Hi, we're Joel and Lia.
And today's video is an open discussion
on whether British people feel that they're European.
- Now our normal style of video is very laughy and jokey.
This one might not be as laughy,
but we'll try to inject a few bits of humor.
- Yeah I think it's because it's such a touchy subject,
isn't it? - Yeah.
- and like we've had a lot of comments from you guys
you know, what's the young people's take on Brexit?
How do you guys feel?
And actually the reason for this video
is because I got a bit of backlash.
- Yeah.
- Uploaded a video onto our channel
and I titled the video "My European Trip"
or something. - Adventure.
- Adventure, My European, well done, Joel.
- And you mentioned something about zebra crossings,
how they mean something different in
Europe than they do in the U.K.
- Yeah.
- Things like that, and people really picked up on it
and were like, oh, this is classic Brits being arrogant,
you are Europe, you're always separating yourself
from Europe, like, you're not better than us,
and it's - Yeah
- It just, yeah, and someone linked us to
a video of another YouTuber called Jen,
who we'll link in the description,
she made a discussion about it.
She's European, she lives in the U.K.
- Yeah. - And she was saying her
opinion, which is she thinks Brits are a
bit snobby by saying we're British,
we identify as being British, not European.
So we just thought we'd give our take on it.
- We'll just give our take on it.
Can I just say, I think if we had Euros as a currency
- Yeah.
- That would change a lot, wouldn't it?
- Definitely, yeah.
- When we go away to a European country,
we change our currency into a different currency.
It feels like Monopoly money.
- Yeah.
- It feels so fake, you're just like, a la la,
I don't know about you - Yeah.
- But I always feel like it's pretend
and I'm like cash, cash, cash (laughs).
- (laughs) Yeah, I know.
And the fact that you have to travel over a sea.
- Yeah.
- Mentally it's not a huge, big, vast ocean.
- Yeah, three or four hour flight somewhere.
- We're an island, we've got a different currency,
there are loads of other cultural differences.
- Culturally we feel so different.
- I think that's what it is.
We have never, never, never been brought up
in our school education, or education system,
to be thought of as European.
They're always like, you're British, you're British,
you're British, you're British.
- Yeah, I feel that too.
And because I have Greek Cypriot heritage,
I sort of have my relationships with
my Greek and Cypriot family.
And when I'm over there it's all so Mediterranean,
it's all so different, it's me,
but I still feel really British and I identify as a Brit.
I don't feel like that's the same culturally.
- No.
- I don't feel like it's, obviously,
it's just so hard to explain. - Yeah.
- And I think the reason why it's a touchy subject,
because it's really hard to tell
someone how they should feel.
- Yeah.
- Do you know what I mean? - Yeah.
- And I think a lot of people feel like now they can.
A lot of people feel like they have the right
to tell someone how they should feel,
- Yeah. - or how they're meant
to feel, when you absolutely can't.
- No.
- You would never, ever, I know this is out of context,
you would never dream of telling a transgender
person how, what gender they must feel,
would you? - No.
- And if you would, then maybe you're the problem (laughs).
- (laughs) Yeah.
- You would just never, would you?
- No, or I'd never say to you, if you're telling me,
oh I'm Greek, I'm half Greek, you're Cypriot,
- No, you're British! - I'm not gonna
be like no, you're British, you're not Greek.
- You were born here. - You're not Greek.
- You were born here.
- I just think it's so stupid.
If anyone that commented that on our video,
if you're watching this, you are an idiot.
You're one of the problem that by telling someone
how they should feel, - how they should feel
- How they should identify
- That's why probably I've got identity problems.
- Yeah (laughs).
- I'm gonna link a video in the car that we
did with Tom and I spoke about
- Yeah.
- How I went this this meetup in London for Greek people.
And I was the only English-born Greek there,
and everyone else was like Greek fresh off the boat.
- Yeah. - Proper,
like Greek accent, everything,
and I just felt like I wasn't European or Greek
enough to be there, honestly.
This problem is so - Yeah.
- Inside me, it's so hard to tell people how to feel.
- Yeah.
- And it really messes with them.
- Yeah, and I think that's what it is.
It goes deeper than just the actual geographical location.
- Yeah. - 'Cause of course,
we know that we are included in
the continent of Europe. - Yeah.
- You've Europe, you've got Asia,
you've got America. - America.
- It goes deeper than that.
We're not saying that we're not part of
the European continent, we know that.
- Yeah.
- We're just saying culturally,
we're incredibly different to all of
the other European countries.
- Yeah, I wanna say this.
In society we feel like we're allowed to label people.
- It's so embedded in everything we are.
You know, what's your job, what's your religion,
oh, you're an accountant.
You know, you meet people and you're like,
I don't wanna be labeled by my job.
- Yeah.
- What are you, oh you're a YouTuber.
But I'm so much more than that.
- Yeah.
- I'm a person, I'm a human.
And I think it's very natural for us
to want to label - Yeah.
- Europeans, there, da da da da.
You're Asian, over there.
I just think it's, I just hate it, personally
- Yeah.
- I hate labeling. - Yeah.
