I am sure that all of my clients are familiar wth the British

National anthem "God Save The Queen". Most people are

less aware of the fact, however, that two countries in the

United Kingdom, Scotland and Wales, have their own natiional

anthems, albeit unofficially, which are sung when they face

each other or play against foreign countries, including

England!! Northern Ireland teams sing "God Save The Queen",

The Welsh national anthem is called "Land of My Fathers",

(‘Mae Hen Wlad Fy Nhadau’ – no, this is Welsh, not a typo!!)

and while it has a haunting melody, it is challenging because it

is sung in the Welsh language (click pic below):

You can read​​​ the words in both the Welsh language (good

luck to you!!) and the English translation by clicking the Welsh

flag here and scrolling down the webpage:

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Fortunately, the Scottish national anthem is in English with a

small variation here and there for accent and vocabulary. You

can listen by clicking the pic below:

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The words, descrbing a battle in which the Scots defeated the

English armies of  Edward II of England at the Battle of

Bannockburn in 1314, are below:

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Some more facts about national anthems:

The Spanish national anthem has no words at all, perhaps in

order not to offend the various regions who would like to be

independent (Catalunya, The Basque Provinces etc.), the

Italian anthem sounds like an aria out of an Italian opera (no

insult intended, I love it!), the Uruguayan anthem is the

longest taking between 5 and 6 minutes to sing (I don't think

I would be able to remember all the words), and perhaps the

most famous introduction to an anthem "borrowed" by The

Beatles in 'All You Need is Love', belongs to France, of

course.

So there we have a little culture which may come in useful in

your international business meetings!

Best regards,

​​​

Laurie Oberman – CEO, Talking Business

info@oberman.biz            054-5552476