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Question for the British,Europeans and Austrianlians....

J

jakochampolska

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Jul 31, 2005
324
0
Candians are welcomed too :)
I have a question for people outside the US.
So..

Did you guys ever have to stand up every morning at school and say a "Pledge of Allegiance" to your country's flag? Or sing the national anthem with your whole class every morning?
 
From England ......

Never. Not once, through all of the tires of education here. Never had to take an oath of allegiance to anything either.
 
Brit here.

No on both counts, unsurprisingly. We did have to recite the Lord's Prayer every morning in assembly though.
 
No, never. I've never had to sing the National Anthem at school either. I think I've sung it less than 5 times in my life, to be honest.
 
Nope... at my Catholic primary, we said the Lord's Prayer.

At international soccer/rugby matches, they play the anthem but they don't do the huge Stars and Stripes piece that they do in the US at football games with giant flags, fly-bys and choirs/guest stars. In fact, since I'm Scottish, they don't play God Save the Queen either - it's usually 'Flower of Scotland' which isn't the greatest even if it has become a de facto anthem.
 
Nope. Not once, ever.

The only time you might see a group of us en masse signing the national anthem (or more to the point, the British national anthem, because England doesn't have an official anthem of its own) is when the national team is playing football or rugby, or similar. And then it's painfully apparent that none of us actually know any of it past the first verse... :eek:
 
Canada here.

Nope, not ever, never ever once. Had to say the Lord's Prayer back when in primary school and churches ran the schools, but they abolished that a decade ago and put school in the hands of the provinces. I'm from Newfoundland too, so likely the rest of Canada did away with it a long time before we did.
 
DeSnousa said:
It's Australians ;)

In primary school we had to sing the national anthem once a week in assembly, but after primary, we did not.
Click to expand...

Well -- following on from Jaffa Cake's totally correct observation that none of us Brits know anything after, at most, the first verse, any chance that you could let us know what the whole thing is about? Does Waltzing Matilda (or whatever it is) come into it? :confused:
 
UKnjb said:
...none of us Brits know anything after, at most, the first verse...:
Click to expand...
I do know that the second verse of God Save The Queen contains the fantastic line "Frustrate their knavish tricks", but beyond that I'm lost. :eek:

I reckon though I could still sing more of it than most of England's starting eleven this summer, though...
 
Jaffa Cake said:
"Frustrate their knavish tricks"
Click to expand...

Try singing that line when you're a bit pi$$ed --. :)

Thanks for the info - I never knew that! I was well into the la la la stage by then.
 
Jaffa Cake said:
And then it's painfully apparent that none of us actually know any of it past the first verse... :eek:
Click to expand...

Just as well since there's a phrase about 'Rebellious Scots to crush' in one of the later verses which likely wouldn't go down well since it is supposed to the Great British anthem :D

I do know all 3 verses to Flower of Scotland alarmingly although it's the first and third ones which are sung at games. The first time being, IIRC, at the 1990 Scotland v England Grand Slam decider (which I was at) and which Scotland, despite being massive underdogs, won :D I prefer Scots Wha Hae which is a a bit livelier and more traditional if you want to sing or just Scotland the brave. Flower of Scotland is a little dirgelike
 
DeSnousa said:
In primary school we had to sing the national anthem once a week in assembly, but after primary, we did not.
Click to expand...


Must have been an internal school policy because I never had to do it. I don't know the words but I think there's something about a beach in it.

Meh, patriotism is so 1800s.
 
Norway here. Never a pledge of allegiance, and the national anthem isn't a part of a regular school day, no.

Lots of Norwegians and almost all Norwegian children sing the national anthem on the national day (17th of May), and children in school will usually practice the anthem in preparation for the national day.
 
Never at school and whenever we pledge allegiance here we always refer to 'the' Queen' not 'our' Queen, 'cause she's actually the Queen of England but our Duke from the days of the Duke of Normandy, William the Conqueror, 1066 and all that.
 
We did have a really bizarre school song that had lines such as "Hobgoblin nor foul fiend, shall rot his spirit..." And then the last line was "To be a pilgrim" except you had to hold the "piiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiilgrim" for seventeen seconds. So in my head that line went "to be a pi-onetwothreefourfivesixseveneightnineteneleventwelvethirteenfourteen-
fifteensixteenseventeen-lgrim" due to my crabby music teacher screeching it in rehersals.
 
Lau said:
...pi-onetwothreefourfivesixseveneightnineteneleventwelvethirteenfourteen-
fifteensixteenseventeen-lgrim...
Click to expand...
For a second there I was going to correct you and say pi isn't onetwothree etc.:eek: KT would be proud.
 
Thanks for all the replies! I needed some of that info for a school report, because I wasnt all that sure if other countries force their children to pledge to the flag every morning since they've been in the 1st grade, like they do in the USA.
 
Lau said:
We did have a really bizarre school song that had lines such as "Hobgoblin nor foul fiend, shall rot his spirit..." And then the last line was "To be a pilgrim" except you had to hold the "piiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiilgrim" for seventeen seconds. So in my head that line went "to be a pi-onetwothreefourfivesixseveneightnineteneleventwelvethirteenfourteen-
fifteensixteenseventeen-lgrim" due to my crabby music teacher screeching it in rehersals.
Click to expand...
Why don't you record it and upload it for us to hear. I would like to hear it. :D
 
Lau said:
We did have a really bizarre school song that had lines such as "Hobgoblin nor foul fiend, shall rot his spirit..." And then the last line was "To be a pilgrim" except you had to hold the "piiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiilgrim" for seventeen seconds. So in my head that line went "to be a pi-onetwothreefourfivesixseveneightnineteneleventwelvethirteenfourteen-
fifteensixteenseventeen-lgrim" due to my crabby music teacher screeching it in rehersals.
Click to expand...

I can remember more of that hymn than any part of God Save the Queen!!!! Oh no! :eek: I had forgotten it for years and now you have brough it back to me and it will stay in my head for the next --- oh, years. Bum!!! Thanks. :)

He who would vaaaaliaaaant be
’Gainst all disaster
Le-e-et him in constancy
Fo-o-o-llow the Master.
There’s no discouragement
Shall make him once relent
His first avowed intent
To be a pilgrim. (we didn't have the 17 seconds though - hmmmm).
 
Gekko - not a chance! :D

I can't believe we all had the same song - that's fantastic! It was such a weird song as well.

edit: oh, hang on, it was a hymn then? How strange of my school to randomly adopt it as the "school song", in spite of only singing it about 3 times.

Benjamindaines said:
England doesn't have a national anthem ;)



(the UK does but not England)
Click to expand...

I never said it did! :D (Half-scottish here!)
 
Nope, I'm not sure we even have a "pledge of allegience." I mean, I'm sure that new citizens have to say something to get their passports but that's the last time they'll say it. Those born into Aussie citizenship will never say it.

Come to think of it, it was many years ago but I'm positive there wasn't even a flag at my primary school. Do I care? Nope, I'm proudly Australian and don't need to remind everyone everyday by looking at a flag and mumbling.
 
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