The problem is when Americans Yanksplain our culture to us. I am happy to help Americans trace their UK ancestry, but when they tell me they know my culture better than I do, I get angry.
Yes, and I see Americans make these claims about specific cultures that are completely off the mark. For example, as a Norwegian I remember seeing a post about some Americans making the famously Norwegian tater tots, which no Norwegian in Norway has ever heard of.
And when they start bringing race into it and telling us they're more 'pure' than we are now and how their families had to move to america due to persecution 🫣
I've been admonished by an American for calling a good friend of mine a "black guy" and not an "African American ". His family originated from the West Indies and he's never set foot in America ever. He himself identified as Black British, but apparently we were both wrong and he was "African American ".
That's a common mistake, I think it's so ingrained to use the term "African American" that Americans forget what it means and continue to use it wrongly when they travel outside the USA
When Charlize Theron won her Oscar, I would have loved it if she'd used her acceptance speech to thank the Academy for being one of the few "African Americans" to have won an Oscar. Because, like, it's not incorrect. She's from South Africa and now has American citizenship, so she's an African American. With pearly white skin. I mean, it's not her fault if Americans have decided that "African American" means black, when there are innumerable examples where this just isn't true, so she'd have every right to drop that statement of fact into her acceptance speech.
Online Americans will scream about the US being the greatest country in the world, then turn around and say they are Irish because their great great aunties dog once passed through Cork. Also those ancestry tests can't really tell a specific Irish identity separate from British they are that vague. And I notice non of those yanks claim they have English or French nationality, English especially being what a sizable majority would have in their background lol.
Yeah, I feel like a lot of Americans look through their family history and then just pick whichever nationality they think is coolest or ost exotic and interesting. It's never the English bit.
I always find that thing about Americans constantly proclaiming that they "live in the greatest company in the world" so amusing. 1. It isn't necessarily true. 2. If they stop saying it they might give themselves a chance to think otherwise. Only kidding. 😇
@@ramblerandy2397 I known and still know some wonderful Americans, so not all are like this. But the ones who have totally deep throated the boot are impossible to talk to now.
I’m from NZ, also a young country in terms of the European population, younger than the US. I find we generally identify strongly with being a New Zealander and we would almost always specify if talking about heritage : eg I’m of Scottish heritage rather than I’m Scottish.
Agree. And that's what Girl Gone London doesn't seem to fully understand. The issue is not with anyone being interested in or proud of their heritage or the cultural heritage of their ancestors as that is commendable. It's that only American's use the inaccurate phrase 'I am Irish/Scottish/Italian etc' which is perceived as heading towards being delusional rather than simply saying 'My parents/grandparents/ancestors were Irish/Scottish/Italian' which is what those of UK?European decent from NZ, SA or Australia would say. Put the second way, most polite people would show an interest and ask the visitor if they knew which city or town their ancestor was from or when they left for the USA. But when someone says, they ARE from the country they are visiting, locals are left thinking that as this person sounds American, they probably mean their ancestors rather than themselves, but to assume that, may not be accurate and could cause offense so the conversation grinds to a halt which is presumably the opposite of what the American person wanted.
So what this really boils down to is Americans expecting everyone else to adapt to their way of thinking instead of aligning their thoughts and speech to the way the rest of the world thinks and speaks.
Yes, that has been my experience of them and I lived there for a year in the 2000s. They live in what I came to think of as 'The Yankee Bubble'. They rarely travel very far so know little if anything of the outside world and because they have been brainwashed from birth into thinking that the USA is the greatest country on earth they can't understand why the rest of us do things differently. Sad really. 😮
@@andypandy9013 google still says the first electric lights were by edison in 1880 somewhere over there he strung some lights, kinda in the same way Blackpool did in 1879 lol ;) don't tell google, it'll just go in a huff.
@@JJLAReacts It is! When I lived in the States I had more than one American insist that our then Queen "ruled" over us and made all the laws. When I asked what they thought our Parliament was for the standard reply was "To rubber stamp what she says". In the end I just let them get on with it. It was easier. 😅
It just makes no sense! I work in London, and one night a colleague ( Who is Irish and speaks 4 languages ) and I were out and an American said "Cool, I'm Irish too", so she promptly spoke to him in her mother tongue and he said "I am actually more Italian", so she spoke to him in Italian too.....................
