As an European I have noticed the Americans sometimes have this weird tendency to think these Italian-American, German-American, etc. heritage have genetic, biological influence to their personalities. So that if you have Spanish or Latin America ancestors that can explain "temperament" or such things, but not because of upbringing but because these traits are believed to be hereditary genetically. That is something you almost never encounter in Europe. As a Finnish citizen I do have quite a few typical tendencies for a Finnish person, but I would never say it is because of Finnish genes. Almost everyone in Europe acknowledge its because I have lived in Finland, Finnish is my first language and my parents are Finns, therefor I have been influenced by Finnish culture and that is what causes these traits, not genetics. Of course genetics do affect some things, for instance high risk of cardiovascular disease is higher for the Finns than for example it is for Spaniards, but the Americans seem to think even personality traits and cultural things are hereditary in such weird way it reminds me of magical thinking. Well, if you truly believe like this it definitely explains why so few Americans know any other languages than English. If they think they can claim identity and qualities of any culture without knowing the language and living in those countries there isn't much incentive to learn languages and get know any cultures. If you believe you got everything you need already in your blood, why bother to learn anything.
That was the strangest way how an amerucan got an EU Citizenship without anything except a grandpa born in Italy. Any italian skills? Si, va bene. But no, he had none worth to mention.
I recently commented another video also featuring this topic of Americans claiming to "be a German" because some distant relative lived there... My reasoning was similar to yours: Your inner values and behaviour are a lot more important than your heritage when it comes to "being German". E.g. do you consider punctuality and table manners (i.e. waiting until everyone was served the food before you start eating) as important as Germans do? Just to name two examples. "Thinking and behaving" like a German makes you a lot more German than being a descendant of one. That said, I noticed a strange contradiction in my thinking: I'd disagree with with any American saying "I am German because my grandmother was German." However, I'm a lot more inclined to agree to the sentence "I am German because my grandmother lived in city XXX, Germany", where XXX is my home town. I have yet to discover why this is, but my "feeling" of someone being connected to my very surroundings is quite different, compared to claiming someone being from the "abstract" Germany. Germany also has many different sub-cultures in the different regions, it's like comparing someone from Texas to someone from California.
What is so annoying about many of these people is that what they claim as their "identity" is based on a cultural, political, and religious context that doesn't exist anymore and which is so far away from the reality of modern Europe, Germany, Italy, or whatever "home country" they claim. Mostly, they have no idea of the respective language, have a veeery sketchy and often wrong idea of the culture, very often formed through Hollywood stereotypes, and above all, don't have the faintest idea as to *why* the natives aren't amused about that. What's more, circling back to point one, their "heritage" often incorporates values that the country of their ancestors origin has long left behind, often with disgust or even horror. Especially (but not only) Germany has tried hard to gain distance from the time of, let's say, 1870, 1914, or the 1930s , and it's often rather arkward to hear these people talk about their reactionary views of a country they know only through distant family tales. Not to speak of the cultural appropriation in the form of fake Oktoberfests or the stereotypical lederhosen even if their ancestors came from the northern coast. The country they claim has made a lot of steps away from certain things of the past while they have stood still since their grand-grand parents emigrated. That's nothing special regarding Americans, of course. Look at how the Turkish community rooted in the emigration to Germany in the 60s and 70s has far more conservative views on average than their relatives in the motherland and how they voted overwhelmingly for the person representing these reactionary values. A poster boy for that effect is the former footballer Özil, who was born in Germany but promotes far right-views of far-right antidemocratic organizations in Turkey. I wonder how Turks will react to people like him in a few more decades. Take care!
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As an European I have noticed the Americans sometimes have this weird tendency to think these Italian-American, German-American, etc. heritage have genetic, biological influence to their personalities. So that if you have Spanish or Latin America ancestors that can explain "temperament" or such things, but not because of upbringing but because these traits are believed to be hereditary genetically. That is something you almost never encounter in Europe. As a Finnish citizen I do have quite a few typical tendencies for a Finnish person, but I would never say it is because of Finnish genes. Almost everyone in Europe acknowledge its because I have lived in Finland, Finnish is my first language and my parents are Finns, therefor I have been influenced by Finnish culture and that is what causes these traits, not genetics. Of course genetics do affect some things, for instance high risk of cardiovascular disease is higher for the Finns than for example it is for Spaniards, but the Americans seem to think even personality traits and cultural things are hereditary in such weird way it reminds me of magical thinking. Well, if you truly believe like this it definitely explains why so few Americans know any other languages than English. If they think they can claim identity and qualities of any culture without knowing the language and living in those countries there isn't much incentive to learn languages and get know any cultures. If you believe you got everything you need already in your blood, why bother to learn anything.
Aha, another American-"Italian" youtuber in Germany in the making :-) (NALF did exactly the same thing, in case you didn't know.)
That was the strangest way how an amerucan got an EU Citizenship without anything except a grandpa born in Italy.
Any italian skills?
Si, va bene.
But no, he had none worth to mention.
Even with American ingredients, your mami makes such yummy food!!❤️
I recently commented another video also featuring this topic of Americans claiming to "be a German" because some distant relative lived there... My reasoning was similar to yours: Your inner values and behaviour are a lot more important than your heritage when it comes to "being German". E.g. do you consider punctuality and table manners (i.e. waiting until everyone was served the food before you start eating) as important as Germans do? Just to name two examples.
"Thinking and behaving" like a German makes you a lot more German than being a descendant of one.
That said, I noticed a strange contradiction in my thinking: I'd disagree with with any American saying "I am German because my grandmother was German."
However, I'm a lot more inclined to agree to the sentence "I am German because my grandmother lived in city XXX, Germany", where XXX is my home town. I have yet to discover why this is, but my "feeling" of someone being connected to my very surroundings is quite different, compared to claiming someone being from the "abstract" Germany. Germany also has many different sub-cultures in the different regions, it's like comparing someone from Texas to someone from California.
What is so annoying about many of these people is that what they claim as their "identity" is based on a cultural, political, and religious context that doesn't exist anymore and which is so far away from the reality of modern Europe, Germany, Italy, or whatever "home country" they claim. Mostly, they have no idea of the respective language, have a veeery sketchy and often wrong idea of the culture, very often formed through Hollywood stereotypes, and above all, don't have the faintest idea as to *why* the natives aren't amused about that. What's more, circling back to point one, their "heritage" often incorporates values that the country of their ancestors origin has long left behind, often with disgust or even horror.
Especially (but not only) Germany has tried hard to gain distance from the time of, let's say, 1870, 1914, or the 1930s , and it's often rather arkward to hear these people talk about their reactionary views of a country they know only through distant family tales. Not to speak of the cultural appropriation in the form of fake Oktoberfests or the stereotypical lederhosen even if their ancestors came from the northern coast.
The country they claim has made a lot of steps away from certain things of the past while they have stood still since their grand-grand parents emigrated. That's nothing special regarding Americans, of course. Look at how the Turkish community rooted in the emigration to Germany in the 60s and 70s has far more conservative views on average than their relatives in the motherland and how they voted overwhelmingly for the person representing these reactionary values. A poster boy for that effect is the former footballer Özil, who was born in Germany but promotes far right-views of far-right antidemocratic organizations in Turkey. I wonder how Turks will react to people like him in a few more decades.
Take care!