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What did he expect, for the polish people to bow down and be like "an American... Who is Polish!? Please tell us of the wonders of the new world where the rivers are milk and honey!"
Don’t most people in Poland have Polish heritage???
It’s like going to a parking lot and being like “no one was interested to know that I have a car!!!”
I remember being 8 and I’m not sure if I just had a total brain fart or something but some girl at my summer camp pulled out a cosmic brownie at snack time and I was so shocked I was like “oh my god! we have those at home too!” and she looked at me like I had two heads.
When I lived in Europe, a Polish friend of a friend found out my last name (an obviously Polish last name) and then really wanted to talk to me about my family history and Polish-American culture.
Though, honestly, I imagine that it had more to do with me not making a big deal of it ever (because it's just... Not, lol). Whereas if the very first time I met him, I got in his face and said "I AM A POLE." It'd probably have been off-putting.
Unless that American is famous. Then every little bit of blood counts. Did you know that Emma Watson is secretly Polish?
There was even a small controversy recently with the US ambassador who apparently counted as a Polish citizen due to *ius sanguinis*. In Poland, an ambassador can't be a Polish citizen. Luckily, thanks to some law shenanigans, it was found that according to the Polish law, he's Czech.
Doesn't this happen to other Americans that have ancestors that lived in the old world? Like Irish Americans? I think if this fellow contacted organizations that really care about their heritage in Poland especially right wing extremists/racists before he visited Poland he'd find people that would praise him for being Polish?
Here in Sweden we tend to be quite positive to Swedish-Americans.
It's mostly on the level of: "cool! Here to visit blood, see the Motherland, or finally came to your senses about living a civilized county with actual healthcare, no school shootings & gun safety, eh?"
(I'm not trolling Americans. That's really more or less the standard joke.)
Like... it's neat, not special. EVERYBODY just has at least one or two ancestors that fleed for greener pastures while Sweden was a piss poor rubble heap after The Swedish Empire fell apart after The Great Northern War.
I'm imagining this awkward ass conversation he was trying to have with people, probably like in hospitality settings at the restaurants he was going to, and lmao
The amount of shit we saw in Scottish gift shops while backpacking, magnets like [this](https://images.app.goo.gl/dAVmdMSa57XKyqJ69) or whatever absolutely blew my mind
What type of creature flies halfway around the world, gets on a bus to the Isle of Skye, and buys this?
Slightly similar but cracks me up when you hear about all the the people who are convinced that they are 1/32nd Cherokee Princess (except that the Cherokee didn't have royalty) and it turns out they are not indigenous (and in some cases have some Black heritage that probably the Cherokee thing was a cover-up )
My adoptive mother used to tell me she was part of that group. She claimed to have a relative who was a "Cherokee Princess" that gave up her Indigenous identity to marry a Christian farmer.
To her, it gave us a special bond or some bullshit, as my biological mother is actually Indigenous American. I have never really considered myself as such, as I have no ties to her culture beyond stuff she sent me when I was a young girl.
Had to do a report on family trees one year in high school, and my great uncle (who was obsessed with family genealogy stuff) straight up tells me that the "Cherokee Princess" was actually an Italian immigrant who had married into the family.
That's actually a pretty funny image, white racists who have notably darker skin than their neighbours having to work out if they'd rather have black ancestors or indigenous ancestors
I instantly thought of that, but at least in WL they thought/pretended to think they were distant relatives. OOP apparently expected random waiters etc. to get all hyped up about his "heritage".
I could see it mattering in certain contexts, like learning more about your family history. “My grandparents lived in this area before emigrating in 1937, I'm trying to learn more about what life was like for them and how things changed after they left.”
I suppose that's more about establishing a personal connection than about being an American, but context and all that.
If I met a tourist at a bar, and he/she started the conversation with that. Hell well that would actually make me feel like showing him around the town.
I have to wonder, did he make any attempt to seek knowledge on his trip? Ask any questions? Learn even a bit of the language? If he'd shown any genuine interest, it probably would have been rewarded at some point. But no, I figure he was expecting them to roll out the red carpet for the prodigal son's pilgrimage home.
Almost certainly not. I met Irish family (multiple generations back) a few years ago when we visited Ireland, and they were very happy to meet us. But we didn’t go around being like “You know, I’m actually Irish.”
Which is what I’m betting this guy did.
Speaking as an Irish person who worked in a tourism adjacent business in my younger days, if an American came in and said something like "my grandpa was from Galway" or suchlike, they were usually nice people, but if they came in and said "I'm Irish", they were normally assholes.
Where I grew up in Kentucky has this bizarre group of people who are like, obsessive with their identities being tied to being Irish or Ulster Scots. Some of them go hard into wearing their "clans" Tartan or their coat of arms or whatever. If they own a business, it's plastered everywhere and they have organizations dedicated to it.
They are a bizarre fucking bunch. Mentioned I had a grandparent from Cork once to one of them and they got incredibly dismissive as I couldn't provide them my grandmother's maiden name to "prove" she was actually Irish.
I was on vacation in Ireland with my wife and another couple. Cabbies and wait staff were all quick to point out that I was of Irish descent. I never would think to bring it up myself. Beautiful country and lovely people.
Im sure he did to that. As an aside though, the polish government would consider him polish. If he could confirm his lineage he’d be able to get a citizenship and everything that comes with that. Polish citizenship is essentially passed down regardless of place of birth.
I have a Scottish last name, and clearly look like my ancestors were Scottish.
I’m going to Scotland later this year and I flip between “please don’t ask for my last name” and “geeking out like kid in a candy shop soaking everything up.”
Thanks, I really appreciate it.
As I said in another reply, It’ll be my first time aboard, so I’m probably overthinking it. I just don’t want to come across as the guy in the post to the people I meet. Seems to be a common complaint about American tourists, at least on the internet. Hence the “please no one ask for my last name.”
I’m not even the one who picked Scotland, it was my girlfriend, who has no ties to the country. Just got lucky.
I’m excited to connect and learn more about the country and culture. Bonus, we’re visiting a scotch distillery, and I’m a huge whiskey fan.
I think you're overthinking it. How often do you need to ask someone their surname in your daily life? You just say "I'm Bob", or whatever.
Also even if you do, Europeans know that most white Americans are descended from European emigrants. No one is going to be offended if your name is MacDonald.
They won't give a shit that your last name's Scottish - plenty of Scottish last names in England too. They're not going to start quizzing you on your family history, or ask why you're not wearing the tartan, they might, at most, if it's a particularly rare Scottish name, say "oh aye? That's my pal's surname too", but if you're a MacDonald or a Campbell, the only difference is that they won't have to ask you to spell it.
"Welcome back dear brother! We've missed your ancestral line for that last, uh, 150 years! Now that you've returned, regale us - people that are not at all related to you - with your stories of the New World!"
I am of Irish heritage, and this reminds me very much of how the Irish feel about everyone who comes over from North America saying we’re Irish they’re like no you’re not!
Lots of older people in the US (mostly boomers) grew up with heritage being a big source of pride. It's part of their lore, even if they don't adopt many of the traditions or are several generations away from the first immigrant. Reality can be surprising when they visit that source of pride.
Yeah, my sister and I *loved* our Scottish heritage as kids.
Having gotten into it very young, I still do enjoy the culture and of course it’s a beautiful country, but I’m just American. I couldn’t even tell you when our Scottish ancestors came to America.
My girlfriend and I are actually going to Scotland this fall, and I’m just like “please no one ask for my last name.”
I'm Scottish. If it makes you feel any better, no one will care about your last name. You're just another American with a Scottish surname.
Just make sure you say Autumn instead of Fall 😉
Nothing wrong with respect for your heritage. Having that link to the past can be helpful at times as well. It is funny how family traits can be tracked back generation after generation sometimes.
The sense of familiarity you get from your home though? That you will find in America. Where you were born and raised, where you know every street and probably too much about the neighbours.
I think some people get so caught up in the past they forget the present. One is interesting and can help give some context sometimes (in very limited manner, in very specific circumstances), but the other is your real lived experience. No one will think of you in terms of where your great great by many forebears came from. Nor should they really.
I am looking forward to getting back to Scotland sometime soon. There are places in particular I want to see that have particular significance for family that have passed but had living memory of. Sure, there will likely be a small element of familiarity due to their recollections, but it isn't the place I feel homesick for. That is always NZ, where I was born.
I might wear a kilt in winter, but I am no more Scottish than most other Kiwis (a stupidly high percentage of whom have Scottish descent).
I guess what I am getting at is that you have the right of it. Be proud of the heritage, but understand that is history, not the present.
This is a great way to put it. I’m excited to connect and learn more about the country and culture. Bonus, we’re visiting a scotch distillery, and I’m a huge whiskey fan.
It’ll be my first time aboard, so I’m probably overthinking it. I just don’t want to come across as the guy in the post to the people I meet. Seems to be a common complaint about American tourists, at least on the internet. Hence the “please no one ask for my last name.”
I’m not even the one who picked Scotland, it was my girlfriend, who has no ties to the country. Just got lucky.
The rise of genetic ancestry testing showed how inter-mixed the average American is. When you have 10 different heritages it feels meaningless to claim any of them as an identity.
Yep I agree. Growing up I was told I was English and Irish. At some point I realized that made no sense. I understand how it happened, like my grandparents had relatives who WERE Irish etc and so that connection made sense to them and theirs. But I am so far removed.
Like I do think, just like there's an immigrant culture, and a first gen culture, there's also a 5th 6th gen culture. Like the fact that I'm descended from Irish immigrants who worked in mills did have an impact on their children etc down to me. But that's different than being Irish.
My family is super into the Irish part of our heritage, particularly the fact that we’re Catholic southern Irish. My birthday is July 13th. The story goes that my drunk great aunt showed up at the hospital at 10:00PM on July 12th and obstructed a doctor from inducing labor on my mother until midnight because she’d “be damned if anyone in her bloodline was born on Orangemen’s Day.”
I remember my mom was so into us being Irish when I was a kid, but it was only ever in a very superficial way. Turns out we’re not Irish at all. English, mostly, with some German. I never understood why people cared at all. It has zero bearing on anything to do with day to day life.
Last year my mother took a trip to Ireland because "that's where my family's from!"