Back in the 19th century there were a lot of white supremacist Americans used to big up the Anglo-Saxon / Anglophone heritage thing. Manifest Destiny (of the Anglo-Saxon people) etc. Not just being superior to people of colour but all those inferior Europeans like the Irish, Italians, Jews etc,, etc, etc. Carried on well into the 20th century. The. World War 2 came along and white supremacism took a back seat for a while. Leaving the idea of “Anglo(-Saxon) American” off the menu. Left just all those other hyphen Americans lol. Just imagine millions celebrating St George’s Day like what happens on Paddy’s Day lol. Not!
I think it’s because of British Empire built the whole east of the USA and obviously the war of 1776 after that they then called themselves Americans even tho there were from Britain which is actually correct where your born is where your from your heritage means nothing other than otherwise
I've occasionally bumped into Americans who claim that they are 'also English'. They often have somewhat racist ideas about what it means to be English though, and are indignant when I give examples of black and Indian English people as being English in a way that an American never will be.
@@garethm3242 Most actual English people don't have those views. I'd say that it's more to do with being overly preoccupied with ancestry. Building an identity out of ancestral descent, genetics, or 'blood' will push people towards unseemly views.
@5IVE-OH-ONE That makes a lot of sense, and i don't suppose there have been any mass emigration of specifically English people since independance. Obviously the OP has a chip on his shoulder about britain, glad something interesting came from it though.
I'm a Scot Yes we hate it because it it's just Americans being obsessed with race. When Scots think of being Scottish we are NOT talking about DNA. We are talking about geography and culture. Immigrants and the first gen are the only people we kinda let away with being Scottish-something. If you're parents were born in Scotland and you were born in Scotland then you are just Scottish. If you were born in America and your parents were born in America, then you are nothing but an American. It's not hard.
I did once hear an American freaking out because they'd just met their first Glaswegian black person... Like, they just couldn't get their head round him being black, but being actually Scottish, and speaking with a Scottish accent.
This strikes me as an aspect of the American habit of forgetting that non-Americans exist. As described, this is a perfectly understandable expression when used among Americans, but hasn't been altered to for the context of speaking to Europeans. Cultural appropriation is not just a case of adopting or admiring another culture, but of cynically and selfishly exploiting it.
Some people do confuse heritage and nationality. Years ago, I was on a plane back from New York and chatting to a woman from the US who was sitting next to me. She sounded perfectly American and had a US passport, but when we coming in to land and the staff were saying that non-EU nationals needed to fill in a landing card, she said she didn't need one because she was German. I didn't hang around to see what happened when she got to passport control.
Americans love saying that "Europeans don't understand genetics" - simply because we refuse to call Tommy, who was born in the U.S, doesn't speak Irish, can't find Ireland on a map and has no Irish parents - "Irish"
just ask them what hurling is, what a tin whistle is or to sing a bit of the fields of athenry. Ive never met an american (other than the ones that moved here) that knew what any of these things were. 100% of irish people know these things. I showed an american a picture of biden being given a hurl and asked him what it was and he said 'is that the cricket stick thing' to which i replied -_-... ... ...
As a Brit visiting Boston once there was a local guy who identified as Irish and told me that when I return to the UK I should tell the Queen to get out of his country. Bemused and a tad irritated I replied by saying I thought we did in 1783......he just looked at me confused! 🤣
My recent ancestry includes Scottish, English, Jamaican (so primarily Nigeria, Ghana, Mali and indigenous American), Italian and Finnish. But I tend not to call myself anything other than British. Similarly someone born in England to Irish parents will generally be considered, and consider themselves, English with Irish parents (there's always nuance to it of course) - because it's the culture that you grow up in that informs your values and perspectives more than your DNA. Whereas an American with a 3x Great Grandfather from Ireland is Irish-American. That's where the difference is. There's definitely more to it than just nationality vs ethnicity, it's almost like nature vs nurture - so you'll hear Americans claiming traits because of certain ancestry (and deadly seriously) whereas that's much less common in Europe - and the culture you're in now is more important. It's also the selectiveness that rubs us the wrong way a bit, an American could be have 70% English ancestry and 30% Scottish (and realistically with 8 great grandparents a wider mix than that) and you can guarantee they'll be looking for kilts, joining Clan societies and professing a new found love of Scotch; and almost completely disregarding the English ancestry. It's a reduction of a culture to stereotypes and superficial paraphernalia too, almost like a fetishisation and exoticising that causes friction too. I know from discussions that many Americans imagine that we have some unbroken connection to our ancestry and full knowledge of our lineage - we don't, most of us know as much as you do (most of us know who our great grandparents were if that). Secondly they seem to imagine that our culture and DNA are frozen in amber, that nobody moved from elsewhere in Europe and beyond, whereas America is the sole melting pot. Of course that's nonsense. There is also a keenness to talk about 'blood' which for us sounds a bit too close to eugenics and the Second World War etc. Kieran B
I only get annoyed when I see American who are from a certain ancestry, acting like they are from that country and know more about it that you, an actual person living there. Which I've seen multiple times online, the conversation usually goes like this. "Oh this is what Englands like" "Oh do you live there?" "No but my grandparents-" "Then you don't know what it's like and shouldn't be spouting your mouth of about a place you've never been too!" Maybe it does happen with other nationalities but seriously, I've ONLY seen americans trying to tell people who live in that country about it, like they know more than the person living there.
