of sci.lang.japan, Musashi <Miyamoto@Hosokawa.co.jp>
> said:
> >> Hmm. So you're saying that the British are not Europeans?
> >
> >Yes and No. If we are speaking strictly in a geographical sense, then
> >obviously British are
> >Europeans. But if we are talking about "how a people or nation perceives
and
> >calls themselves"
> >then I have met plenty of British people who rather pride themselves in
> >being "British or English"
> >and consider themselves seperate from those on the "continent". Perhaps
this
> >has somtehign to
> >do with being an island country, in which case it is understandable that
a
> >similar type of mentality
> >would have developed in Japan.
>
> Yes, Britain and Japan are very much alike in this respect, and indeed
> in many aspects of their historical relations with our continental
> neighbours - wars, invasions, cultural & linguistic influences (e.g. the
> adoption of the Roman alphabet in Britain and Kanji in Japan, along with
> a lot of loan words from what was otherwise an unrelated language). Both
> were even saved from invasion by a divine wind that dispersed an
> invading fleet, IIRC.
>

Finally someone who understands this.
I've never had much reception to this idea from
my American friends.