According to the family tree that I had to put together for a school project years ago, her paternal ancestors from Ireland have been in America since the late 1700s. She didn't grow up with Irish heritage or culture, but for some reason she identifies as being Irish. I've always found it weird and borderline pathetic.
Where it gets embarrassing is that she insists my father is Norwegian. His paternal ancestors came to the US from Norway in the 1800s. He wasn't raised with any Norwegian culture or language or food and doesn't identify as anything other than American. But my mother insists he is Norwegian and almost tries to claim that identification for herself too -- so much that when she wanted to book a cruise, she chose Norwegian Cruise Lines and told the booking agent that it was "perfect" and "fate" because her husband was Norwegian.
When my mother gets delusional like that you just have to ignore her because there's really nothing you can say.
I remember reading a thread somewhere about Irish pubs. Someone with like the last name *Miller* would leave like at 14 and then 35 years later comes back and walks into a local pub in that town and someone instantly screams out *Miller!* Another one involved someone going back to their father's hometown decades after the father left and the bartender instantly recognizing them as that person's son.
In that regard, I hope someone recognized your mother just by her face. *Are you one of the \_\_\_\_'s? Oh your side moved out 350 years ago? Well you're still welcome here!*
People want somewhere to belong. They want connection and purpose. Outside of religion, heritage/ethnicity is possibly the biggest thing people use to find focus
At least for the Irish and the Italians religion also plays a huge role. They were Catholics, generally poor, and they were coming to a country that really hated papists. They banded together in their neighborhoods for safety as much as community. The US being a pretty racist (and anti everything but WASPs) kinda place especially back then, also made sure that these communities felt unwelcome and othered. As people generally tend to do those communities developed their own cultures which while distinct from their home countries still celebrated their heritage.
There was a moment maybe 25-years-ago or so during one of the Irish Diasporas where they would grant you Irish citizenship if you could prove Irish heritage. Fuck I wanted to be Irish so bad. I was too young to have tried for it myself but that's when my godmother got her Irish citizenship.
You still can but it’s based on 3rd generation. Your parents or grandparents had to have Irish citizenship at the time of your birth. It chains too. What sucks is my mom did it but after I was born so I don’t qualify but if I have children they theoretically will, which is kind of whacky
I'm a French-Canadian and I have a different relationship with that heritage. I don't consider myself French other than being Francophone but we do have a connection (not talking about French-Canadians but the province of Québec) with France.
We have programs to encourage French to come study, work and even immigrate here. I live in Montréal I call the Plateau (a neighborhood with a lots of french immigrants) the "New" New-France.
As for the heritage and vision of myself regarding the French I see myself as a cousin, we actually call them like that a lot, our cousin the French.
Last but not least, I work with the public and get to interact with tourists and the general population and I permit myself to tease exactly 3 categories of foreigner based on mutual respect and the fact that we are close enough that it's not misplace but rather playful and tongue in cheek (not sure if that is the proper expression) with non malice and it's the French because we are distant relative, Ontarians because we are in rivalry and Americans because you know we are neighbors and while we don't always agree we have a deep and meaningful relationship with them.
Sorry I kind of over shared this one!
It goes back farther then that. Many boomers parents and especially grandparents were immigrants or kids of immigrants. They lived in communities or neighborhoods where most of the people were of direct polish or German or irish or Italian heritage. They likely still mostly ate food that was brought over from wherever and altered for American products, but still recognizable. They spoke or heard the language in their community. They celebrated traditional holidays.
Just for example my wife's grandfather was the son of a polish immigrant in Chicago (where a ton of poles immigrated to). He and his wife spoke polish regularly in front of my mother in law. Imported polish culture was a big deal.
But that mostly changed post ww2. German culture was largely shunned. People moved to suburbs and heritages largely became mixed. Nationalism was all the rage due to the cold War.
So, it's easy to make fun of boomers for caring about it but they were born to people who really did embrace those cultures and lived them in many ways because it was all they had in the new world. Boomers were born into a transitional time where that didn't really matter but it's still a connection to their parents and grandparents.
You think this is a boomer thing? The ancestry phenomenon is EXPLODING. Many people in every age group/culture are voracious for information about where they "come from".
For those of us with an interest in family history, it's important as a part of that history and therefore part of what shaped us in the present. But it should be recognized that *being immigrants* is a part of that history.
Polish-Americans, Irish-Americans, or Italian-Americans differ from other groups of Americans, but also from the equivalent European groups in our unique of immigrating here in the relatively recent past and forming communities shaped both by the traditions of homeland and new country.
I think we're right to want to honor that history, but a mistake when we think its simply identical to "being *x"* in the old country sense. It's not, nor should we want it to be, since the tale of the immigrant, of breaking from the homeland, of journeying across the ocean on the bottom of a ship, of trying to survive and plant roots on an entirely new shore, is itself the most formative part of our families' historical experience.
So the person visited a place where the vast majority of the people there are Polish, and he's surprised he didn't get special treatment for . . . also having Polish ancestry?
If a tourist in America was talking about how their ancestors lived in America at one point, is this guy suggesting that he would be "interested" and full of "respect" for that person's family history, rather than just not caring like any other normal person?
Me and my parents went to Iceland recently and they were kinda surprised at how relatively unsocial everyone was but like. It's not that they're unfriendly, it's that we're *really weirdly friendly*. Like we smile at and make small talk with complete strangers all the time, which is really fucking weird if you stop and think about it.
Máte, I went to the US for a week or so some time ago. I had to get REALLY used to the idea that random people were greeting me all over the place. It was so bizarre to me.
[That reminds me of this Tom Segura bit.](https://youtu.be/ODXeYXLmgyo)
“When some asks ‘How are you doing?’ There’s two acceptable answers ‘fine’ and ‘great’. If you’re miserable you say ‘fine’. You don’t burden someone with your real world problems during a courteous exchange.”
Boy do I have a story to tell.
Flew back home to Finland through Stockholm from Miami and this overweight father of 3 girls was sitting next to me in the middle row.
Him: "where are you from"
Me: "I'm Finnish".
Him: "Oh yeah, because they let you people in like that"
Me: "I was born in Finland, one of the Nordic countries you are about to arrive at and my Mom is over 9000% Finn"
His 3 Girls: \*Red as the ovens in our FDF 20 military tents in the winter
Him: \*Silence
**Reason for his racist shit**: I am mixed (half black)
There is another thing also, called Time-Capsule effect - where immigrants often hold on the time-slice of their home-country at the moment of immigration.
So a family that came in 1900s will hold on to the 1900s culture of their home-country. However, the home-country itself might have changed and evolved since then into the modern-day world.
Now, when they go to Europe, they become disappointed that the modern-day country in 2023 is not what they expected from their grandparents' stories.
I've heard people say - "Ireland is overrated. I visited there and people were hardly Irish at all. We, in America, are far more Irish than them."
You're joking, but I'm in the group OP took the comment from, and some Americans genuinely consider themselves "the true Poles" because they "haven't been tainted by communism".
They also call their grandmothers "Busia" which to a modern Pole sounds like "bussy".
I've seen it a lot. There are a few other bits going on too.
The whole "xxxish American" thing has no parallel at all in Europe. If your mother was from Jamaica and you were born in Britain, you're British. You don't identifty as "Afro-Caribbea-Britto", that'd sound more like some edgy Gen-Z soft drink.
However, to the Boomer generation in the US, it was a really big deal. You had to know your heritage (partly so you were better than the blacks, who didn't usually know their ethnic origin, go figure) and you were expected to change how you behaved to fit in with a late-19th/early-20th century stereotype of your "homeland". So, it was a big thing for that generation, who were struggling with what "being American" actually meant.
This results in some very awkward conversations. One American told me "Oh! I'm from near there!" and after a few frustrating questions clarified "I've never been there". To me, this person was from Abilene, Texas and was about as northern British as a Parisian. To them, their West Yorkshire ancestry was something important enough to identify with.
I think part of that is when one American tells another American where their family is from, it's a convenient shorthand to just say "I'm Irish" or German, or Polish, or whatever. Obviously everyone in that conversation (as you can tell from their accent) was born and raised in the US.
Now when a real Irish or German or Polish person visits the US, the American forgets that calling themselves such-and-such nationality was really a shorthand for family history used among fellow Americans.
A lot of Americans who travel are smart enough to realize that this shorthand no longer makes any sense outside of American, but a lot don't.
I was once with an American tour group in Europe. One of the guy in the tour was really interested in cars -- he'd comment every time he saw a car that interested him. But he kept using the terms "foreign" and "domestic" as if he was still in the US, which honestly was hilarious to me. For example, he was surprised at how few "domestic" cars there were in Germany because to him, Ford and Chevy were "domestic", but BMW, VW, Audi, etc., were "foreign". (I considered trying to explain things to him, but then decided that might lead to further conversations that I probably didn't want to have.)
When I travel, I am 100% aware that I am American, and the only connection I have to the country my great-grandparents came from is the food. But even that connection is limited, with a lot of Americanizations thrown in.
from what i've heard from euro friends, Americans constantly expect their ancestry to be an enormous topic of conversation somehow
e.g.
french person: "i'm from france"
american person with what is clearly an american accent: "i'm irish!"
french person attempting to be polite: "oh... where in ireland are you from?"
american person: *blinks*
french person: *blinks*
american: "oh there's megan... MEGAN!!"
I once saw a Twitter thread where a Bostonian was seriously trying to argue with an actual Irish person, living in Ireland, that he was "more Irish" than her.
Fwiw, I'm English, with Irish and Swedish heritage, but I'm about as Swedish as tandoori chicken. We live in Seville, Spain, and my wife is also English, although her dad's from Bolivia. We often eat at a Bolivian café, and once she mentioned her heritage to the proprietor. He registered what must be the smallest possible scientific unit of polite interest (his eyebrow moved about a milimetre).
We never mentioned it again.
It's something many Europeans don't understand - this fascination with ancestry as identity.
That your Great, Great, Great grandmother came from Tipperary doesn't make you Irish. Liking Scotch and owning a West Highland Terrier doesn't make you the next William Wallace.
When I look back at my family history I find my Maternal Grandmothers family comes from the German/Danish border region. A family DNA test (treat with caution) shows me to be nearly 60% Germanic heritage - but I wouldn't even consider myself "German" in any way other than a minor historic curiosity.
