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No. If you not born in the country You claim to be from, and you do not speak their language, You will never be seen as one of them.
In the parallel American universe, You can pretend you're 17% this, 19% that, But the reality is to everyone else you are just an American.
The ancestry topic is important to Americans because Americans are influenced by the media to care about it, There is after all multi million Businesses making profit out of this topic.
My Paternal Great-Grandparents were from Norwich, and Stratford-on-Avon. Actually she was 3 months pregnant with my Grandpa on the boat. Genealogy. So since I speak the language of that country that makes it ok to claim that country?
Does this mean everyone on this thread can claim to be British by speaking their language? Actually as a child I had a difficult time understanding Grandpa's English. Sounded like he had marbles in his mouth. He probably got his accent from his parents growing up. Americans speak the language of a foreign country, England.
The media did not influence me to trace my families ancestry, or spend years (before the Internet) searching records, etc., etc. I only got as far back as the 17th Century in Southern Italy (Salerno) so that percentage of Greek, and Turkish, must be before then. Tracing records was much easier in England, although you want a "foreign" language? Try deciphering OLD English from the 1400's! I doubt many British people speak that today.
My Paternal Great-Grandparents were from Norwich, and Stratford-on-Avon. Actually she was 3 months pregnant with my Grandpa on the boat. Genealogy. So since I speak the language of that country that makes it ok to claim that country?
Does this mean everyone on this thread can claim to be British by speaking their language? Actually as a child I had a difficult time understanding Grandpa's English. Sounded like he had marbles in his mouth. He probably got his accent from his parents growing up. Americans speak the language of a foreign country, England.
The media did not influence me to trace my families ancestry, or spend years (before the Internet) searching records, etc., etc. I only got as far back as the 17th Century in Southern Italy (Salerno) so that percentage of Greek, and Turkish, must be before then. Tracing records was much easier in England, although you want a "foreign" language? Try deciphering OLD English from the 1400's! I doubt many British people speak that today.
It is a lot of FUN. Much like solving a mystery.
They can claim to have ancestors from Britian but being british americans, english americans? No, as being a part of particular ethnic group is more than just speaking their language or having distant ancestors from particular nations. Being part of ethnic group is defined by common cultural heritage, homeland, mythology, beliefs, dressing styles, habits etc. This not something to be claimed by genealogy researches. This is something that you grow up with.
British by the way is more of formal term not ethnic group. Scottish,welsh, english would be ethnic groups. As you can see scots and welsh speak english yet they are not part of english "ethnicity" as they have their own distinct cultures just like americans have theirs. Therefore "ethnicity" of mainstream americans who are descendants of people from various different countries anyway and grow up in only be american "ethnicity" culture would american without any adjective in front of it.
Last edited by WestPreussen; 10-29-2019 at 04:23 AM..
British by the way is more of formal term not ethnic group. Scottish,welsh, english would be ethnic groups. As you can see scots and welsh speak english yet they are not part of english "ethnicity" as they have their own distinct cultures just like americans have theirs. Therefore "ethnicity" of mainstream americans who are descendants of people from various different countries anyway and grow up in only be american "ethnicity" culture would american without any adjective in front of it.
Scottish, Welsh, English and Irish are not ethnic groups. Celts, Anglo-Saxons and Norse-Viking are, it just happens that Welsh, Scottish and Irish are mainly Celts, whereas England is more evenly split between Celts and Anglo-Saxons, with Anglo-Saxons being the dominant culture.
They can claim to have ancestors from Britian but being british americans, english americans? No, as being a part of particular ethnic group is more than just speaking their language or having distant ancestors from particular nations. Being part of ethnic group is defined by common cultural heritage, homeland, mythology, beliefs, dressing styles, habits etc. This not something to be claimed by genealogy researches. This is something that you grow up with.
British by the way is more of formal term not ethnic group. Scottish,welsh, english would be ethnic groups. As you can see scots and welsh speak english yet they are not part of english "ethnicity" as they have their own distinct cultures just like americans have theirs. Therefore "ethnicity" of mainstream americans who are descendants of people from various different countries anyway and grow up in only be american "ethnicity" culture would american without any adjective in front of it.
Define American culture for me. Besides borrowing from all ethnic cultures, there are also REGIONAL cultures. Until I moved down South, I had never heard of grits. Is that American culture across the country? Want to know how many times people in the South told me they could not understand my AMERICAN English? That is because of an American ACCENT from a different part of the USA.
Again, define what is American Culture to me. We are all different. There is no single American culture.
Scottish, Welsh, English and Irish are not ethnic groups. Celts, Anglo-Saxons and Norse-Viking are, it just happens that Welsh, Scottish and Irish are mainly Celts, whereas England is more evenly split between Celts and Anglo-Saxons, with Anglo-Saxons being the dominant culture.
I do not understand your point.
Celts were and still are people who speak celtic languages and they formed many ethnic groups in ancient times. Celts were never ethnic group but a collection of various ethnic groups like lugii or helvetii who used to speak celtic languages. Norse the same. It is a broad term for various ethnic groups such as Danes, Gutes, Jutes. Saxons and Angles were medieaval ethnic groups, one of many germanic tribes that inhabited land of todays Germany in medieval times.
All of those people were ancestors of modern ethnic groups, nations. Ethnic group in sociology is a group of people that identify with each other on basis of various of similarities such as common language or dialect, history, society, culture, traditions. Scottish, welsh, irish are most definitely modern ethnic groups.
