Heritage

I consider my heritage to be very important, and I cling to it like a plushie (Haha). But, sadly it seems like heritage cannot not be kept too well today. Just look at the common "western" person (I'm not trying to be racist, or stereotypical here. This doesn't apply to everyone). Most cannot speak a word of their heritage language. Same with African Americans. Asians imagrated to America most recently along with Hispanics, so that's why many still speak the language but give it a one or two generations down and it will be lost.

*If* and when I do have a son or daughter, I will be bringing them up in a very Japanese family. I'll teach them the language, keep the customs strong and make sure that our heritage isn't lost. We still have many of the customs from back home in our house, even in a different country.

But what about you? Does your family still hang on to their heritage? It's sad to see so much diversity go down the drain as people migrate to other countries and loose sight of what makes them who they are.

I can't really say that I know how you feel, seeing as though my parents, grandparents and great grandparents are australian.
But I can see what you mean, I have an aboriginal friend and he knows nothing of the language, culture, or much else for that matter. And he's father isn't much different either, besides a few "dot paintings" around the house and what-not...

Well, my family is completely Dutch so I can't say anything about that, I know what you mean however.

While I was in London there was one guy who was Dutch but had lived in England for a while now, and he was forgetting the language. I have thought about what it would be like to live in another country, but one thing is very clear to me, I will never forget Dutch and if I should live in another country and if I'm blessed with a lovely family =) I would not give up any particular Dutch habits either. I wasn't very fond of being Dutch when I was younger.. (stupid language, and a few years back always being considered a drugs addict =/) but I am liking it a lot more now.. I can say I'm proud to be Dutch now

While we were on vacation in Sweden we met a man who was very fond of motorcycles and he was originally Dutch, so he came up and talked to us. He had been living in Sweden for over 40 years and still spoke Dutch fluently, I think that's a very nice thing

I'm agree with you Merc, it's sad to see the diversity in cultures and habits is lost. Heritage is a very defining thing in someone's life and I think it is of high value.

Originally posted by Nénuë
but I am liking it a lot more now.. I can say I'm proud to be Dutch now

you should be ^ ^
i also will never forget the dutch language and i'll never forget the ducth habbit's
so practically the same as nen

I'm Greek and Irish and English and Italian and all sorts of things. And, unless I am part French somewhere in there, I don't know any of the languages..


EDIT:

But, my dad's side of the family is JUST like the movie My Big Fat Greek Wedding. If you thought that movie was an exaggeration of what Greek people act like, you may stop thinking that now.

You know, there was a very large and true problem in America for immigrants. When you came over, the youngest people would be ridiculed in schools for their accents. They would purposely drop their language and ONLY want to speak English in their homes (refusing to converse in the mother-tongue with their parents or grandparents, &tc.)

The fact of the matter is, if you were not a native speaker, then you had to work SO SO SO SO HARD to learn English, and the only way to learn quickly enough and thoroughly enough is to be fully immersed.

If you did not come over to America with money, having a different Tongue was your family's death-knoll. When my Great-Great Grandfather came over (I'm still 4th generation through a querk, btw), he did what all the Italians did--construction! If you think it's a dangerous job now, it was a death-sentence, then. Forget safety. The point to make, though, is that my Grandfather is the only one who knows Italian, anymore. My father went to Italy during his time in the Navy, and my mother speaks it (she's not Italian, but was raised by full Italians) because she sings in Italian. Still, though I was not raised to know Italian. I would hear a few words here and there, but English was our Tongue.

It was definitely this loss of the Italian language which fueled me at a very young age to look into Italian books once again. However, I was soon diverted to Spanish (of which I would say I am half-fluent....more than most non-Native speakers, actually....I can READ books in Spanish and understand it, and I can speak with someone for extended periods of time about general matters, but the ONLY thing I have a problem with are my verbs...so I'm probably more like 80% fluent....).

