RWarehall: So many countries, so many different reasons to visit. I'd probably have to go with England first, but more because it might be easier to get around due to the lack of a language barrier.
Sachys: Just England, or do you actually mean the UK?
- also, once you get away from the tourist traps, you'll suddenly begin to have difficulty understanding others as soon as any kind of accent kicks in.
As a first visit, would probably start with London. I do watch enough BBC programming to at least have a fighting chance. Far better than my fledgling German which is limited to such questions as "Wo ist der Biergarten?", not that it isn't a useful question to know.
The only other country I have visited is Canada and frankly, English-speaking Canada isn't very spectacularly different from the U.S. That said, Quebec and Montreal certainly felt like a different country. But so did Las Vegas...