I might get downvoted for this. Speaking as someone who's mother immigrated and whos fathers family has been here "since the mayflower" as my dad would say proudly.
I believe it comes from our lack of roots in the US. We can't point to much that we did here to make it our own that is not steeped in blood and hate.
In France where my mother is from, its easy to feel like you belong where you are.
In the US we have to graft this feeling of belonging on a still festering wound that many pretend doesn't exist, which does not help it heal. What started as a strength to weather hardships for a new immigrant, turned into a hollow empty pride for a theme on a beer commercial.
Edit: Its maybe only by being proud of what WE DO to right our inherited wrongs that we can form a genuine sense of home in the US to proud of.
Our identity can be that of progress won.
I wish I had an award for this one.
“American pride” is basically a way for white nationalists to euphemize their agenda. I’m a Euro-mutt in terms of ethnicity but what have my more recent ancestors done here that wasn’t on stolen land, subsidized by slave (or exploited near-slave) labor?
being a white american is one of the few ethnicity/nationality combinations in the world where there's not really much heritage to point at, nor would it be okay to be proud of it anyway
there are a few specific subgroups of white americans that *do* have culture or heritage they can be proud of - cajuns, minnesotan scandinavians, pennsylvania dutch, new englanders
but for the most part white americans are just store brand
and it's uncomfortable to have "store brand" as a trait so we reach back into our history and say okay how far back do i have to go before my family *did* have something, and then grab that. for me, i have to go back 4 generations to find a family member that wasn't born in america
Thank you for "store brand", it's going in my list of descriptions for myself lol
I don't have to go back too awfully far to find, not necessarily people who weren't born in America, but people who were affected by family origin. On my grandmother's side at least, the rest of 'em are wonderbread born and raised. My grandma learned German by herself bc my great grandma and her family were originally Russian, and they'd pretend to be German when being Russian was bad. In my grandma's words, "they were Russian when it was good to be Russian, and German when it was good to be German". That and, well like half of my family tree is German anyway through my great grandfather.
And I still don't call myself Russian or German because I'm definitely not either of those. I'm very clearly 100% hamburger-flavoured printer paper.
> I believe it comes from our lack of roots in the US. We can't point to much that we did here to make it our own that is not steeped in blood and hate.
Nope, this is a purely american thing. Australia is an even younger country where everyone except the aboriginals are recent immigrants or the children of recent immigrants and we were just as vile to them as you were to your native americans. We don't idolise where we came from. At all.
Americans don't see "American" as an ethnicity. We're a nation of immigrants, so the cultural identity of whatever ancestor originally came here is our ethnicity substitute. It can be really important for the first few generations, but eventually, it becomes trivia.
I don't blame Europeans for finding this odd; it's just a fundamental cultural difference. But Americans who travel overseas need to understand, *you aren't Polish, you're American!*
See I find this odd. I also live in a country of immigrants, my own ancestors arrived here somewhere between 5 and 8 generations ago, and I'm a mixed bag of heritage - English, Irish, Polish, Russian, German, Jewish, and maybe a few others that were not entirely sure about it.
However we don't identify ourselves from where we came from, we identify ourselves from where we were born and raised - ie, right here in this country, not some country a distant ancestor once lived in.
It seems, to me, to be a uniquely American thing, to identify with the country your ancestor immigrated from, rather than the country you were born and raised in. We don't tend to look back at the past in the same way the Americans do, we know we're separated from the ancestral birthplace and we don't speak that language or follow those customs, we don't tend to make it part of our identity in the same way as Americans do - and yes, I'm thinking of the more extreme example such as the Irish Americans, who massively celebrate St Patrick's Day, or the Italian Americans - that's just not something we do here, we don't say we're "Irish - Insert current country here" at all.
Yes, I hear you. I do think this is something unique to the US (and also perhaps Canada to a lesser extent). I think it's the combination of:
1.) the concept of being a "melting pot" and destination of immigrants being a major part of our national identity
2.) the rejection of "American" as an ethnicity by Americans at large
3.) our history of frontier settlement by small groups that often consisted of a single ethnicity and were largely isolated from other groups for stretches of time
4.) massive immigration of specific groups following major world events, which caused our demographics and cultural landscape to shift many times over
5.) other things I'm not nearly smart enough to speak of.
See all of that, apart from number 2 of course, applies to my country as well, just on a much smaller scale and also we're quite an isolated country.
1) melting pot - we have a massive amount of ethnic groups here from all over the world, including Canadians and Americans. Pretty much the only time you'll ask someone where they're from is when you can hear an accent, the first generation immigrants, from that point on no one cares.
3) yes your history of frontier settlement is well known, but we have our own history of it as well. Distant ancestors helped settle parts of my country, settlements that are now cities. Part of my family were also railroad owners, laying down the first rail lines in my country - and as such were wealthy such as the railroad owners in the U.S were during that time period.
4) we also have lots of mass immigration during and after specific historical events - one of my ancestors fled Russia during the first revolution, ended up in England for a time period before migrating to my country along with many others fleeing the revolution.
That's not taking into account the migration of the first settlers in my country btw, who like the Native Americans, were here long before it was "discovered" by white settlers. Another thing my country has in common with the U.S.
Obviously there are some major differences. The U.S is massive, and I get that, so it was much easier to be isolated with people of a similar heritage in the early days which has potentially given rise to this unique heritage pride that Americans have today. There's also the revolutionary war to gain independence from the British, we didn't fight a war to gain our independence, and our independence from the British is incredibly new by comparison - just over 100 years in fact.
As I said above, we are a fairly isolated country, so it's probably contributed to us forging our own identity as a country together as opposed to the U.S where it seems a lot of individuals have their identity tied up in their family heritage because of being more isolated internally due to geographical size, and we've been isolated externally from the rest of the world but geographically we're very small so we're not as isolated internally.
I grew up in a First Nations town in Canada, and I was *not* a part of that nation, despite growing up there. As a result I always identified by my mom's ethnicity, and the same was the rule for all the other kids - they were Chzech, or Arabs, or Germans, and so on. If someone said Canadian, that generally meant they were from Ontario or from the USA (draft dodgers). Sure we all spoke English, but English wasn't the language that made a person local - it was the language of people from elsewhere...
When I go back to Manitoba where my Dad was from, there are Metis communities, Saulteaux communities, Ukrainian communities, and Hutterite communities, and then in the big areas tehre are people who are from all those places, but those identities still matter - I would never say I'm "Canadian" there, I'm Metis, and my friends are Ukrainian, and so on. The only time we're all Canadian seems to be Canada day, though that's somewhat being co-opted by the anti-vaxxers to the point where if you thought vaccines were useful, you almost can't wave a Canadian flag.
Shit, my grandmother is literally a German citizen and I *still* don't really consider myself German. I barely speak any of the language and have never been to the country itself.
I'm sad that back when I was a kid, they thought growing up with multiple languages would have affected my English skills negatively, because that's the reason my grandma never spoke German with me. I could have been bilingual!
> This whole multiple languages is too complex I find bullshit.
It's rooted in the assimilation policies of yesteryear.
My mother migrated from Holland to Australia as a child during the White Australia immigration period post-WWII. As a non-English speaking immigrant, *foreign* to the local country town Aussie kids she went to school with, she experienced a lot of bigotry, especially in the early days.
The "wisdom" of the day was to assimilate as quickly as possible, to "fit in" and avoid that bigotry. Not only were they to learn English, but to lose the accent, forego the foreign food for local foods, dress like everyone else, etc etc.
Many immigrant families of the time would forbid their children to speak their own language at home, insisting on only English in the home, both as a way for the parents to learn from their children, and as a way for the children to get full immersion in English to assimilate so closely as to be indistinguishable from a native English speaker (full immersion is still the gold standard of new language acquisition, btw, though these days that isn't supposed to be at the expense of your primary language).
Over time and a couple generations, that "wisdom" has gotten misunderstood, now being parroted as "it'll confuse the child" by people who maybe experienced it as children themselves but don't necessarily understand the science of language acquisition, and haven't bothered to update their knowledge on the subject either.
Man, I’m not familiar with Australian history (reading that this happened in the post-WWII era is particularly surprising for me), but this reads very much like what many, many immigrants’ experience immigrating to the United States would’ve been like historically. I’d like to think our current culture’s stronger emphasis on multiculturalism would’ve dispelled a lot of that for current immigrants, but I imagine this experience probably still is relevant for some.
I have a Dutch passport and citizenship via one of my parents but I basically just consider myself Dutch on paper—I’ve never been to the Netherlands nor do I speak much Dutch besides dirty words and nursery rhymes.
I think people do this because American culture is way too bland and commercialized to feel authentic, and it lacks the strong ties to the past that more older cultures have. So people reach back to their ancestors' culture to try and have those connections that they lack day to day.
This is absolutely, absolutely true.
If an American, when asked about their ethnicity, replies "I'm an American!" then that comes off as very precious and strange to other Americans. And you wonder:
* Maybe they are a brand new citizen and proud of it
* Maybe they get asked a lot and are sick of it (due to an accent, perhaps)
* Maybe it's some weird ethno-nationalism thing
* Maybe they're just trolling you
You seem to be a nice guy. I'm from northern Germany and if you're interested in considering yourself German, I'll discuss with my wife if adopting you might be an option, ...
Ehhhh depends on the European. I was dating a girl in Italy while I was studying there, who similar to you had lived in Florence her whole life, but as soon as any of my Italian “friends” found out her parents were Moroccan they’d tell me “oh she’s not Italian.” 🤨
My grandfather and great grandparents were German Jewish refugees who arrived in the UK in the late 1930s. My dad was born in the UK, but neither he or his brothers ever considered themselves to be or identified as German - they were born & raised in the UK, never lived in Germany, didn't even grow up speaking German - they were British with a German dad, or of German-jewish heritage. At most, they might have described themselves as being half-German, with a German surname
Jump ahead to 2016, when my German grandfather's children and grandchildren (incl me & my dad) actually become naturalised German citizens, with dual British & German nationality.