Ethnic groups exist then they extinct and the new ones are formed.
There were angles and saxons once long time ago and today there are english who were formed through various tribes of different origins mixing with each other with anglo-saxon culture being dominant.
Define American culture for me. Besides borrowing from all ethnic cultures, there are also REGIONAL cultures. Until I moved down South, I had never heard of grits. Is that American culture across the country? Want to know how many times people in the South told me they could not understand my AMERICAN English? That is because of an American ACCENT from a different part of the USA.
Again, define what is American Culture to me. We are all different. There is no single American culture.
And how is it any different in any other country? Define german culture or italian culture. We are all different . There is no one single culture in any country thinking that way. But in the age of globalization various regional accents gonna become more subtle and national television gonna shape one common mainstream culture. There is much less difference nowadays between american from new york and american from atlanta than it was 100 hundred years ago. And it is gonna be even less if at all in next 100 hundred years. It is sad but that is how it is.
You think you have regional culture? Of course you have but come to Germany and Italy and here there are not only different accents, here there are different dialects, even different languages spoken among those nations for hundreds of years . If you say there is no mainstream american culture then there is no mainstream german or italian culture or any mainstream culture anywhere as all countries have regional differences and believe me, in United States those regional differences are much more subtle than in countries like Germany, Italy not to mention african countries like Nigeria. Do you honestly see much difference between teenager from Boston and teenager from Atlanta these days. Those young folks mostly do not even have their regional accents anymore.
Celts were and still are people who speak celtic languages and they formed many ethnic groups in ancient times.
I should've said insular Celts and my comment was specific to the British isles. There is still very much a recognition and furthermore a revival of pan-celtic (insular celtic) culture across the British isles. Various genetic markers also link the Celtic peoples across the isles. Cornish people may feel more afinity to Wales than to the rest of England.
At the other end of the spectrum Scotch-Irish from Northern Ireland will have more affinity to Old Northumbria (Anglo-Scottish borders) and even the English than to Irish or highlander Scotts.
Insular Celtic and Anglo-Saxon culture are far from being "extinct" ethnicities in the British isles as they span borders and reveal themselves in modern socio-economic expressions and identity politics.
Insular Celtic and Anglo-Saxon culture are far from being "extinct" ethnicities in the British isles as they span borders and reveal themselves in modern socio-economic expressions and identity politics.
Many celtic languages are of course alive. As there are still many celtic ethnic groups existing in Europe.
Well there are english. There are no angles, jutes, saxons and frisians in England any more (though frisians still are well and alive in mainland Europe) but those medieval ethnic groups have had the biggest cultural impact on modern english people.
If you were raised in Turkey by parents from england and english is your first language that you used at home or you were raised in England by turkish parents and went to school in england where you adapted english culture and lifestyle and where you learned english at very young age and speak it pretty much as your native language than yeah you can claim it.
I mean you can claim what you want. It is free world. But you must understand that to the 99 percent of the world you will be turkish. If every person went back far enough in their family's history, everyone would find some ancestors from different country, nation or ethnic group. But that changes nothing.
If I am regular german my whole life and one day I will go look for my ancestors to some office or parish and find out that my one ancestor came from Italy to Germany in 1620 what does it change? Am I suddenly "Ethnic" italian? Just like that? Even though I do not have any cultural connection to that country whatsoever? How do I know that his ancestor had not come to Italy from somwhere else some years before anyway? As I already wrote, most southern italians are descendants of greek colonizers? Should they start considering themselves "ethnic"greek because of that? And how do they know that some of those greeks' ancestors had not come to Greece from somwhere else. I mean greek soldiers used to frequently marry persian women when they conquered Persia. Maybe they should start consider themselves "ethnic" persians because of that? I mean how far are we supposed to go? Where is the end line?
History and genealogy are interesting but they are that ,history. So if you speak were raised in Turkey, you spent your childhood which are the best memories for most people in Turkey, you speak turkish to your parents to your grandparents that would mean you are turkish. That is how most people think and how most people will view you.
If you really wanna come as close as you can to being italian I would suggest you to immigrate to Italy, live there for few years, make the best what you can with this time, learn italian language, culture, history, pass exam for citizenship and you will be citizen of Italy. If you live there and wanna completely adopt italian lifestyle and culture you can find yourself italian husband (which would make you a part of italian family, and family is always big in Italy) and have children with him, who will be considered absolutely italian( I know that because my aunt lives in Italy is married to italian man and has children with him who speak only italian.)In that way your descendant will be italian. While your children would be considered italian you most likely would be not anyway by most people in Italy. Your accent would most likely give you away from the start and your turkish habits and culture would stay with you for your whole life. However if you had italian citizenship, knew the language, had italian family which would make italian culture part of your daily life and then claimed italian nationality(because as I said before Italian is nationality. Italy is very regional country that consists of many ethnic groups)I think most of people could at least respect that. You would have at least good solid arguments to your claim. Regards.
Thank you for your suggestion but I guess I can't marry an Italian man because I already have a boyfriend and we think seriously. Maybe I can adopt Italian culture by living in Italy for several years before becoming an Italian citizen, pass exam for citizenship and become an Italian citizen. What do you think?
Thank you for your suggestion but I guess I can't marry an Italian man because I already have a boyfriend and we think seriously. Maybe I can adopt Italian culture by living in Italy for several years before becoming an Italian citizen, pass exam for citizenship and become an Italian citizen. What do you think?
If you really like Italy that much, then why not? Good for you
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