Can you speak in the language of your ethnicity? (descent, Italian, born)

[qazz12]

Originally Posted by turf3

British. Yes, I speak English.

And why not Gaellic?

[silibran]

I am mostly English, so—-

[oregonwoodsmoke]

Mostly no.There aren't many left who speak that language.

But maybe a small percentage; I can at least understand the Scottish version of English. The problem is that family history says Welsh and Ancestry says Scottish, and believe me, I can neither speak nor write, or even read, Welsh. Is Welsh the world's most difficult language?

[NC~Mom]

My ancestors come from Northern Ireland, only a few generations have been in the US.
Unfortunately, I don't know any of my biological family, so I only speak English, with slight Southern accent.

[paul1981]

Yes, I was born in the U.S. and I speak Portuguese. My grandparents immigrated when my parents were young, but unlike other groups of immigrants they would shame us if we did not speak Portuguese well. My grandfather used to tell us in Portuguese "o saber não ocupa lugar" which roughly translates to "knowledge does not occupy space" meaning that knowledge is limitless.

My parents sent us to a Portuguese school and we spent our summers there. I am able to read and write fluently and speak with family and friends in Portugal daily despite my family having immigrated over half a century ago. I think that it helped that my grandfather was well educated compared to most immigrants and spoke French as well as Portuguese and later English. He realized that it was not only possible, but beneficial to be fluent in more than one language. I have seen some children of Portuguese immigrants (particularly from the Azores) speak little to no Portuguese and have parents speak broken English, and then sprinkling their Portuguese with invented words, and in the end they do not speak any language properly.

[qazz12]

Originally Posted by paul1981

My parents sent us to a Portuguese school and we spent our summers there. I am able to read and write fluently and speak with family and friends in Portugal daily despite my family having immigrated over half a century ago. I

Keep up the delightful language.

El saber no ocupa lugar.
Saludos.

[easthome]

Originally Posted by Oklazona Bound

Yes. According to my DNA profile I am 80% of the British Isles. And yes I speak English.

Ah but can you speak Welsh or Cornish though :-)

[easthome]

Originally Posted by RubyandPearl

British Isles, 90% English.

So, yes. Not that I speak the same English as UK English or with the same accent

You DO speak the same English but probably with a different accent.

[easthome]

Originally Posted by M3 Mitch

Mostly Scottish, I don't speak Gaelic, but as I have read the Celts and the Slavs are closely related, I do speak decent Russian.

More practically, I used to work in Russia quite a bit, and you would find more than a few Russians that didn't speak English at the time (late 90's). Mind you, they spoke 2 or 3 languages, just that English was not one of them. So it was a practical advantage. I am talking engineer peers of mine, not just the general population.

That's OK most Scots don't speak Gaelic anyway!

[Fortituda]

I was a bit surprised when this OP said "I'm Italian but I can't speak Italian" because if someone says "I'm Italian",I'll suppose he's an Italian born and raised in Italy at the first time,then I guess this OP is an Italian-American