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Germanic Pride. | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : General discussion | ( Topic Closed) |  |
| apatch3 Diglot Groupie United Kingdom Joined 6185 days ago 80 posts - 99 votes  Speaks: Pashto, English* Studies: Japanese, FrenchA2 | Message 49 of 90 09 April 2010 at 1:07am | IP Logged | ||
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*nods in agreement* making generalizations is just a bad thing in general! lol
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| guesto Groupie Australia Joined 5741 days ago 76 posts - 118 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Italian, Spanish | Message 50 of 90 09 April 2010 at 1:17am | IP Logged | ||
What's wrong with fiction? People like fiction. Fiction has existed as long as humanity. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| omuraisu Newbie United StatesRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5396 days ago 7 posts - 19 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish, Japanese | Message 51 of 90 09 April 2010 at 1:23am | IP Logged | ||
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Most of my friends identify as American first and as various ethnic groups second. Once in a while we'll play the ethnic game, and my friends would sigh and say, "Oh, I'm from Scotland, England, Wales, Poland, Germany, Italy....basically, a European mutt." I've never heard any of my friends display any sort of "ethnic attachment" or nostalgia for any place other than the United States, much less Germany, because they were so removed from any real connections to Europe.
The thing is that native English speakers, at least in the United States, come from such a wide variety of backgrounds and ethnicities that I think your statements are too general. The only "Germanic roots" that we all truly share is within our language, which itself is a mishmash of international cultures and influences. And to tell the truth, at least among teenagers, I never saw German being "cool" outside of death metal and bands like Rammstein. In my opinion, many Americans seem to view French and Italian as "chic" and sophisticated languages, and German being harsh and associated with yelling Nazis in World War II.
I'm not sure who you're addressing in this post. You began with native English speakers, then "Anglos", and now seem to be including both naturally as "white North Americans." You said these are not "racial reasons", but you are including race in your argument. Many native English speakers and many North Americans are not "white" or "Germanic." Who is this "us" you are referring to? Furthermore, you are including a whole slew of random statements with no facts to back them up. This post seems to be nothing but your personal ethnic pride (with traces of racist exclusion) under the guise of "language discussion." To support your arguments, you make false general statements by calling them "factual reasons" and assume that "we" (native English speakers? "Anglos"? white North Americans?) feel the same way. Edited by omuraisu on 09 April 2010 at 1:24am 5 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| tracker465 Senior Member United States Joined 5352 days ago 355 posts - 496 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German, Spanish, Dutch | Message 53 of 90 09 April 2010 at 2:45am | IP Logged | ||
I guess I am not sure what all of the disagreement is about on this topic. Generalizations are not really a good thing, but on the other side, with the question the initial poster asked, I do not see how this esculated into such a bit diatribe. Quite frankly, everyone can feel whatever way they want about any language, I think maybe the original poster may have just asked things in a funky manner.
I feel a draw towards the Germanic roots of English, and it partially is due to pride of my heritage. Everytime I ask my friends where they are from, they answer "I am American, although my ancestors from my dad's side were German/Italian/whatever" First and foremost I am American, but as weird as I would find it to tell someone that I am German or English based on my heritage, I also find it weird for those Americans who do not express much pride in their ancestors, namely because most people I talk to do seem to express this. The other reason why I feel drawn to my Germanic roots with English is because I study German. One day I was looking at the sign on a hand-dryer in a bathroom, and it had instructions in English, German, Spanish, and French. I thought "wow, cool, there is German." I study German and have German ancestory, and I am interested in languages, so of course I might find this interesting. Now the theories which the original poster proposes as to why other Americans may feel this way, may be off, but they are just his theories, not a thesis or something. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| GREGORG4000 Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5523 days ago 307 posts - 479 votes Speaks: English*, Finnish Studies: Japanese, Korean, Amharic, French | Message 54 of 90 09 April 2010 at 3:28am | IP Logged | ||
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I have lotsa diverse ancestors but Slovak is the most largest one and German & Irish after that so hghgfhgf. I still want English to be more German-y
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| Vinlander Groupie Canada Joined 5821 days ago 62 posts - 69 votes Speaks: English* Studies: French | Message 55 of 90 09 April 2010 at 7:25am | IP Logged | ||
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I simply mentioned white americans because there is no other useful way to address the demographic group. Other ethic groups like native/african americans are on a completely different place in this time considering very little of what i'm talking about is relavent to their traditional culture. I don't think i even mentioned just Germans as it's not my backround Germanic europe has sweden belgium england, iceland, norjway, sweden, switzerland etc.. Never did i mention race other then to identify the ethic group i'm talking about. For the record i'm partial metis and have family members that i would regard as native/metis. One of my best friends is Saudi arabian. So please leave out the racist ignorant biggot comments.
The Germanic pride thing is about linguitic, cultural connection nothing to do with racial, other than the fact that people of european descent have more interest than those that don't. I think pride is the right word as I fail to see the problem with taking pride in our language, as it's a tool of expression, thought and emotions. Being able to link it to other languages for some people is meaningful. You can say that's pointless and just silly and in my opinion that is nihilism. You have to meaning in our lives out of the pointless, that's just part of life unless you wanna be a vulcan. As far as me making broad general statements well that's just part of language. I would love to make a 3000 page thesis on all my point with perfect articulation, with sources and spreadsheets but life is just to short. I use vague statements because it's the best way to stirm up open discussion without being too limiting. As far as English being Germanic, well it's hardly latin based. It is not a hybrid, you could argue that English is simply indo-european genetically speaking too far removed from it's cousins to fall under the same family. I would partially agree but would offer the argument that the Germanic language is much more spread out when compared to slavic or latin based languages. Much of English's vocab is west Germanic, yet it's pronouciation and grammar have much more in common with the north Germanic groups. As far as the depression stuff, I don't wanna spend all day arguing about this but theres loads of research which suggest that high devorice rates, lack of social intergration, loss of religion, hectic lifestyle, lack of family support, unheatly living can all increase incident of depression, anxiety, and suicide. In my personal experience this modern world(living away from home, disconnect from family, working in a office, having high stress load career, and generally lack of morality have all been part of it. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| MarcoDiAngelo Tetraglot Senior Member Yugoslavia Joined 6447 days ago 208 posts - 345 votes Speaks: Serbian*, English, Spanish, Russian Studies: Thai, Polish | Message 56 of 90 09 April 2010 at 9:28am | IP Logged | ||
Everything's OK when you can distinguish it from reality. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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