- It's a way of us categorizing people because
that's the only way our brain can deal with things.
- Yeah.
- There's no right or wrong way to feel.
But this is such a sensitive topic,
and that's why I wanted to open it up
to everyone who's watching.
So write in the comments, especially if you are British.
How do you identify?
I'm not saying tell us if you voted remain
or if you voted leave, 'cause that's a whole other thing.
- Yeah, I think that's the political side of things.
- Yeah.
- Whereas I guess we're talking
slightly more about - Culturally.
- The cultural identity and that
geographical sort of thing.
- And culturally, I do not feel European.
- No, me neither.
If someone was like, oh, you're European, I'd be like, no.
- I'd be like - I'm British.
- I'm sorry, what, I'm a what?
- I'd be like, oh you think I was Spanish?
No (laughs). - No (laughs).
I was born here and I'm really proud of that.
- Yeah.
- British-born, you meet British-born Pakistani,
or British-born this, British-born that.
Everyone loves that they have
heritage from somewhere else.
- Yeah.
- But often people will say I'm British, I was born here.
- Yeah.
- If we were to touch on the political side of things,
technically, moving forward we are no longer European.
- Yeah. - Obviously, because Brexit
is going ahead. - Yeah.
- So yeah, we are gonna be like an independent Britain.
But right now we are still in the European Union.
- Yeah, I think we still are.
Again, it's all uncertain.
Lots of questions we get - No one knows.
- are about Brexit, particularly from Europeans
that are worried about like oh,
is it gonna be harder to travel there,
- Yeah.
- Or can I study there?
We don't know, no one knows.
- No one knows the answers.
Even politicians don't know the answers.
- Yeah, it looks like it's gonna be a very long
and hard road of negotiations and things like that.
No one knows, you know as much as we do.
- Yeah, all we know is we're gettin' a new passport
- Yeah, and it's blue, yeah. - and it's blue.
That's literally the only fact anyone knows.
- Yeah.
- And I think it's okay for us not to know
'cause I got a little bit worried,
we were asked to do something,
speaking about how young people feel about Brexit,
and I was thinking, I don't know enough.
But the thing is, no one does.
- No, it's all opinions.
- Yes, there's obviously people that studied
economics or the way things work,
- Yeah. - The way the world works,
and they're able to really make more
informed opinions. - Yeah.
- Or like, assumptions, more informed assumptions,
if that's a thing, - Yeah.
- On how things will pan out. - Yeah.
- But essentially, we don't know anything (laughs).
- No, maybe we seem quite chilled about it,
but that might be because we come from a
privileged position of being British and
- Yeah.
- it not really affecting us that much.
Like, I, my personal opinion, I don't think that
Brexit is really gonna affect British people that much.
It just might mean we have to apply
for a Visa when we to Europe.
- Okay, yep.
- But apart from that, for people in European
countries it might affect them because
they wanna study here, or they wanna come here
and it's gonna - Yeah.
- affect it that way, so maybe we are privileged
in being like, oh, it doesn't really matter.
- Yeah, definitely.
- Maybe it is more of a big deal to
other people than it is to us.
- And also, you can't say that almost 17 million
people in the U.K. that voted Brexit are wrong.
They voted for an independent Britain.
And it would be so silly to assume that they're all wrong.
Because yeah, I know - Yeah.
- we live in London and London is mostly remain,
hugely remain area. - Yeah.
- Yeah, I'm not, that's a whole long video, isn't it?
- Yeah. - And I suppose more
about that as things start to unfold here,
but still we're in this area of uncertainty.
- Yeah. - And to answer the question
of what this video is all about.
Do Brits feel European?
Well, lots of us don't.
- Yeah. - A few of us do.
- Yeah. - Personally, we don't.
- No. - And that's just
our opinion, and there's no right
or wrong way to feel, - Yeah.
- you can't tell someone how to feel.
- No, and don't assume that that means
that we think we're better than you.
- No, no way.
- We're literally just saying,
this is how we identify.
We're not saying that means that we're better than you.
If anything, that says more about you
and how insecure you are (laughs).
- (laughs) Yeah.
- Because that's not how it's meant at all.
- Yeah, definitely.
I did watch that video that you mentioned at the start.
- Yeah.
- And it is a bit hard to watch 'cause you're a bit like,
I don't really that we're a part, though.
- No. - If that's how people
feel like we are, that's a perception that we can't undo.
- No, but who knows (laughs)?
- So there you go, guys.
That's a very chatty discussion video for you.
If you did enjoy it, please leave a comment below.
- Yeah, let us know your thoughts on the topic.
I'm assuming that the comments are gonna get
a little bit heated, maybe.
- Yeah, it is.
Let's open up the conversation in the comments,
and we will see you next week.
By the way, if you want 25 pounds free at B&B Credit
- (laughs) For your - When you come to
- travels to Europe. - London (laughs).
- Or the U.K.
- We've got a link in our description
that you can use that in. - Yeah.
- It's handy.
Who knows, use it before you can't (laughs).
- Yeah, quick, get in there before we leave the EU.
- Book your London stay.
Okay, see you next time guys.
Bye. - Bye.