I can't tell you how many times I have read (from people who've never set foot in Scotland) " *I know my Scottish clan from two hundred years ago, I'm more Scottish than Scots who do not. Also, I am more Scottish than non-whites who were actually born and raised in Scotland. And this politician should be leading Scotland, and I can say that because I am Scottish. My great-grandfather came over from Glass Cow* " I have no issue with those genuinely interested in their ancestry (I am too, and my ancestors have been in Scotland as far back as I can trace), who isn't curious about their family history. But they need to leave aside any sense of entitlement, or feelings of authority, for somewhere *one of* their many ancestors left long ago.
Their great grandfather was William Wallace don't you know. Now tell them what their clan tartan is so they can buy a cringe cheap tourist tat kilt from the Mile, they're just as Scottish as you
It's not so much that people mind people claiming ancestry, it's just that if you live in England, or Scotland, or Italy, or Germany - then 'English' or 'Scottish' or 'Italian' or 'German' just naturally means the nationality. If a person (USian or otherwise) were to say 'my ancestors were Scottish' no-one would have a problem, but just saying 'I'm Scottish' doesn't mean that in Europe - it mean you are literally from Scotland (or naturalised there). Sometimes when you're travelling or talking to people overseas you sometimes need to adjust your language to avoid confusion or offence - and this is one example. One interesting point on this is that usually British English is a 'higher context' form of communication than American English, which tends to me more literal and explicit in its phrasing. I would suggest this is a notable exception, where us Brits are more likely to take it literally for cultural reasons.
Claiming that you’re Irish from America and not knowing anything about their history, eg the troubles or the fact that Ireland is split between Northern Ireland and the republic will probably not go down well either.
Yup it's very offensive as someone who lived through the troubles. Even in this video he naively says he's Irish and protestant not understanding that Irish = catholic to Irish people and protestant = British haha. But seriously the oppression we faced is something that connects us culturally as a people and American don't even know basic history nevermind our struggles. Bro Americans don't even know what a tin whistle is or that the language is called Irish not Gaelic.
I didn’t realise that Americans appear to claim nationality, but they’re actually claiming ancestry. I’m English, born and raised. My Dad was Irish. I have never said: “I’m Irish”. I have Irish ancestry.
You will qualify for an Irish passport though - so not identifying with something doesn't necessarily mean its correct not to. Yea, yor choice but a lot of uk will be part Irish, enough to have a work around brexit
my mum is Scottish born and raised ,both I and my sister are British ( born in England) but our ancestors were Scots- Irish but sadly too far back for an Irish passport 😢 4 generations ago to be precise.
I keep hearing all this stuff about young country but there were great civilizations in the US for hundreds of years prior to the founding of the US and even in the 19th century much of the country was controlled by powerful indigenous empires rather than white Europeans. Why isn't that celebrated?
What she didn't say is that Most English Welsh and Scots have some of each other's blood traces when we have a DNA test done. So even though an American has a trace of Scottish blood it doesn't mean to say their Scottish ancestors weren't from Wales or England or even France or Ireland. As British Blood is so mixed up anyway.
Not always though. I AM a Scot and have traced Scottish Ancestry as far back as the 16th century (with the expert help of the people in Register House in Edinburgh - a 30 minute drive from my home.) There is no other strand noted.
The 16th century isn't far back enough to fully explain DNA traces. The book I'm reading says they find Roman traces in almost everyone in the British Isles. Even though I'm red haired and Freckled I have traces of Mediterranean Nordic and Welsh in my DNA. Red haired and freckles show up in Africa and can be traced to Ireland and Scotland.
