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Language/ Identity | ||
Tags: Cultural Identity | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Cultural Experiences in Foreign Languages | ( Topic Closed) |  |
| sprachefin Triglot Senior Member Germany Joined 5746 days ago 300 posts - 317 votes  Speaks: German*, English, Spanish Studies: French, Turkish, Mandarin, Bulgarian, Persian, Dutch | Message 9 of 60 30 April 2009 at 3:31am | IP Logged | ||
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If someone asks me where I am from, I say Germany. If someone asks me where my ancestors are from, I say
from many Slavic nations (as my family is very mixed from many different Slavic countries). So all in all, I say I'm ethnically a Slavic Jew. I do not speak any Slavic languages, although many of my grandparents did, they only spoke Yiddish when they moved here though (everyone in my family except immediate family speaks it as a native language bilingually with their national language) In order to get in touch with my heritage, I plan to learn a Slavic language in the future, most likely Bulgarian, Polish, Russian, or Czech as those are the countries that I am aware of. I am part Hungarian but not a lot, although it would be nice to learn Hungarian. I am essentially Eastern European if you want to generalize, but I am Jewish from all sides of the family. When I was younger, I didn't know that Slavic meant collectively for the vast majority of heritage of Russian, Bulgarian, Polish and such, so I would just say I was Jewish. I will probably get back into touch with Yiddish in a few years for my Jewish heritage, as I know a lot of people who still speak it (mostly orthodox to conservative converts who used Yiddish in everyday life). I do not agree when people say they are Polish when they are not from Poland or Bulgarian when they are not from Bulgaria. I think that it is important to remember where you were born, and only bring up the subject of your ancestry if people ask where your FAMILY is from. Edited by sprachefin on 30 April 2009 at 3:32am 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Volte Tetraglot Senior Member Switzerland Joined 6439 days ago 4474 posts - 6726 votes Speaks: English*, Esperanto, German, Italian Studies: French, Finnish, Mandarin, Japanese | Message 10 of 60 30 April 2009 at 3:45am | IP Logged | ||
It's not so clear-cut for everyone. Where is someone who lived in a dozen countries as a child from, and never visited the place of his birth after leaving it at 2 months old? 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| sprachefin Triglot Senior Member Germany Joined 5746 days ago 300 posts - 317 votes Speaks: German*, English, Spanish Studies: French, Turkish, Mandarin, Bulgarian, Persian, Dutch | Message 11 of 60 30 April 2009 at 3:57am | IP Logged | ||
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I guess you are right. It does depend on the situation.
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| Emilia Newbie Italy Joined 6140 days ago 26 posts - 27 votes Speaks: Italian* | Message 12 of 60 30 April 2009 at 2:09pm | IP Logged | ||
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I personally have no such issues, as I'm just... Italian. A pretty clear cut for me, the only non-Italian ancestry I'm aware of is the fact that my great-grandmother was an Italian Jew rather than Italian (which is funny, because it's actually my mother's maternal grandmother, which technically means that I'd be considered Jewish from Jewish perspective, even though I don't consider myself one neither ethnically, religiously or culturally). As for the others, all Italians - but from various parts of the country which still sometimes creates a bit of cultural and linguistic "tension" in the family, but when it all sums up, I'm probably as Italian as one can be (except for the fact that I currently live abroad :D).
That being said, I DON'T consider most of abroad Italians to be Italians - in my eyes, somebody who doesn't speak the language/dialect and is in no way tied to Italy but by blood (didn't live there, doesn't have regular and intense contact with family/friends there, etc), who was not educated in Italian and is culturally not Italian, is simply NOT Italian. An Italian descendant, sure, but NOT Italian. Italian-Americans I know for me are just Americans, even those among them who do speak the language to some degree. I'm not generalizing, but those were my experiences with "Italians" abroad (especially those who aren't the first generation born in foreign country). I don't argue on that - who am I to tell anybody what should they consider themselves? - so I'm fine with them considering themselves Italian, but I don't consider them and most of the people I know don't consider them either. The situation is complicated if you have somebody with mixed ancestry who lived in a bunch of countries in childhood and has a couple of native languages... No idea what to say about those, I'm really too far away from that situation to be able to grasp it. A lot of it depends on the situation. The concept of nationality also differs from country to country and culture to culture, as somebody stated already. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Marc Frisch Heptaglot Senior Member Germany Joined 6665 days ago 1001 posts - 1169 votes Speaks: German*, French, English, Spanish, Portuguese, Turkish, Italian Studies: Persian, Tamil | Message 13 of 60 01 May 2009 at 12:16am | IP Logged | ||
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I actually consider myself European much more than German. I also believe that nationality is a very outdated concept to define one's identity.
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| Jar-ptitsa Triglot Senior Member Belgium Joined 5898 days ago 980 posts - 1006 votes Speaks: French*, Dutch, German | Message 14 of 60 01 May 2009 at 12:42am | IP Logged | ||
I agree. Those americans who tell that they're Italian (for example) define their identity this way. When Europeans tell that they're Italian, french, German etc.. they're stateing their nationality (passport), native language, country of birht / where they lived etc... not their identity. This is the difference I think. When I tell that I'm belgian, this doesn't define my identity but inform where I was born, lived all ym live, and my nationality. I consider myself European as well, or walloon also. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| portunhol Triglot Senior Member United States thelinguistblogger.w Joined 6252 days ago 198 posts - 299 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, Portuguese Studies: German, Arabic (classical) | Message 15 of 60 01 May 2009 at 1:43am | IP Logged | ||
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It's helpful to understand our history in order to understand who we Americans are. For a first (or even second) generation immigrant to say that he is only American is often hurtful to the previous generation (parents/grandparents). In response, they older generations often think, "I'm Mexican/Pakistani/Chinese/Indian/ect. and you're my child. Why do you say that you are something different than me? Is being like me not good enough for you? Why am I something to be ashamed of?"
Likewise, I believe that many first and second generation Americans who are completely Americanized often say that they are 100% Nationality X because they want to say, "I am proud of my ancestors." I think that most of them know that they are not literally from those places. Most of them are just expressing pride in their family roots. Edited by portunhol on 01 May 2009 at 1:47am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
 Fasulye Heptaglot Winner TAC 2012 Moderator Germany fasulyespolyglotblog Joined 5847 days ago 5460 posts - 6006 votes 1 sounds Speaks: German*, DutchC1, EnglishB2, French, Italian, Spanish, Esperanto Studies: Latin, Danish, Norwegian, Turkish Personal Language Map | Message 16 of 60 01 May 2009 at 9:15am | IP Logged | ||
Yes, that's typically American to be proud of one's foreign ancestors. I too identify myself as being a European. It occurs regulary - for example in discussions - that I feel more Dutch than German, so for me it is a good solution acting as a European, because this way I can avoid irritation, if people expect me to be more German, than I really feel like. In my opinion it is very important, how people define themselves. Fasulye-Babylonia Edited by Fasulye on 01 May 2009 at 9:17am 2 persons have voted this message useful |
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