Now, I am learning Chinese (on my own and with the help of fluent Chinese speakers), and I plan to master many many more languages throughout my life.

Language, to me, is the key to understanding people.

I am both Ukranian and Polish. I know ukranian really well, but i can barely speak a word in polish. Most of my family lives really close by, so we get together for ukranian christmas...and thats about it. o_O

I love to learn new languages, I'd say I'm half fluent in french and german mainly because of school, but french is a language I like pretty much and I would like to get more fluent in it. I would like to learn many other languages as well, I am trying to teach myself some Japanese... heh
but a lot of languages hold my interest, I won't name em here I'm generally interested in almost all of em heh..

My family is completly Scottish and English... So well. The only real traditions is the mild Scottish life.. soo I believe with you Merc. I believe Family tradition keeps the memory alive. ^^,

GanonsD

Yeah we were talking about thin in History class, most likely yeah people lose their heritage, Ex:A hispanic lives in the US and the most common language he will be using is English and he ill talk to his kids in english and so on.

My family is still really big on keeping the Italian heritage alive in the house, even with me not around, heh. It was like that ever since I was little...didn't change at all. Even though about half of the family lives in the states, they still all keep it alive and kickin'.

Origianlly I had heard that I was 2% Ukrainian, but eventually I found that was untrue. So, I am 100% Polish. Yep, yet I still laugh at every polak joke XD

*please no one take offense if you're polish to what I just said*

*whew* Good thing my mom's side is English, that sure does cut down on the amount of languagues I should know.

I agree with being proud of your heritage, but I think it is also very important to be proud of your nationality as well.

I am half Yugoslavian and the other half a mix of irish, english, french canadian, and welsh. My dad's side is all yugoslavian. He can speak it fairly well, but never really passed the language down to my sister and I. we only learned a few words. I really wish I could speak it though, I would love to be able to speak another language fluently. Since my dad was born in America though, the customs are not as strong as they would be say if he had be born and raised in yugoslavia. thats why I think i didnt get to learn much. everything just dies away the further on down the generations go. Its a shame that customs and traditions are lost like that sometimes. I still try to do research of my backgrounds though to get a better feel of who I am.

Oh! I forgot to give you a present-day example.

I have a friend named Federico who is Mexicano puro. But, he will never be able to do anything but take 2nd-hand orders if he does not learn English. I tried to teach him some, but a partially-fluent teacher?...riiiight. I helped him a lot, but still.

Anyway, he watches the Spanish channel and listens to Spanish music. The TRUE way for him to learn English would be to be around as much English as possible. That's what my other Mexican buddies did--they watched TV in English and started learning and now are fluent. If you refuse or cannot change (again, this is IF you don't have money....money (and I'm not talking being rich...I'm talking NOT BEING DIRT POOR like my family was and like so many Mexicans (just to fit in the example) are, now) allows people to keep their heritage-language), you do not thrive.

On the opposite side, let's take the Chinese. There have always been two types of Chinese in America--the workers and the scholars. I am talking about the scholars: they come to learn, and congregate together, and get jobs that pay well....after a while. Usually, people who come over to get educations in America have the backing of their families--the family's hopes and dreams all rest on them. So, again, having the ability to not worry about if you have 2-bits to buy that fruit for lunch lets you keep your language much more.

Well we all know what happens to culture. One word, BABYLON. They failed to maintain the "Bowman formation", which lead to their conquest by Cyrus of Persia in 545 BC. To bad I guess.

...Anyway.... about my culture.

I'm African, and I consider my culture to be extremely rich. Just to bad the west infected the continent with A.I.Ds. I hope when I have kids I’m going to teach them the real history of the Africans. Not this negative image the west portrays.

I'm German, Irish, Italian, and Indian.
The sad thing is I know little about my culture, I'm really interested in learning the Italian language, none of my family know anything. The last living relative that I know of was my great grandmother and GGfather, they where imagrants from Germany, they couldn't speak a word of English, but some how the German language never got pasted down XD