@@vanburgerthose DNA tests are not that accurate, and if you did DNA tests from the different companies offering them, you wouldn’t get the same results, as all the results show are the similarities of your DNA against a DNA database that company holds, which is mostly made up of samples from modern-day people, so you’re be being compared with other people alive and any heritage percentages are very rough estimates AT BEST
@vanburger I wouldn't trust the book you are reading if it claims that everybody in the UK has Roman traces. People very often don't understand that very few Roman soldiers actually came from Rome or even Italy. The legions and auxiliaries came from all over the Roman empire, so could have come from Spain, North Africa, the Middle East, the Balkans, Gaul, the Netherlands, etc.
You're just being to literal. If I were to say the traces of DNA can be traced back to Roman Times would that help.. I don't usually get into the minutiae of arguments when all I'm saying. No such thing as pure English Welsh Irish or Scots blood. There isn't a chance that over 2000 years someone hasn't procreated with someone from elsewhere. Just like Orkney and Shetlanders have strong traces of Scandinavian blood. Just try not to be so literal.
Also, I did my ancestry test and I am 50% Native American, 45% European (Mostly all Iberian/Spanish) with a bit of smaller stuff which I always forget. My parents are South American but I am British (lived here all my life).
If you could go back far enough, even those that say they are British or Scottish would probably find they are of mixed race just from that, seeing as Briton was invaded by the Romans, the Vikings, the Normans and the Anglo Saxons way back when, so even Britons and Scots are probably not just Scottish or British. I doubt there are many in the world that are not mixed race at this point, other than some, way out there tribes maybe :).
Super interesting to hear both sides. The thing that stands out to me more than anything else by far: using the term 'I'm Irish' to represent ancestral connection rather than literally being Irish as in nationality is a purely American phenomenon. The issue being that Americans are not aware that they are the only ones speaking in this way, and therefore fail to recognise that they are being borderline offensive - especially for those in places such as Ireland where societal struggle and oppression is deeply routed in the Irish experience/ history- and genuinely confusing in their phrasing (the rest of the world has no idea that they are referencing ancestry, which isn't hinted at at all in the phrase 'I'm...') . in other words, it just seems to be miscommunication at its finest.
@15:34 Britain is a part of Europe. Just like Canada is a part of (north) America. Let's wrap our heads around that. ;) I always refer to the country just south (and west) of Canada as the United States to do my little share of not confusing a country with a continent. I loved you summary and comedy at the end btw. :D
My Ex was American, I never said anything when she said 'I'm Irish' but it made me grit my teeth every time, I never pissed on her parade but I said to myself, if she ever visits Ireland, we're going to have to have a little talk first so she doesn't get laughed into the sea by the locals. My great grandfather was Irish and I've never once told a single person I'm Irish. But I get it, I think the video is interesting and JJ's comments are too, creating a better understanding is always good, and tolerance is always a good trait but it's fair to take the piss a bit every now and again as well. 😃
I was born in London. Raised here lived in spain for 15 yrs as an adult.Both my parents and my three siblings are American. It's never not once occurred to me to say I'm American or even British American. I'm English or British.
@robopecha and If I count my Canadian and American grandparents who have three different native American tribes in them, I could go around saying I'm more American than most Americans....but I don't...because that would be weird 😅
Being a young country should never be an excuse. Most of central and south America was colonised at the same time and you'll never see an Argentinian say they are Spanish or a Brazilian say they are Portuguese they are Argentinian and Brazilian through and through. Maybe the individual nature of the US has stopped you from forming new paths because you keep looking at the past not what you have built over last few hundred years.
You would never get a person from the UK or Europe do this...our ancestry could be roman, viking, germanic, french etc...especially in the UK, just from the anount of times we were invaded!!!! 😂
I'm Scottish. I've got thousands of American cousins in multiple states, but there was no contact with Scotland after the next generation was born in Rhode Island or Michigan or Utah etc, and I had no idea about these people until I started my family geneology as there was no family memory of these long forgotten folk.
It is weird. When you are talking about great-grandparents for instance you have 8 of those.. so they ALL came from wherever - or are you cherry picking whichever lineage you like best? I'm English, I have a great-grandparents who are Irish. I wouldn't claim to be Irish because they were.