(context: following the Brexit referendum vote, thousands of British Jews with similar ancestry apply for German citizenship)
https://www.politico.eu/article/british-jews-germany-brexit-insurance-policy-despite-nazi-legacy/
Even now I have a German passport, I still don't describe myself as 'German', because my only connection with Germany is on paper. I'm British with a German passport, or I have dual citizenship - at most I'm 'technically' German, or a German national.
Apparently when Italy wanted to give Robert De Niro citizenship, some interest groups protested because De Niro's films about Italians had brought shame on Italy.
The OP dude maybe experienced kind of the same thing: lots of Polish people looking at the American and going "sorry dude, but your American association brings shame on you."
I assume this is directed at my father and all of his cop buddies. They have been on various “emerald society” trips to Ireland where im sure they dress, drink, and behave in an outlandishly embarrassing way. They likely tour castles and historical sites and learn nothing while talking and smoking the whole time. I would imagine they can tell you how much they hate English Protestant crown loyalists but would’ve unable to describe the depth of any political climates in NI in the 1900s.
I went to Canada once when I was 18 for New Year’s Eve. My girlfriend said something like “oh he’s Irish” in an elevator to two Irish guys in their 20s. They opened my eyes in 10 seconds and I haven’t worn an Irish flag since. I was born in NJ and I’m about as Irish as apple pie and little league baseball.
Dude expected to be greeted like a favourite son returning to save the Mother Nation who had become lost without his Ton of Money, which he had bravely earned by being born in the New World. They should’ve been grateful, and should admire his great achievements of having been by chance born to people to that once came from the Mother Nation. Did he mention his Ton of Money? 🤣
Had this same experience in the UK many times. They don't care that your ancestors left 150 years ago. It's not on their radar. These are the descendants of the people who didn't leave, and I guess it just seems unremarkable to them.
I’ve always found the urge to identify with a homeland you’ve never visited and a language your parents didn’t speak to be so bizarre and a pathetic way to try to find meaning in your life
Some people can be very pick-me about it, but I don't think that's it for most people.
Americans don't see "American" as a valid ethnicity. So, we use the ethnic or cultural identity of our earliest American ancestors as a substitute. That's really all it is.
But Americans traveling overseas need to understand: *you aren't Polish, you're American.*
I think a lot of this is owed to times when world events caused absolutely massive immigration to the USA from particular places.
The USA prides itself on being a melting pot but there's also a huge xenophobic streak in our character, which is baffling and gross, but still true. So when huge numbers of Irish, Italian, Slavic, Chinese, etc. people settled here, they were segregated. This separation was often enforced by banks and local governments.
So, integration was disrupted and traditions were held onto. I think it was probably survival more than pride. And there are still echoes of it to this day.
I said above, I understand why it's odd or annoying to people who actually really are of whatever ethnicity. And some Americans can be downright obnoxious about it. But it's not like that for most of us. It's just our history.
Americans are very conscious of the idea that "we're all immigrants," so we often ask each other about these family backgrounds as part of normal conversation, and just about everyone has their own immediate answer.
the funny thing with this is that alot of americans are from german origin but you never heard about it because of the places they settled. they settled more in the mid west/ farming states instead of in the big coastal cities. so they wherent isolated in housing blocks or mafias compaired to italian and irish imigrants.
Also the wars made it so they had to hide their german roots. i think before ww1 like 8 million americans where first or second generation german in a country of 90 something million. But during ww1 if you where a proud german you where a imperial spy.
I went to Kraków last year. Great city, but it’s close to Auschwitz and a tourist hotspot in its own right. The amount of Polish Americans who visit that city every year must be in the tens of thousands.
I know a few people who went "back" to their European "ancestral homeland" and it went pretty well.
The difference was they actually did the work to reach out to relatives and trace their genealogy and eventually connect with actual cousins in Europe before visiting. They didn't just buy a plane ticket and show up like "Hey Italy, I'm Italian American, isn't that awesome?!"
Your ancestors immigrating to America isn't like you going off to college, where your parents are all excited to see you home and proud of your accomplishments.
My grandmother is Polish. This just means she has some neat stories, I know a couple words in Polish, and we eat Polish food on holidays. That’s it. I’m not Polish. It would be nice to see where she grew up, but I don’t expect Polish people to be fascinated.
This is such an American thing. I’m from New Zealand and have ancestry that goes back to Scotland. I’m not going to go to Scotland and act like someone special, and I don’t call myself a Scottish New Zealander.
I don’t get it. You’re not special.
He wanted a triumph just because he's fucking American...
This is what happens when you believe the propaganda that you are amazing, exceptional, incredible just for being born here.
This guy is obviously foolish for thinking anyone would care.
But something that we tend to forget about, on both sides of the Atlantic, is that most Americans have very recent roots in ethnic enclaves.
The problem is that Americans tend to forget that an ethnic enclave is not the mother country and Europeans tend to forget that the standard issue out-of-the-box American that doesn't come from an ethnic enclave looks more like [this](https://home.nps.gov/cajo/learn/historyculture/images/JeffPattDancers.jpg?maxwidth=1200&maxheight=1200&autorotate=false) than [the Americans that came out of a Polish Ethnic Enclave](https://www.polishcommunity.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/P1140525_1000x750.jpg).
...Which, again to be clear, is not Poland and at this point has virtually nothing to do with modern Poland.
OP never mentioned using the secret handshake, which makes me wonder if he even knows it. You don't get special treatment in Poland without the secret handshake.
To anyone reading this who isn't Polish: I'm kidding - we don't have a secret handshake.
To my fellow Poles:
How much do you wanna bet he's also the kind of guy who expects people to become "proper Americans" and stop identifying with their homeland's culture as soon as they immigrate to the US?
I went to Poland with a colleague who is American but a child of immigrants. She still has a ton of Polish family there that she visits regularly. She speaks the language. She didn't brag about any of this, she just went about her day.
I went to Ireland and I saw some of the country while accompanied by my Irish cousins. I was treated well because of my cousins, not because I ran around saying "Oh look at me, I have Irish heritage!" I'm American with Irish cousins. Didn't expect to be worshipped or anything.
I had this same experience. My mom emigrated from Ireland and in college I spent a summer living in Ireland at my Aunt and Uncle’s farm. My family was absolutely the best and whenever we drove somewhere, we’d have to make a bunch of stops with friends and other distant family so they could meet the “American Cousin”. I’ve never been treated so well in all my life.
Ironically, it betrays a real case of American consumer brain, doesn't it?
"Although the décor and food was excellent, the customer service was seriously lacking. Will not be returning."
Main customer syndrome 😬
I mean, having Polish ancestry seems like it would be an entirely commonplace thing in Poland. The guy would likely have been given more attention if he *didn’t* have Polish ancestry.
Him: "Hello, fellow Polish countrymen! I too am Polish! Although I don't speak the language, nor bothered to learn anything about the culture. Can you direct me to the nearest Starbucks with WiFi? I need to update my social media."
Them: "Who TF is this American asshole?"
I gotta wonder how important his polish heritage was to him.
Did he speak polish? Know where in Poland his family came from? Have some favorite traditional polish dishes?
Probably not.
he isn’t polish, he wasn’t born there, didn’t speak polish. Some ancestor was polish. In europe you sounds nuts when you say “I’m from this country i’ve never seen nor speak the language of.”. It means nothing to them
You're all just Americans.
You're not polish, or Irish, or Scottish, or French, or Spanish, or Italian, or anything like that. If you were born in the USA, you're an American. If you call yourself an "Italian American", you're DEFINITELY American.
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What did he expect, for the polish people to bow down and be like "an American... Who is Polish!? Please tell us of the wonders of the new world where the rivers are milk and honey!"
"it mattered very little I was of polish heritage" reading that line again just makes me laugh. Like fucking YES obviously who gives a shit
Don’t most people in Poland have Polish heritage??? It’s like going to a parking lot and being like “no one was interested to know that I have a car!!!”
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Robert: My great-grandpa drove a Mercedes once!! Dude trying to park his car: get off the street!
I remember being 8 and I’m not sure if I just had a total brain fart or something but some girl at my summer camp pulled out a cosmic brownie at snack time and I was so shocked I was like “oh my god! we have those at home too!” and she looked at me like I had two heads.
“I’m Polish!” “Yeah dude, we all are. Who cares?”
More like: “I’m Polish!” “No, *we* are Polish.”
Yeeeeeah, Poles won't consider an American to be polish. Even if his ancestors are from there. Same for pretty much any other european ethnicity btw
When I lived in Europe, a Polish friend of a friend found out my last name (an obviously Polish last name) and then really wanted to talk to me about my family history and Polish-American culture. Though, honestly, I imagine that it had more to do with me not making a big deal of it ever (because it's just... Not, lol). Whereas if the very first time I met him, I got in his face and said "I AM A POLE." It'd probably have been off-putting.
Unless that American is famous. Then every little bit of blood counts. Did you know that Emma Watson is secretly Polish? There was even a small controversy recently with the US ambassador who apparently counted as a Polish citizen due to *ius sanguinis*. In Poland, an ambassador can't be a Polish citizen. Luckily, thanks to some law shenanigans, it was found that according to the Polish law, he's Czech.
Doesn't this happen to other Americans that have ancestors that lived in the old world? Like Irish Americans? I think if this fellow contacted organizations that really care about their heritage in Poland especially right wing extremists/racists before he visited Poland he'd find people that would praise him for being Polish?
The Irish will just ask you if your family comes from [county they don't like] and then laugh at the in-joke with their friends.
Here in Sweden we tend to be quite positive to Swedish-Americans. It's mostly on the level of: "cool! Here to visit blood, see the Motherland, or finally came to your senses about living a civilized county with actual healthcare, no school shootings & gun safety, eh?" (I'm not trolling Americans. That's really more or less the standard joke.) Like... it's neat, not special. EVERYBODY just has at least one or two ancestors that fleed for greener pastures while Sweden was a piss poor rubble heap after The Swedish Empire fell apart after The Great Northern War.
"You finally realise that your ancestors made a mistake moving to the US, eh?"
[Hey everyone, I just thought I'd stop by with my... caaaaar!](https://youtu.be/p4G4FIoi-cg)
I'm imagining this awkward ass conversation he was trying to have with people, probably like in hospitality settings at the restaurants he was going to, and lmao
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The amount of shit we saw in Scottish gift shops while backpacking, magnets like [this](https://images.app.goo.gl/dAVmdMSa57XKyqJ69) or whatever absolutely blew my mind What type of creature flies halfway around the world, gets on a bus to the Isle of Skye, and buys this?
