Cultural Backgrounds

1) I was born in the US, but my family is from Ireland/Germany.

2) Nope. Unless you count the English spoken in Ireland, I can't speak German or Celtic.

3) I am learning Spanish in school. Yo como papas fritas [I eat french fries].

4) I don't really think about my heritage much. Mostly because if I go to another country, I'll be known as American, not Irish/German. I don't mind my Irish heritage [I love the accent XD], but I am not very proud of Germany, for WWII.

5) My heritage doesn't mean anything in meeting a partner.

*** In my house, we don't have any Irish traditions, except for Saint Patricks day. We often cook German food, and one of our traditions is to always eat Sauerkraut on New Years Eve, for good luck. It defiantly has a.... different flavor.

 

I'm American, we can't speak English much any good not really anyways.

Languages I speak? come on! Languages we communicate with is less bigoty! I communicate in sign language, ASL, and fake PSE, so I would teach you but would need permission from EC to use oovoo or other online video chat.

USA all the way! We should invade Canada next, you really need a makeover American style.

Deaf Culture is great! I wish you all could be deaf!

My mom and Deafies say at Uni I will find the right Deaf man and get married. Well...that should be interesting.

my family ethnic dishes include mincemeat pies.

 

Me 2!

Dutch, with a great-grandmother from Spain and grandparents from Germany.
Was born in the region called Twente, though I cannot really speak the dialect as I've only lived there for 1 year after I was born. Would love to learn it though.
Basically it's has a very rural history with an important role as textile and metal manufacturing during the Industrial Age.
Most people from the area still feel a certain regional pride and connected to each other.

I can speak Dutch, but not the Twents dialect sadly.

English, obviously.
But also French: Il y a deja quatre ans passé, quand j'ai parlé Français pour la derniere fois. It has been 4 years since I last spoke French

I also speak some Japanese:
Nihon ga daisuki, hachi-gatsu ga Nihon ni ikimasu! I love Japan, I am going to Japan in August.

I can also understand simple statements from languages like Italian, Spanish and German because the first two are similar to French and the last one is similar to Dutch.

Though I have only lived for one year in the region where I am from, I like it very much, as I said it has a close community and strong regional identity. Also most of my family live there.
I do not feel particular partiotic towards the Netherlands, both because I think nations are rather subjective and detrimental to worldwide cooperation, but also because there's not much about the Netherlands to be particulary proud of. Especially with the increasingly extremist-right shift in politics.

Not important at all, I'm looking for a person to love, regardless of heritage.

I cook everything, but Dutch food. Imo Mediteranian, South-American and Asian food is much richer and tastier.

For me any wedding would be fine, though I might have reservations about a religious one since I do not believe in any gods. Traditional clothing and dancing would be perfectly fine if it would make my partner happy.

I like, in order, Japanese food, Mexican/Argentinian food, Portugese/Spanish food and Italian food. All have to be without fish though:icon_wink.
I love Japan, as I said and am going there for the second time, in August. Also really like Ireland/Wales/Scotland, basically gaelic/celtic culture.
Would also like to visit:
Egypt
Ireland
Scotland
Wales
Tibet
Greece
Brasil
Canada

I'm hestitant about countries like China, Iran and Israel, as I think I would be bothered to much by the politcal and social injustices in those countries to really enjoy them.

Nice questionare btw!

---------- Post added 11th Jun 2012 at 07:40 PM ----------

Don't. Germany has way more history and heritage than WO 2.
It's a lovely country, though I personally don't like how their language sounds. But culture wise it's great.

The Netherlands and pretty much every other country have dark spots in their heritage to.
Like slavery, colonialism, etcetera.

 

I find this topic awesome, because I actually thought about making something similar last night as I was going to sleep

1) Born/raised Canadian, though I'm half Korean (South, if it matters) and half Portuguese. But apparently I look Filipino to a lot of strangers, and jokingly get called "the Mexican" by my friends (note: I'm really not tan at all. -_-). Make of that what you will

2) Can't speak any Portuguese (which is funny, because a large amount of my hometown's population is Portuguese). I can speak a handful of words in Korean.

3) I took French up until Grade 12, then stopped because our teacher was a total witch. Since I haven't practiced, I'm sure it's really rusty.

4) I don't know if it's important to me per se, since it doesn't affect my daily life a whole lot. I'm certainly not ashamed of it or anything. It never really played into my growing up a lot either. There's a couple select dishes from both sides of the family that I now consider "comfort food" (and real treats at that), but otherwise it isn't a big deal for me. Although I like that I'm effectively the only one I know (minus my brother) with this cultural background.

5) Not at all. If I ever get married, it'd probably be a typical North American wedding if anything. Since I'm learning to cook more foods from my background, I suppose it'd be nice if he was open to trying new things... but otherwise, I'm not concerned.

 

1) Born/raised in Canada, my family is from Britain/Scotland

2) Yep, I can speak English :lol:

3) I can speak a bit of Icelandic, Hvernig gengur? (How are things?)

4) I don't really care about my heritage too much, it's just not something that I think is that important.

5) Not important at all.

6) The only tradition I can think of is playing bagpipes at a funeral. I love eating Chinese food. I'd love to visit Germany, it just looks like such an fascinating place.