I think one of the issues with this is that Americans seem to assume that theirs is the only country that people emigrated to, rather than understanding that throughout European history many people have also migrated between countries yet we don't feel a need to identify as being from a country that our ancestors were from. I'm English, my parents are English but recently we had a family party where one of my dad's Irish cousins commented on my son's red hair and said that was the Irish in him. My son was so confused and asked me if he's Irish 😂 I told him no, but your great grandma came from Ireland. I doubt he'll give it a second thought and certainly won't make it a part of his identity.
When I hear people claim to be from somewhere they are clearly not I just think "I can understand but saddened why you don't want to be associated with where you're from"😄
The main problem is that Americans with distant Scottish ancestory often become experts in thier own family history, and think that makes them experts on our culture. Your great x 4 grandfather might have been a farrier in Dundee, but you don't know anything beyond that. There's more to being Scottish than eating haggis on St Andrews day. You don't speak any of our native languages, and you couldn't tell a sgian dubh from a clabby doo. Also, I would avoid GGL's videos. She's started making full length adverts disguised as content, dropping the sponsors name and script throughout the whole thing.
What i find odd is i have both Irish and Scottish ancestry but was born and raised in England....the last thing i would ever do is claim to be either of those, im English and proud to be so. why is this not the case for Americans?.... Also the French moved to the US in droves but you never see proud French Americans...lol
Please don't take this comment offensively, but your channel has almost exclusively become a "Girl Gone London" reaction channel, mixed up with music group videos and the occasional meme reaction. Don't get me wrong, the reason I'm still here is because I think you're awesome and love your reactions, but could you mix it up a little? However, you do you and define your channel as you want - I just wanted to give some feedback. Have a great christmas :)
In my opinion its more that they usually wanna be special, different from the „normal“ majority around them and cosplaying as a different nationality is literally the easiest way to stand out
Mixed heritage isn't unique to the U.S. My grandfather's were English and Italian. My Grandmothers were Scottish and Indian. When asked, I along with anyone I know who is born here will reply British (Or maybe English, Scottish, Welsh or Irish). Also we don't say African British to describe black folks. It would just be weird.
There was a great sketch on SNL last week called' 'What Americans Think Will Happen When They Visit Ireland...' Definitely worth a watch in relation to this video.
I talked to an Irish lady on an Irish page and she was talking about her ancestral home. Since so many ancestral homes don’t exist any more I said it must be interesting to be able to track your family line. She said the ancestral home was collapsing and they couldn’t afford to repair it even though some family members wouldn’t put in any money. I asked if she lived in it , she said no.I thought maybe that was why other family members wouldn’t contribute because they wouldn’t be living in it. She asked if I had been to Ireland I said all my life Irish citizen with Irish father/ English/Irish mother. So you’re Irish no I’m a mongrel and a citizen but I can’t claim to be Irish I was born in England. She told me she was Irish and I said yes because your heritage and birth are all Ireland. Then came the rub she born in the US. she had traced her roots back to her 3 great grand parents found Her ancestral home because the family name was the same as her 3x great grandparents and found distant relatives in the area. These were the “family” members who wouldn’t pay into a fund to resurrect the house😮😮 She blamed them letting it become a wreck since they lived there but the house belong to them all . Gobsmacked didn’t cover it. She was American had never been to Ireland had no proof the house has anything to do with her heritage and fell out with complete strangers who wouldn’t cough up money for her dream. If someone told me this I doubt I would believe it but she had me believing her plight. Couldn’t decide if she was delusional, entitled or just plain nuts.
If an American is talking about their heratige or Ancestry then they should describe it as such. This goes against one of Girl Gone Londons previous videos you watched about the different context clues when Americans and Brittish people are talking. Additionally many of those americans who describe themselves in this way (without the context) would themselves still scoff at someone non-white (particularly of asian/indian descent) who said they were American, even when they WERE born in the USA
Their minds explode when someone like me says I'm British and that my parents, grandparents etc were British. Or a French colleague similarly says he's French. People especially Americans seem to have no awareness of European Empires and the implications on citizenship of black and brown people around the world.
I find it weird that Kaylin's reasoning behind this is that Americans want to belong to a sub set of their American culture. It just sounds like a way to further divide people. It seems to tie in with the obsession with skin colour, and eugenics, which doesn't seem like a good thing.
I know this isn't on you (the original video did this), but one thing that annoys me is when Americans (for some reason) distinguish Britain from the rest of Europe, like they're not a part of Europe. Distinguish Britain if you're talking about them specifically or mainly (the lady in the original video lives in the UK), but why is it so often "Britain AND Europe" when talking about Europeans overall? Is it because to many Americans Europe = EU and Britain famously left the EU?