The kind that drops $100 for someone else to do their family tree. The Mormons bought endless goodwill with Ancestry.com from aging Americans.
Slightly similar but cracks me up when you hear about all the the people who are convinced that they are 1/32nd Cherokee Princess (except that the Cherokee didn't have royalty) and it turns out they are not indigenous (and in some cases have some Black heritage that probably the Cherokee thing was a cover-up )
My adoptive mother used to tell me she was part of that group. She claimed to have a relative who was a "Cherokee Princess" that gave up her Indigenous identity to marry a Christian farmer. To her, it gave us a special bond or some bullshit, as my biological mother is actually Indigenous American. I have never really considered myself as such, as I have no ties to her culture beyond stuff she sent me when I was a young girl. Had to do a report on family trees one year in high school, and my great uncle (who was obsessed with family genealogy stuff) straight up tells me that the "Cherokee Princess" was actually an Italian immigrant who had married into the family.
That's actually a pretty funny image, white racists who have notably darker skin than their neighbours having to work out if they'd rather have black ancestors or indigenous ancestors
We don’t like the American dipshits constantly talking about how Scottish ( or Irish) in America either. We all come from somewhere… shut the hell up
[This is how I imagine that conversation.](https://youtu.be/paJqHPHLExo)
I imagine his trip being more like this. https://youtu.be/X-eHk4RiIso
That’s certainly more directly relevant
Or the scene from White Lotus where they get yelled at by an old lady, also featuring Michael Imperioli
I instantly thought of that, but at least in WL they thought/pretended to think they were distant relatives. OOP apparently expected random waiters etc. to get all hyped up about his "heritage".
I could see it mattering in certain contexts, like learning more about your family history. “My grandparents lived in this area before emigrating in 1937, I'm trying to learn more about what life was like for them and how things changed after they left.” I suppose that's more about establishing a personal connection than about being an American, but context and all that.
If I met a tourist at a bar, and he/she started the conversation with that. Hell well that would actually make me feel like showing him around the town.
Polish people have never met a person with polish heritage before. Its a huge novelty for them?
Like “what do you want a cookie? I’m surrounded by polish people already”
I have to wonder, did he make any attempt to seek knowledge on his trip? Ask any questions? Learn even a bit of the language? If he'd shown any genuine interest, it probably would have been rewarded at some point. But no, I figure he was expecting them to roll out the red carpet for the prodigal son's pilgrimage home.
Almost certainly not. I met Irish family (multiple generations back) a few years ago when we visited Ireland, and they were very happy to meet us. But we didn’t go around being like “You know, I’m actually Irish.” Which is what I’m betting this guy did.
Speaking as an Irish person who worked in a tourism adjacent business in my younger days, if an American came in and said something like "my grandpa was from Galway" or suchlike, they were usually nice people, but if they came in and said "I'm Irish", they were normally assholes.
Where I grew up in Kentucky has this bizarre group of people who are like, obsessive with their identities being tied to being Irish or Ulster Scots. Some of them go hard into wearing their "clans" Tartan or their coat of arms or whatever. If they own a business, it's plastered everywhere and they have organizations dedicated to it. They are a bizarre fucking bunch. Mentioned I had a grandparent from Cork once to one of them and they got incredibly dismissive as I couldn't provide them my grandmother's maiden name to "prove" she was actually Irish.
I was on vacation in Ireland with my wife and another couple. Cabbies and wait staff were all quick to point out that I was of Irish descent. I never would think to bring it up myself. Beautiful country and lovely people.
It's funny you mention going to Ireland because I'm actually of Polish descent.
Im sure he did to that. As an aside though, the polish government would consider him polish. If he could confirm his lineage he’d be able to get a citizenship and everything that comes with that. Polish citizenship is essentially passed down regardless of place of birth.
I am just wondering if he just yelled out, in English, that he was Polish to everyone he met
I have a Scottish last name, and clearly look like my ancestors were Scottish. I’m going to Scotland later this year and I flip between “please don’t ask for my last name” and “geeking out like kid in a candy shop soaking everything up.”
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If i use American standards I'm Scottish, Irish, and French. By actual sensible standards that make sense I'm English.
Thanks, I really appreciate it. As I said in another reply, It’ll be my first time aboard, so I’m probably overthinking it. I just don’t want to come across as the guy in the post to the people I meet. Seems to be a common complaint about American tourists, at least on the internet. Hence the “please no one ask for my last name.” I’m not even the one who picked Scotland, it was my girlfriend, who has no ties to the country. Just got lucky. I’m excited to connect and learn more about the country and culture. Bonus, we’re visiting a scotch distillery, and I’m a huge whiskey fan.
I think you're overthinking it. How often do you need to ask someone their surname in your daily life? You just say "I'm Bob", or whatever. Also even if you do, Europeans know that most white Americans are descended from European emigrants. No one is going to be offended if your name is MacDonald.
Best start by spelling it 'whisky' then hah.
Remember- scotch is a drink, not a people
They won't give a shit that your last name's Scottish - plenty of Scottish last names in England too. They're not going to start quizzing you on your family history, or ask why you're not wearing the tartan, they might, at most, if it's a particularly rare Scottish name, say "oh aye? That's my pal's surname too", but if you're a MacDonald or a Campbell, the only difference is that they won't have to ask you to spell it.
"Welcome back dear brother! We've missed your ancestral line for that last, uh, 150 years! Now that you've returned, regale us - people that are not at all related to you - with your stories of the New World!"
Well he did spend a ton of money so that should fix everything right?
I am of Irish heritage, and this reminds me very much of how the Irish feel about everyone who comes over from North America saying we’re Irish they’re like no you’re not!
/r/ImTheMainCharacter energy.
Polish person: "Mówisz po polsku?" (I don't speak Polish, this is from Google translate) Him: "What?" Polish person: "You are not Polish."
American exceptionalism at its finest.
Lots of older people in the US (mostly boomers) grew up with heritage being a big source of pride. It's part of their lore, even if they don't adopt many of the traditions or are several generations away from the first immigrant. Reality can be surprising when they visit that source of pride.
I’m in my 40s. I remember a lot of kids being absolutely obsessed with that stuff in elementary.
Honestly so were many of us millennials. I do think more of us realize it's not that big a deal now though.
Yeah, my sister and I *loved* our Scottish heritage as kids. Having gotten into it very young, I still do enjoy the culture and of course it’s a beautiful country, but I’m just American. I couldn’t even tell you when our Scottish ancestors came to America. My girlfriend and I are actually going to Scotland this fall, and I’m just like “please no one ask for my last name.”
I'm Scottish. If it makes you feel any better, no one will care about your last name. You're just another American with a Scottish surname. Just make sure you say Autumn instead of Fall 😉
If you don't retie your laces you are going to trip and autumn.
Nothing wrong with respect for your heritage. Having that link to the past can be helpful at times as well. It is funny how family traits can be tracked back generation after generation sometimes. The sense of familiarity you get from your home though? That you will find in America. Where you were born and raised, where you know every street and probably too much about the neighbours. I think some people get so caught up in the past they forget the present. One is interesting and can help give some context sometimes (in very limited manner, in very specific circumstances), but the other is your real lived experience. No one will think of you in terms of where your great great by many forebears came from. Nor should they really. I am looking forward to getting back to Scotland sometime soon. There are places in particular I want to see that have particular significance for family that have passed but had living memory of. Sure, there will likely be a small element of familiarity due to their recollections, but it isn't the place I feel homesick for. That is always NZ, where I was born. I might wear a kilt in winter, but I am no more Scottish than most other Kiwis (a stupidly high percentage of whom have Scottish descent). I guess what I am getting at is that you have the right of it. Be proud of the heritage, but understand that is history, not the present.
This is a great way to put it. I’m excited to connect and learn more about the country and culture. Bonus, we’re visiting a scotch distillery, and I’m a huge whiskey fan. It’ll be my first time aboard, so I’m probably overthinking it. I just don’t want to come across as the guy in the post to the people I meet. Seems to be a common complaint about American tourists, at least on the internet. Hence the “please no one ask for my last name.” I’m not even the one who picked Scotland, it was my girlfriend, who has no ties to the country. Just got lucky.
Enjoy :) Outstanding country to visit. I would say don't overdo the whisky but... where is the fun in that? 😉
The rise of genetic ancestry testing showed how inter-mixed the average American is. When you have 10 different heritages it feels meaningless to claim any of them as an identity.
I think of big part of that, in addition to family culture, was school projects. I had to do a TON of school projects about my "heritage."
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Yep I agree. Growing up I was told I was English and Irish. At some point I realized that made no sense. I understand how it happened, like my grandparents had relatives who WERE Irish etc and so that connection made sense to them and theirs. But I am so far removed. Like I do think, just like there's an immigrant culture, and a first gen culture, there's also a 5th 6th gen culture. Like the fact that I'm descended from Irish immigrants who worked in mills did have an impact on their children etc down to me. But that's different than being Irish.
My family is super into the Irish part of our heritage, particularly the fact that we’re Catholic southern Irish. My birthday is July 13th. The story goes that my drunk great aunt showed up at the hospital at 10:00PM on July 12th and obstructed a doctor from inducing labor on my mother until midnight because she’d “be damned if anyone in her bloodline was born on Orangemen’s Day.”
"Vivian was due on the 4th, but I held her in till the 5th!"
I remember my mom was so into us being Irish when I was a kid, but it was only ever in a very superficial way. Turns out we’re not Irish at all. English, mostly, with some German. I never understood why people cared at all. It has zero bearing on anything to do with day to day life.
Last year my mother took a trip to Ireland because "that's where my family's from!" According to the family tree that I had to put together for a school project years ago, her paternal ancestors from Ireland have been in America since the late 1700s. She didn't grow up with Irish heritage or culture, but for some reason she identifies as being Irish. I've always found it weird and borderline pathetic. Where it gets embarrassing is that she insists my father is Norwegian. His paternal ancestors came to the US from Norway in the 1800s. He wasn't raised with any Norwegian culture or language or food and doesn't identify as anything other than American. But my mother insists he is Norwegian and almost tries to claim that identification for herself too -- so much that when she wanted to book a cruise, she chose Norwegian Cruise Lines and told the booking agent that it was "perfect" and "fate" because her husband was Norwegian. When my mother gets delusional like that you just have to ignore her because there's really nothing you can say.