 

I've already been to:
Tokyo, Kyoto, Hiroshima (really impressive, especially the atomic bomb museum), Kobe, Narita and Osaka.
My university has a partnership with the university of Osaka so we do an exchange seminar each year. One year in the Netherlands, the next in Japan.
This year we're going to visit Kyoto, Tokyo, Osaka, Hiroshima, Nara. I plan on going on my own next year to see some other places.
It's a great country. I have never felt more welcome in any other foreign country. People are very polite and helpful and very enthousiastic to meet foreigners. Some Japanese even thanked me for the fact that the Dutch came to Japan 400 years ago to trade

We really are alike in this. It's so great to see the whole world and all the different cultures and people. What's even more wonderful is to see the similarities like the importance of family, history, culture and discovery!

---------- Post added 11th Jun 2012 at 09:19 PM ----------

Wiki on Twente if you're interested:
Twente - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

1) I'm Dominican. I was born in the US but I spent my entire childhood and some of my adolescence in the Dominican Republic. My entire family is also from the Dominican Republic.

2) Yes, I can speak, read, and write in Spanish

3) Hmm... I guess I would like to learn an Asian language, like maybe Japanese since it sounds very cool and sign language also sounds really interesting.

4) My heritage is somewhat important to me because I spent so many years living in DR. There are a lot of things I do dislike about it, mainly how ignorant a lot of the people can be and the massive corruption in the country. But I do enjoy my culture, like the music, food, and dance. It has its faults but it's what I grew up in

5) In regards to meeting my partner, it's not that important, but I would like to be able to share about my culture with my partner and I'd like her to be willing to learn about it. I would do the same if she were from a different background. A lot of the food I know how to make is Dominican and I do listen to a lot of Dominican music but overall, I'm pretty Americanized so it's not a big deal.

 

1) My ancestors are mainly from Ireland, England and Scotland, although my granddad's grandmother was Romany (gypsy), and moved from Germany to Ireland.

2) I speak English of course, but not Irish, Scots, Romani or German.

3) I can speak a decent amount of French, and a little Spanish. I would like to learn Italian, Portuguese, German, Russian and Arabic.

4) Only my Irish heritage is important to me, because it gives me Irish and therefore EU citizenship!

5) My heritage doesn't mean anything in meeting a partner. I like Indian, Thai, Turkish and Spanish food the most.

I want to travel EVERYWHERE.

 

.............

 

This is a tricky question for me to answer. My family has been in a America so long that it would take a lot of money and effort to trace it back to Europe, so we're not really sure on anything. Heck, we can barely trace it out of Texas. That said, based on the last names that have appeared in what genealogy we have done, I know I'm English, Irish, Scots-Irish, German, French, Czech, my great-grandmother was from the Coushatta Native American tribe, and who knows what else. My Irish heritage is what comes out the most in me as far as appearance goes given my red hair and blue eyes, but I have an English last name (though it was supposed to be German...long story), and my dad reflects much more of the German and Native American sides. It gets confusing, so I'll just say that ethnically I'm a mostly white mutt, but I'm Texan and American by heritage.

English of course! And I can understand some French simply because of my knowledge of Spanish.

My mother is a Spanish teacher, so I speak some. I'd like to perfect it, and from that French should come fairly easily. An Asian language also seems like it would be fascinating.

It's not important as far as the actual places of origin are concerned. I like being a mutt because the crazy mixture I have is practically uniquely American. My ancestors literally lived out many of the stereotypical scenes portrayed from our history: Claiming land on the plains by putting up fenceposts, migrating in conestoga wagons, growing up poor and isolated to becoming a successful trader, and so on.

I'm proud of that heritage, but just like with any nation's history and current culture, there are plenty of flaws, and there are parts I like and dislike about it.

Being picky about someone's background would be rather hypocritical of me lol. I'd like to learn how to cook Texas-style barbecue and other dishes somewhat endemic to this region, but I love foods from all over the world. I can't really see where I'd have a problem compromising if there were ever cultural conflicts. I've lived in a diverse place my entire life so I guess I'm used to it?

 

1) Germany and Ireland
2) No but I want to learn German
3) I want to learn spanish and german but heres a spanish phrase 'tu es bonita'
4) Not really important
5) Not really important

 

1. Everything lol. But I'm French, African American, Native American(Cherokee), and thats only on my mothers side. But i dont look like or live with my father.
2. None, from my heritage .
3. Proper English(lol). I'm currently studying Spanish and will learn French after. I wont quit until I'm fluent in all three. And... Voy a aprender francés y español(I will learn french and spanish).
4. I love my heritage. I like being mixed alot more than being one solid race. And I am not too pale or dark lol .
5. As far as the food I dont know any of my heritage. Not to mention my favorite foods are chinese and italian, of which I am niether. As far as a partner, it doesnt mean anything to me. Though just as far as my normal attraction I usually fall for people who are mixed with something, not usually like the normal "white" guy. Oh but I do have a thing for masculine asians O_O.(Oddly in another world I think I would be asian).

 

1. Irish/German
2. No
3. No, but want to learn.
4. Not at all important.
5. Not at all important.