I think most people are annoyed but not especially when Americans drop their "x-American" suffix, when both parties know what they are just talking in shorthand, but when people genuinely claim to have heritage, that upsets people.
Claiming heritage is fine with me as a Brit -- all the Anglophone countries have significant British ancestry -- but I just find it funny that they have to have a prefix. You may have Irish ancestry for example, but you don't know the first thing about actually being Irish. It is clinging to another culture rather than just simply being American.
@@francisedward8713 Right, I'm English, all my Grandparents were born and raised in the Republic of Ireland before moving to the UK. Can you imagine if I walked around saying I was Irish-English. I'd be laughed at, quite correctly, by everyone. It's my heritage and ethnicity but it's not where I'm from.
@@francisedward8713 Apologies, I mean when people claim heritage all because of one very distant ancestor they have no relation to other than blood, unlike say, the Irish American community in parts of the US especially New York and Boston which still maintains a sense of shared heritage
Yeah and when they speak for the country that they've never even been to "as an Irish person I think x" and then everyone from Ireland is thinking "well that's not right at all"
@threestepssideways1202 Similar boat here! Dad's sides all Irish, mum's is all English. Still, I'm an Englishman through and through and to say otherwise is incorrect. However, Irish culture is very similar, -- so I would say that we have a better idea of that than an 'Irish-American' -- but I would never call myself Irish-English because that simply isn't true. I'm proud to be English, which isn't popular these days, and I will leave it at that!
To my (apparently, at times?!) juvenile mindset, 'poppers" didn't go straight to some kind of "substances" but to the phrase: "Where 'ere you be, let your wind go free!!" (Sorry😅!!)
My sister in law is Hungarian and I thought she had mentioned the eating fish on Xmas eve before. So I googled it and it says it’s originally a catholic thing, particularly Italians. But they also do it in Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland, Hungary, Austria, Germany and Croatia. So there you go, you learn something new every day! 😁
This is a completely irrelevant thing but hearing "the blacks" and "whites" feels so strange as a British person. Like I feel that's a language difference
Remember watching an American on an ancestry program find out that their ancestor was actually a rent collector and "enforcer" for the landlords. Rather than one of the stereo typical poor oppressed Irish, that they had assumed.
My wife's parents were of the Windrush generation and literally from Jamaica, but my wife was born in England; she's 100% British, couldn't even fake a Jamaican accent if she tried and would be (mildly?) offended to be called Jamaican. Her genetics may influence her physical traits buts that where it ends. Europeans are familiar with people who are from other countries, maybe even still living in the country of their birth. Generational ties vary depending on closeness of family but rarely exlend beyond living relatives. When you were born in a country, saying you were from a different country because that's where your great-grandparents were from seems extremely weird and delusional. Just say your ancestors were from that country; no-one is going to be offended by that. Better still, say nothing because no-one cares. Chances are, one of your ancestors did something horrible. Why not go around telling people you're a racist rapist because your great-great grandfather was one?
Yes, we do find it really weird. I did a DNA test and found I was mostly Northern English, around 70%, Scandinavian around 17%, and about 13% Iberian (Spain/Portugal). Would I call myself English/British, yes. Would I call myself Swedish, yes in some circumstances, Spanish? No! I have UK and Swedish citizenship. UK by birth, Swedish by naturalisation, since I have lived in Sweden almost 19 years. I would never describe myself as Spanish, unless it was in the context of DNA dicussions
It’s not confusing when people claim to be Scottish but were born in Idaho, it just makes them look like they don’t have a firm grasp on reality. I also think that Kalyn was being rather generous in some of her reasoning. There are people in the US that can trace some of their ancestry back the best part of four centuries in the US but still claim to be x, y or z American. I was born in Scotland to parents who were both born in Scotland but my Paternal Grandma was English, I don’t claim to be English (neither has my Dad, nor has his twin brother who has lived in England for most of the last 60 years). My Paternal Granda’s Granda’s parents were both born in Ireland but there have been no claims in being Irish (even though we were just going back to the mid 19th century with their births). The biggest issue for many is when people who know nothing about living in a specific country tell people born and bred there that they know better because they ARE that nationality, even though they have either never been there or have maybe visited a couple of times. Claim your heritage and you’ll be welcomed, people will engage with you to find out how much you know and if they can give you more information and tips on best places to visit/stay in that area. Claim that you’re from there and you’ll display a level of arrogance that most people won’t want to engage with. But people from the US like to claim famous people in their ancestry as though they are just desperately trying to collect celebrity ancestors for some weird bragging rights (where personally I’m more impressed by my female ancestor that was a pit head labourer in Ayrshire or the crofter from Skye than I am about the possibility that I might have connections to an Irish princess that was sainted in Dalriada). I’ve lived in many places throughout England, a few in Scotland and I’ve obviously visited even more. I fully comprehend that there is a massive difference between living somewhere and visiting it, that is what so many US tourists don’t seem to get, they just work under a perpetual presumption that everywhere works the same as the US and that people are all like the average US American…whilst also not understanding why people don’t get how diverse the US is.