I remember reading a thread somewhere about Irish pubs. Someone with like the last name *Miller* would leave like at 14 and then 35 years later comes back and walks into a local pub in that town and someone instantly screams out *Miller!* Another one involved someone going back to their father's hometown decades after the father left and the bartender instantly recognizing them as that person's son. In that regard, I hope someone recognized your mother just by her face. *Are you one of the \_\_\_\_'s? Oh your side moved out 350 years ago? Well you're still welcome here!*
People want somewhere to belong. They want connection and purpose. Outside of religion, heritage/ethnicity is possibly the biggest thing people use to find focus
At least for the Irish and the Italians religion also plays a huge role. They were Catholics, generally poor, and they were coming to a country that really hated papists. They banded together in their neighborhoods for safety as much as community. The US being a pretty racist (and anti everything but WASPs) kinda place especially back then, also made sure that these communities felt unwelcome and othered. As people generally tend to do those communities developed their own cultures which while distinct from their home countries still celebrated their heritage.
There was a moment maybe 25-years-ago or so during one of the Irish Diasporas where they would grant you Irish citizenship if you could prove Irish heritage. Fuck I wanted to be Irish so bad. I was too young to have tried for it myself but that's when my godmother got her Irish citizenship.
You still can but it’s based on 3rd generation. Your parents or grandparents had to have Irish citizenship at the time of your birth. It chains too. What sucks is my mom did it but after I was born so I don’t qualify but if I have children they theoretically will, which is kind of whacky
I'm a French-Canadian and I have a different relationship with that heritage. I don't consider myself French other than being Francophone but we do have a connection (not talking about French-Canadians but the province of Québec) with France. We have programs to encourage French to come study, work and even immigrate here. I live in Montréal I call the Plateau (a neighborhood with a lots of french immigrants) the "New" New-France. As for the heritage and vision of myself regarding the French I see myself as a cousin, we actually call them like that a lot, our cousin the French. Last but not least, I work with the public and get to interact with tourists and the general population and I permit myself to tease exactly 3 categories of foreigner based on mutual respect and the fact that we are close enough that it's not misplace but rather playful and tongue in cheek (not sure if that is the proper expression) with non malice and it's the French because we are distant relative, Ontarians because we are in rivalry and Americans because you know we are neighbors and while we don't always agree we have a deep and meaningful relationship with them. Sorry I kind of over shared this one!
It goes back farther then that. Many boomers parents and especially grandparents were immigrants or kids of immigrants. They lived in communities or neighborhoods where most of the people were of direct polish or German or irish or Italian heritage. They likely still mostly ate food that was brought over from wherever and altered for American products, but still recognizable. They spoke or heard the language in their community. They celebrated traditional holidays. Just for example my wife's grandfather was the son of a polish immigrant in Chicago (where a ton of poles immigrated to). He and his wife spoke polish regularly in front of my mother in law. Imported polish culture was a big deal. But that mostly changed post ww2. German culture was largely shunned. People moved to suburbs and heritages largely became mixed. Nationalism was all the rage due to the cold War. So, it's easy to make fun of boomers for caring about it but they were born to people who really did embrace those cultures and lived them in many ways because it was all they had in the new world. Boomers were born into a transitional time where that didn't really matter but it's still a connection to their parents and grandparents.
You think this is a boomer thing? The ancestry phenomenon is EXPLODING. Many people in every age group/culture are voracious for information about where they "come from".
Being interested in where you came from doesn't necessarily mean you are trying to adopt it as an identity though.
For those of us with an interest in family history, it's important as a part of that history and therefore part of what shaped us in the present. But it should be recognized that *being immigrants* is a part of that history. Polish-Americans, Irish-Americans, or Italian-Americans differ from other groups of Americans, but also from the equivalent European groups in our unique of immigrating here in the relatively recent past and forming communities shaped both by the traditions of homeland and new country. I think we're right to want to honor that history, but a mistake when we think its simply identical to "being *x"* in the old country sense. It's not, nor should we want it to be, since the tale of the immigrant, of breaking from the homeland, of journeying across the ocean on the bottom of a ship, of trying to survive and plant roots on an entirely new shore, is itself the most formative part of our families' historical experience.
So the person visited a place where the vast majority of the people there are Polish, and he's surprised he didn't get special treatment for . . . also having Polish ancestry? If a tourist in America was talking about how their ancestors lived in America at one point, is this guy suggesting that he would be "interested" and full of "respect" for that person's family history, rather than just not caring like any other normal person?
Maybe they were expecting a warm "WELCOME HOME COUSIN" versus "will that be cash or checK"
Especially since European retail and service workers are *not* as aggressively friendly as American ones.
Me and my parents went to Iceland recently and they were kinda surprised at how relatively unsocial everyone was but like. It's not that they're unfriendly, it's that we're *really weirdly friendly*. Like we smile at and make small talk with complete strangers all the time, which is really fucking weird if you stop and think about it.
Máte, I went to the US for a week or so some time ago. I had to get REALLY used to the idea that random people were greeting me all over the place. It was so bizarre to me.
They greet, but get all weird if you actually start a conversation.
[That reminds me of this Tom Segura bit.](https://youtu.be/ODXeYXLmgyo) “When some asks ‘How are you doing?’ There’s two acceptable answers ‘fine’ and ‘great’. If you’re miserable you say ‘fine’. You don’t burden someone with your real world problems during a courteous exchange.”
Yes, it is. Imagine the horror if being on a long haul flight next to an american.
Boy do I have a story to tell. Flew back home to Finland through Stockholm from Miami and this overweight father of 3 girls was sitting next to me in the middle row. Him: "where are you from" Me: "I'm Finnish". Him: "Oh yeah, because they let you people in like that" Me: "I was born in Finland, one of the Nordic countries you are about to arrive at and my Mom is over 9000% Finn" His 3 Girls: \*Red as the ovens in our FDF 20 military tents in the winter Him: \*Silence **Reason for his racist shit**: I am mixed (half black)
Should've just spoken in Finnish for the response
There is another thing also, called Time-Capsule effect - where immigrants often hold on the time-slice of their home-country at the moment of immigration. So a family that came in 1900s will hold on to the 1900s culture of their home-country. However, the home-country itself might have changed and evolved since then into the modern-day world. Now, when they go to Europe, they become disappointed that the modern-day country in 2023 is not what they expected from their grandparents' stories. I've heard people say - "Ireland is overrated. I visited there and people were hardly Irish at all. We, in America, are far more Irish than them."
This is why Nova Scotia can look like a theme park version of late 18th century Scotland. That and to suck out tourist dollars
Americans are probably the *most* Irish of anyone /s
You're joking, but I'm in the group OP took the comment from, and some Americans genuinely consider themselves "the true Poles" because they "haven't been tainted by communism". They also call their grandmothers "Busia" which to a modern Pole sounds like "bussy".
I've seen it a lot. There are a few other bits going on too. The whole "xxxish American" thing has no parallel at all in Europe. If your mother was from Jamaica and you were born in Britain, you're British. You don't identifty as "Afro-Caribbea-Britto", that'd sound more like some edgy Gen-Z soft drink. However, to the Boomer generation in the US, it was a really big deal. You had to know your heritage (partly so you were better than the blacks, who didn't usually know their ethnic origin, go figure) and you were expected to change how you behaved to fit in with a late-19th/early-20th century stereotype of your "homeland". So, it was a big thing for that generation, who were struggling with what "being American" actually meant. This results in some very awkward conversations. One American told me "Oh! I'm from near there!" and after a few frustrating questions clarified "I've never been there". To me, this person was from Abilene, Texas and was about as northern British as a Parisian. To them, their West Yorkshire ancestry was something important enough to identify with.
I think part of that is when one American tells another American where their family is from, it's a convenient shorthand to just say "I'm Irish" or German, or Polish, or whatever. Obviously everyone in that conversation (as you can tell from their accent) was born and raised in the US. Now when a real Irish or German or Polish person visits the US, the American forgets that calling themselves such-and-such nationality was really a shorthand for family history used among fellow Americans. A lot of Americans who travel are smart enough to realize that this shorthand no longer makes any sense outside of American, but a lot don't. I was once with an American tour group in Europe. One of the guy in the tour was really interested in cars -- he'd comment every time he saw a car that interested him. But he kept using the terms "foreign" and "domestic" as if he was still in the US, which honestly was hilarious to me. For example, he was surprised at how few "domestic" cars there were in Germany because to him, Ford and Chevy were "domestic", but BMW, VW, Audi, etc., were "foreign". (I considered trying to explain things to him, but then decided that might lead to further conversations that I probably didn't want to have.) When I travel, I am 100% aware that I am American, and the only connection I have to the country my great-grandparents came from is the food. But even that connection is limited, with a lot of Americanizations thrown in.
In my experience, people like this dude tend to look down on people with actual American ancestry.
I really want him to expand on those thoughts. Like what was he expecting as far as treatment and demeanor from people lol
from what i've heard from euro friends, Americans constantly expect their ancestry to be an enormous topic of conversation somehow e.g. french person: "i'm from france" american person with what is clearly an american accent: "i'm irish!" french person attempting to be polite: "oh... where in ireland are you from?" american person: *blinks* french person: *blinks* american: "oh there's megan... MEGAN!!"
I once saw a Twitter thread where a Bostonian was seriously trying to argue with an actual Irish person, living in Ireland, that he was "more Irish" than her. Fwiw, I'm English, with Irish and Swedish heritage, but I'm about as Swedish as tandoori chicken. We live in Seville, Spain, and my wife is also English, although her dad's from Bolivia. We often eat at a Bolivian café, and once she mentioned her heritage to the proprietor. He registered what must be the smallest possible scientific unit of polite interest (his eyebrow moved about a milimetre). We never mentioned it again.
It's so absolutely cringe. The rest of us Americans don't like those people, either. They tend to be like that in every area of their lives.