I have had an American who didn’t know his history but thought he did know insult me because I mentioned how the Scots came originally from Ireland. That’s because the early residents of what is now called Scotland were Picts, there were Norse settlers later but no one knows for certain why the Picts either intermixed with the Scots or were wiped out by them.
I'm myself born in England (A small place called Hull) & my mother was scottish Irish (Scottish born mum, Irish born dad) and my own dad is just plain old English, But I've always been known as just English. All of my family going back multiple generations are either Irish, Scottish, or English through & through!
I went out with an american girl who, depending on the conversation in hand, would lay claim to being either Scottish, Irish, English or Dutch. Fashion accessory is a useful term for it. I prefer to use 'mongrel' though 🤣
Sorry but this is absurd. No one talks about being English American despite the fact that this is true of many. It’s all about cherry picking romanticised views of other cultures, conveniently avoiding the darker sides.
Claiming Ancestry is one thing, and I've no problem with that, but to say that all American just mean that isn't right by along shot, I've talked to Americans that actually claim to be full on whatever nationality (especially irish) is in their Ancestry, and will argue with native from those places, that they know more about the place or customs, i was talking about good whiskys ti try, on a whisky drinkers site, i mentioned to someone one of my favourite drinks is Octomore and he should try it, and a American told me i didnt know what i was talking about because am English, and he was Scottish by his great, great grandfather, not sure how knowledge passed on in watered down DNA, but he was adamant that nothing i could say as a English man should be taken into account over him, i dont mind different views people may have reasons to disagree, but to pull the my ancestors were Scottish your English card is maddening
Fun fact. You have two parents. Four grandparents. Eight great-grandparents thirty-two x3 great-grandparents And that just covers about a century. How many of those 32 3x-great-grandparents came from the same place?
In the 60s when visiting America, my British grandmother said something very critical about the Germans, because of ....only to be sternly told off by my American aunt because her friends were of German Ancestry. Thought it was funny at the time, but now it makes me think.
@MsPeabody1231 maybe, but not in recent memory and just 20 years earlier, her 3 sons were fighting in a war against Germany, which was probably more at the forefront of her mind.
I had an Irish great grandmother, an Italian great grandfather and a Scottish grandfather, but I would never say that I'm Irish, Italian or Scottish. I'm English and feel no affinity to any other nationality.
A) you are making the declarative statement I am (nationality) not my family comes from. B) you belong to that subculture in the US but that doesn’t mean you uphold the traditions of that culture in your family. (Watch Gino di’ campo an actual Italian debate Italian food with an Italian American). C) great grand parents is far removed one set of my great grandparents was Irish, as an English/british person I do not identify as Irish in any way. 3 of my grand parents were Londoners I do not identify as a Londoner. You are better off as identifying as a Floridian, or New Yorker it will give us a better insight in to who you are and what you believe.
Just to pickup on one thing whilst we are mostly all from Africa this same ‘I’m from’ argument does extend even here as there is DNA in some humans today that have origins outside of Africa aka Neanderthals and Denisovans
Stand up and be proud to be an American, be the first generation of many to follow to say it out loud. You will always have the ancestry, that will always live inside you if you truly follow the family elders of your heritage. I have many Pakistani friends, and they do this very well, 99% that are British born would say they were British, but still very proud that their heritage and ancestry are Pakistani.
The DNA test will be way more accurate that just "sub Saharan African" there are many distinct racial groups in Africa, and the tribes stayed intact until very recently. They would definitely be able to say Ghanian v Somalian for example.
Ghanaian and Somalian are nationalities that were invented by the Europeans colonizing Africa. Actual ethnic groups/tribes are different. They cover areas of Africa that are made up of parts of two or more countries. In addition there is a lot of intermarriage between some ethnic groups in parts of Africa because people generally don't marry their cousins. The ethnic group/tribe you belong to is then based on one of your parents. This is why there are a few people like me and a few of my friends who people have difficulty stating where we are from, and children don't look how people expect.