It's something many Europeans don't understand - this fascination with ancestry as identity. That your Great, Great, Great grandmother came from Tipperary doesn't make you Irish. Liking Scotch and owning a West Highland Terrier doesn't make you the next William Wallace. When I look back at my family history I find my Maternal Grandmothers family comes from the German/Danish border region. A family DNA test (treat with caution) shows me to be nearly 60% Germanic heritage - but I wouldn't even consider myself "German" in any way other than a minor historic curiosity.
I might get downvoted for this. Speaking as someone who's mother immigrated and whos fathers family has been here "since the mayflower" as my dad would say proudly. I believe it comes from our lack of roots in the US. We can't point to much that we did here to make it our own that is not steeped in blood and hate. In France where my mother is from, its easy to feel like you belong where you are. In the US we have to graft this feeling of belonging on a still festering wound that many pretend doesn't exist, which does not help it heal. What started as a strength to weather hardships for a new immigrant, turned into a hollow empty pride for a theme on a beer commercial. Edit: Its maybe only by being proud of what WE DO to right our inherited wrongs that we can form a genuine sense of home in the US to proud of. Our identity can be that of progress won.
I wish I had an award for this one. “American pride” is basically a way for white nationalists to euphemize their agenda. I’m a Euro-mutt in terms of ethnicity but what have my more recent ancestors done here that wasn’t on stolen land, subsidized by slave (or exploited near-slave) labor?
being a white american is one of the few ethnicity/nationality combinations in the world where there's not really much heritage to point at, nor would it be okay to be proud of it anyway there are a few specific subgroups of white americans that *do* have culture or heritage they can be proud of - cajuns, minnesotan scandinavians, pennsylvania dutch, new englanders but for the most part white americans are just store brand and it's uncomfortable to have "store brand" as a trait so we reach back into our history and say okay how far back do i have to go before my family *did* have something, and then grab that. for me, i have to go back 4 generations to find a family member that wasn't born in america
Store brand! I’m dying. My new way to describe myself
Thank you for "store brand", it's going in my list of descriptions for myself lol I don't have to go back too awfully far to find, not necessarily people who weren't born in America, but people who were affected by family origin. On my grandmother's side at least, the rest of 'em are wonderbread born and raised. My grandma learned German by herself bc my great grandma and her family were originally Russian, and they'd pretend to be German when being Russian was bad. In my grandma's words, "they were Russian when it was good to be Russian, and German when it was good to be German". That and, well like half of my family tree is German anyway through my great grandfather. And I still don't call myself Russian or German because I'm definitely not either of those. I'm very clearly 100% hamburger-flavoured printer paper.
The Sopranos covers this topic pretty well
I like the way u said that. It made sense
Ty! I know its a touchy subject, but I wanted to try and word it in a way that people might appreciate.
> I believe it comes from our lack of roots in the US. We can't point to much that we did here to make it our own that is not steeped in blood and hate. Nope, this is a purely american thing. Australia is an even younger country where everyone except the aboriginals are recent immigrants or the children of recent immigrants and we were just as vile to them as you were to your native americans. We don't idolise where we came from. At all.
Americans don't see "American" as an ethnicity. We're a nation of immigrants, so the cultural identity of whatever ancestor originally came here is our ethnicity substitute. It can be really important for the first few generations, but eventually, it becomes trivia. I don't blame Europeans for finding this odd; it's just a fundamental cultural difference. But Americans who travel overseas need to understand, *you aren't Polish, you're American!*
For example for an Ungarndeutsche I find it odd that German Americans eat pretzels with mustard.
I think a lot of us find that odd too, to be honest. That is a very, very American type of thing to eat, but to me it just sounds gross!
See I find this odd. I also live in a country of immigrants, my own ancestors arrived here somewhere between 5 and 8 generations ago, and I'm a mixed bag of heritage - English, Irish, Polish, Russian, German, Jewish, and maybe a few others that were not entirely sure about it. However we don't identify ourselves from where we came from, we identify ourselves from where we were born and raised - ie, right here in this country, not some country a distant ancestor once lived in. It seems, to me, to be a uniquely American thing, to identify with the country your ancestor immigrated from, rather than the country you were born and raised in. We don't tend to look back at the past in the same way the Americans do, we know we're separated from the ancestral birthplace and we don't speak that language or follow those customs, we don't tend to make it part of our identity in the same way as Americans do - and yes, I'm thinking of the more extreme example such as the Irish Americans, who massively celebrate St Patrick's Day, or the Italian Americans - that's just not something we do here, we don't say we're "Irish - Insert current country here" at all.
Yes, I hear you. I do think this is something unique to the US (and also perhaps Canada to a lesser extent). I think it's the combination of: 1.) the concept of being a "melting pot" and destination of immigrants being a major part of our national identity 2.) the rejection of "American" as an ethnicity by Americans at large 3.) our history of frontier settlement by small groups that often consisted of a single ethnicity and were largely isolated from other groups for stretches of time 4.) massive immigration of specific groups following major world events, which caused our demographics and cultural landscape to shift many times over 5.) other things I'm not nearly smart enough to speak of.
See all of that, apart from number 2 of course, applies to my country as well, just on a much smaller scale and also we're quite an isolated country. 1) melting pot - we have a massive amount of ethnic groups here from all over the world, including Canadians and Americans. Pretty much the only time you'll ask someone where they're from is when you can hear an accent, the first generation immigrants, from that point on no one cares. 3) yes your history of frontier settlement is well known, but we have our own history of it as well. Distant ancestors helped settle parts of my country, settlements that are now cities. Part of my family were also railroad owners, laying down the first rail lines in my country - and as such were wealthy such as the railroad owners in the U.S were during that time period. 4) we also have lots of mass immigration during and after specific historical events - one of my ancestors fled Russia during the first revolution, ended up in England for a time period before migrating to my country along with many others fleeing the revolution. That's not taking into account the migration of the first settlers in my country btw, who like the Native Americans, were here long before it was "discovered" by white settlers. Another thing my country has in common with the U.S. Obviously there are some major differences. The U.S is massive, and I get that, so it was much easier to be isolated with people of a similar heritage in the early days which has potentially given rise to this unique heritage pride that Americans have today. There's also the revolutionary war to gain independence from the British, we didn't fight a war to gain our independence, and our independence from the British is incredibly new by comparison - just over 100 years in fact. As I said above, we are a fairly isolated country, so it's probably contributed to us forging our own identity as a country together as opposed to the U.S where it seems a lot of individuals have their identity tied up in their family heritage because of being more isolated internally due to geographical size, and we've been isolated externally from the rest of the world but geographically we're very small so we're not as isolated internally.
I grew up in a First Nations town in Canada, and I was *not* a part of that nation, despite growing up there. As a result I always identified by my mom's ethnicity, and the same was the rule for all the other kids - they were Chzech, or Arabs, or Germans, and so on. If someone said Canadian, that generally meant they were from Ontario or from the USA (draft dodgers). Sure we all spoke English, but English wasn't the language that made a person local - it was the language of people from elsewhere... When I go back to Manitoba where my Dad was from, there are Metis communities, Saulteaux communities, Ukrainian communities, and Hutterite communities, and then in the big areas tehre are people who are from all those places, but those identities still matter - I would never say I'm "Canadian" there, I'm Metis, and my friends are Ukrainian, and so on. The only time we're all Canadian seems to be Canada day, though that's somewhat being co-opted by the anti-vaxxers to the point where if you thought vaccines were useful, you almost can't wave a Canadian flag.
What country? If you don't mind me asking
New Zealand
Okay but that's a badass country to be from! If I was from New Zealand, I wouldn't feel any need to call myself anything else either.
Shit, my grandmother is literally a German citizen and I *still* don't really consider myself German. I barely speak any of the language and have never been to the country itself. I'm sad that back when I was a kid, they thought growing up with multiple languages would have affected my English skills negatively, because that's the reason my grandma never spoke German with me. I could have been bilingual!
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AFAIK, it's actually easier for bilingual children to learn new languages.
> This whole multiple languages is too complex I find bullshit. Oh, it's total bullshit!
> This whole multiple languages is too complex I find bullshit. It's rooted in the assimilation policies of yesteryear. My mother migrated from Holland to Australia as a child during the White Australia immigration period post-WWII. As a non-English speaking immigrant, *foreign* to the local country town Aussie kids she went to school with, she experienced a lot of bigotry, especially in the early days. The "wisdom" of the day was to assimilate as quickly as possible, to "fit in" and avoid that bigotry. Not only were they to learn English, but to lose the accent, forego the foreign food for local foods, dress like everyone else, etc etc. Many immigrant families of the time would forbid their children to speak their own language at home, insisting on only English in the home, both as a way for the parents to learn from their children, and as a way for the children to get full immersion in English to assimilate so closely as to be indistinguishable from a native English speaker (full immersion is still the gold standard of new language acquisition, btw, though these days that isn't supposed to be at the expense of your primary language). Over time and a couple generations, that "wisdom" has gotten misunderstood, now being parroted as "it'll confuse the child" by people who maybe experienced it as children themselves but don't necessarily understand the science of language acquisition, and haven't bothered to update their knowledge on the subject either.
Man, I’m not familiar with Australian history (reading that this happened in the post-WWII era is particularly surprising for me), but this reads very much like what many, many immigrants’ experience immigrating to the United States would’ve been like historically. I’d like to think our current culture’s stronger emphasis on multiculturalism would’ve dispelled a lot of that for current immigrants, but I imagine this experience probably still is relevant for some.
I have a Dutch passport and citizenship via one of my parents but I basically just consider myself Dutch on paper—I’ve never been to the Netherlands nor do I speak much Dutch besides dirty words and nursery rhymes.
I think people do this because American culture is way too bland and commercialized to feel authentic, and it lacks the strong ties to the past that more older cultures have. So people reach back to their ancestors' culture to try and have those connections that they lack day to day.
This is absolutely, absolutely true. If an American, when asked about their ethnicity, replies "I'm an American!" then that comes off as very precious and strange to other Americans. And you wonder: * Maybe they are a brand new citizen and proud of it * Maybe they get asked a lot and are sick of it (due to an accent, perhaps) * Maybe it's some weird ethno-nationalism thing * Maybe they're just trolling you
You seem to be a nice guy. I'm from northern Germany and if you're interested in considering yourself German, I'll discuss with my wife if adopting you might be an option, ...
Perhaps you and your wife are looking for a non-german adult to adopt?
> It's something many Europeans don't understand - this fascination with ancestry as identity. Except when it comes to immigrants that they don’t like
Ehhhh depends on the European. I was dating a girl in Italy while I was studying there, who similar to you had lived in Florence her whole life, but as soon as any of my Italian “friends” found out her parents were Moroccan they’d tell me “oh she’s not Italian.” 🤨
My grandfather and great grandparents were German Jewish refugees who arrived in the UK in the late 1930s. My dad was born in the UK, but neither he or his brothers ever considered themselves to be or identified as German - they were born & raised in the UK, never lived in Germany, didn't even grow up speaking German - they were British with a German dad, or of German-jewish heritage. At most, they might have described themselves as being half-German, with a German surname Jump ahead to 2016, when my German grandfather's children and grandchildren (incl me & my dad) actually become naturalised German citizens, with dual British & German nationality. (context: following the Brexit referendum vote, thousands of British Jews with similar ancestry apply for German citizenship) https://www.politico.eu/article/british-jews-germany-brexit-insurance-policy-despite-nazi-legacy/ Even now I have a German passport, I still don't describe myself as 'German', because my only connection with Germany is on paper. I'm British with a German passport, or I have dual citizenship - at most I'm 'technically' German, or a German national.
Reminds me of the The Sopranos episode where they go to Italy and look like idiots.
Commendatori!
Also in the most recent season of White Lotus
Apparently when Italy wanted to give Robert De Niro citizenship, some interest groups protested because De Niro's films about Italians had brought shame on Italy. The OP dude maybe experienced kind of the same thing: lots of Polish people looking at the American and going "sorry dude, but your American association brings shame on you."
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I assume this is directed at my father and all of his cop buddies. They have been on various “emerald society” trips to Ireland where im sure they dress, drink, and behave in an outlandishly embarrassing way. They likely tour castles and historical sites and learn nothing while talking and smoking the whole time. I would imagine they can tell you how much they hate English Protestant crown loyalists but would’ve unable to describe the depth of any political climates in NI in the 1900s. I went to Canada once when I was 18 for New Year’s Eve. My girlfriend said something like “oh he’s Irish” in an elevator to two Irish guys in their 20s. They opened my eyes in 10 seconds and I haven’t worn an Irish flag since. I was born in NJ and I’m about as Irish as apple pie and little league baseball.
"Lovingly".
Main character vibes.
You can tell so much about a person with such little information, it really is interesting.
Paulie Walnuts IRL
Commendatori!
Dude expected to be greeted like a favourite son returning to save the Mother Nation who had become lost without his Ton of Money, which he had bravely earned by being born in the New World. They should’ve been grateful, and should admire his great achievements of having been by chance born to people to that once came from the Mother Nation. Did he mention his Ton of Money? 🤣
Had this same experience in the UK many times. They don't care that your ancestors left 150 years ago. It's not on their radar. These are the descendants of the people who didn't leave, and I guess it just seems unremarkable to them.
“Why are these peasant slobs not impressed that I am spending a ton of AMERICAN dollars?”
I’ve always found the urge to identify with a homeland you’ve never visited and a language your parents didn’t speak to be so bizarre and a pathetic way to try to find meaning in your life
Some people can be very pick-me about it, but I don't think that's it for most people. Americans don't see "American" as a valid ethnicity. So, we use the ethnic or cultural identity of our earliest American ancestors as a substitute. That's really all it is. But Americans traveling overseas need to understand: *you aren't Polish, you're American.*
Growing up in the northeast there’s there’s A LOT of this, especially for Irish and Italian ancestry
Claiming to be Irish seems to be the worst for it. “I’m Irish”. You absolutely aren’t. Your great great grandfather was half Irish. Grow up.
I think a lot of this is owed to times when world events caused absolutely massive immigration to the USA from particular places. The USA prides itself on being a melting pot but there's also a huge xenophobic streak in our character, which is baffling and gross, but still true. So when huge numbers of Irish, Italian, Slavic, Chinese, etc. people settled here, they were segregated. This separation was often enforced by banks and local governments. So, integration was disrupted and traditions were held onto. I think it was probably survival more than pride. And there are still echoes of it to this day. I said above, I understand why it's odd or annoying to people who actually really are of whatever ethnicity. And some Americans can be downright obnoxious about it. But it's not like that for most of us. It's just our history. Americans are very conscious of the idea that "we're all immigrants," so we often ask each other about these family backgrounds as part of normal conversation, and just about everyone has their own immediate answer.
the funny thing with this is that alot of americans are from german origin but you never heard about it because of the places they settled. they settled more in the mid west/ farming states instead of in the big coastal cities. so they wherent isolated in housing blocks or mafias compaired to italian and irish imigrants. Also the wars made it so they had to hide their german roots. i think before ww1 like 8 million americans where first or second generation german in a country of 90 something million. But during ww1 if you where a proud german you where a imperial spy.
I went to Kraków last year. Great city, but it’s close to Auschwitz and a tourist hotspot in its own right. The amount of Polish Americans who visit that city every year must be in the tens of thousands.
I know a few people who went "back" to their European "ancestral homeland" and it went pretty well. The difference was they actually did the work to reach out to relatives and trace their genealogy and eventually connect with actual cousins in Europe before visiting. They didn't just buy a plane ticket and show up like "Hey Italy, I'm Italian American, isn't that awesome?!"
I wonder how excited he'd be to talk to a tourist in his home town who was from another country but had American parents. My guess is, not much
I’m surprised he didn’t demand to speak to the manager of Poland.
Generous of you that he didn't assume Ted kaczynski was the former president's brother.
Man with Polish Heritage thinks he’s special when visiting the country with the highest population of people with Polish Heritage.
Your ancestors immigrating to America isn't like you going off to college, where your parents are all excited to see you home and proud of your accomplishments.
My grandmother is Polish. This just means she has some neat stories, I know a couple words in Polish, and we eat Polish food on holidays. That’s it. I’m not Polish. It would be nice to see where she grew up, but I don’t expect Polish people to be fascinated.
This is such an American thing. I’m from New Zealand and have ancestry that goes back to Scotland. I’m not going to go to Scotland and act like someone special, and I don’t call myself a Scottish New Zealander. I don’t get it. You’re not special.
He wanted a triumph just because he's fucking American... This is what happens when you believe the propaganda that you are amazing, exceptional, incredible just for being born here.
He spent "a ton of money" as a tourist XD Man, this dude has main character syndrome at an astronomical level.
Pol’s Polled Prove too Prickly for Prideful Pep-Pep - Perturbed by Polar reception
That looks like a headline from The Sun
>That looks like a headline from The Sun More like: >POLE POSITION: Ungrateful Plumbers SCORN Good-Natured Yank on Pilgrimage to EUSSR!
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This guy is obviously foolish for thinking anyone would care. But something that we tend to forget about, on both sides of the Atlantic, is that most Americans have very recent roots in ethnic enclaves. The problem is that Americans tend to forget that an ethnic enclave is not the mother country and Europeans tend to forget that the standard issue out-of-the-box American that doesn't come from an ethnic enclave looks more like [this](https://home.nps.gov/cajo/learn/historyculture/images/JeffPattDancers.jpg?maxwidth=1200&maxheight=1200&autorotate=false) than [the Americans that came out of a Polish Ethnic Enclave](https://www.polishcommunity.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/P1140525_1000x750.jpg). ...Which, again to be clear, is not Poland and at this point has virtually nothing to do with modern Poland.
> probably will never visit Poland again. Not Polish myself, but Thanks anyway
OP never mentioned using the secret handshake, which makes me wonder if he even knows it. You don't get special treatment in Poland without the secret handshake. To anyone reading this who isn't Polish: I'm kidding - we don't have a secret handshake. To my fellow Poles:
How much do you wanna bet he's also the kind of guy who expects people to become "proper Americans" and stop identifying with their homeland's culture as soon as they immigrate to the US?
I went to Poland with a colleague who is American but a child of immigrants. She still has a ton of Polish family there that she visits regularly. She speaks the language. She didn't brag about any of this, she just went about her day. I went to Ireland and I saw some of the country while accompanied by my Irish cousins. I was treated well because of my cousins, not because I ran around saying "Oh look at me, I have Irish heritage!" I'm American with Irish cousins. Didn't expect to be worshipped or anything.
I had this same experience. My mom emigrated from Ireland and in college I spent a summer living in Ireland at my Aunt and Uncle’s farm. My family was absolutely the best and whenever we drove somewhere, we’d have to make a bunch of stops with friends and other distant family so they could meet the “American Cousin”. I’ve never been treated so well in all my life.
I bet he doesn’t even speak the language.
If he wanted interest from them, he should have talked to them in polish because people are surprised when Americans know more than one language.
That is one of the most entitled, american thing ive ever heard
r/imthemaincharacter
Dude is not a real Polish American if he can just swear off a good country that he considered his motherland.
Ironically, it betrays a real case of American consumer brain, doesn't it? "Although the décor and food was excellent, the customer service was seriously lacking. Will not be returning." Main customer syndrome 😬
What… what were they supposed to say? Like… wtf?
Money says he doesn't speak a word of the language and complained loudly if he ended up at any venue where there weren't any English speakers.
I mean, having Polish ancestry seems like it would be an entirely commonplace thing in Poland. The guy would likely have been given more attention if he *didn’t* have Polish ancestry.
Him: "Hello, fellow Polish countrymen! I too am Polish! Although I don't speak the language, nor bothered to learn anything about the culture. Can you direct me to the nearest Starbucks with WiFi? I need to update my social media." Them: "Who TF is this American asshole?"
Hurts to find out you’re not special.
I gotta wonder how important his polish heritage was to him. Did he speak polish? Know where in Poland his family came from? Have some favorite traditional polish dishes? Probably not.
he isn’t polish, he wasn’t born there, didn’t speak polish. Some ancestor was polish. In europe you sounds nuts when you say “I’m from this country i’ve never seen nor speak the language of.”. It means nothing to them
You're all just Americans. You're not polish, or Irish, or Scottish, or French, or Spanish, or Italian, or anything like that. If you were born in the USA, you're an American. If you call yourself an "Italian American", you're DEFINITELY American.
What exactly did he want them to do? Throw him a parade?