Lived In the States for 31years and never lost my accent. When we spoke, we almost stopped traffic. We tried not to talk as it was a ticket for people starting with 'what a cute accent where are you from etc' Hated it and yes we are 'Scottish' nothing else..
Hi JJ. Thanks for your thoughts on your family origins. I appreciate your candour. I guess even in Europe we all have links to other peoples if we go back far enough. I'm Irish, I was born and live in Ireland, most of my ancestors are Irish but I also know I have some Scottish and Viking lineage in me from centuries ago. It is only in America that the music of the 20th century could have been formed. Jazz, Blues, Country, Rock, Calypso, and everything in between miraculously came together, was exported and reassembled in Europe and Africa to become the world music we have today. So thanks America.
I’m a south Londoner.. and hav been all me life, parents come from Surrey n Sussex there’s just a little further down the road.. now there parents, dads Irish and mums side Polish.. so I suppose that makes me either Irlish! Or Porish
@ I know that, you know that… but in the eyes of an American.. I’d be multi cultural!! And I’d prefer to be called bloody English.. not just a bloody Londoner
I think it goes back to stereotypes, most Brits instinctively see Americans as arrogant and then claiming a British culture just feeds into that stereotype
As such a “new kid” on the block I think many Americans are trying to find traditions to follow that the U.S.A has yet to develop. As their self proclaimed greatest country in the world hasn’t really got what more established countries would call history to bind its citizens together. After all we have homes still in use within Europe that are considerably older than the U.S.A
"I am ...." is not the same statement as "A few of my ancesters origin from ..." A nationality is a combination of language, culture, law and traditions. 150 years is about 5/6 generations ~ 2^4/5 relatives = 16 to 32 ancesters that lead to you. In between is the industrial revolution, the Napoleonic war, 2 world wars, open border policy triggered by the EU for 50 years; the cold war; split and reunition of germany etc etc I live in western Austria and have 4 countries within 50km; another 2 countries in 200km. I am pretty sure that any analysis would spit out ancesters within the last 5 generation of at least 3 nationalities (not counting any border shifts that occured; e.g. Austira-Hungary split; the switch of south Tyrol to Italy etc), that does not make me anything else than my passport states.
I consider myself British-Indian - my father's parents emigrated from India to Kenya where their children were born and brought up, at a time when both countries were still under British rule (India gained independence in 1947, Kenya in 1963). My father himself emigrated to the UK in the early 1970s, but due to him being born under British rule (in 1952) he was entitled to a British Passport. My mother's ancestry is purely British as far as she knows - in fact her family was based in Englefield Green, close to Egham which I believe you've been to. However, while my family have visited Kenya several times, none of us has ever been to India...
It's interesting how you connect with India but not with Kenya. It must have been a very close knit group to keep your connection to India so strong when so much of your family was born in Kenya. 👍🏽😘
@@titanium_di2402 part of the reason is that the whole family on my dad's side - who are all now either in Kenya, the UK, USA, Canada and Australia - kept up Indian traditions and stayed true to their heritage. There's nobody in the family actually in India any more, but in any of their homes, it's all Indian aesthetic. Though I love visiting Kenya. Two of my aunts actually taught me Indian cooking when I was little, and my grandmother on my mother's side taught me English stuff like roast, bangers & mash etc - my mother herself is, shall we say, not a good cook!
I rarely give people that detail nowadays. I just say I'm black British. Then when they ask about my parents and grandparents I say they were British also. Then depending on who they are I explain about British colonisation. I am now aware that not all my great grandparents aren't hence my last name. Btw does the place in India your ancestors come from still exist in modern day India? I knew and know people whose ancestral home is in modern day Pakistan or Bangladesh, so they have no ties to it other than knowing which ancestors were born/lived there until they emigrated to another place in the British Empire.
@@MsPeabody1231 Yeah I guess that's a fair way to see things, British colonialism spread very far and wasn't particularly pleasant in a lot of places. My family came from Morbi in Gujarat, which still exists and is where my grandparents took their surname from: maps.app.goo.gl/1MGNQ8hR5hFwr1BP8
All comes down to loyalty, for example if the 2 countries you claim to be from are the only 2 left in the world and are going to war and there is no option not to fight then which side are you going to die for?
It pains me to say but I think it triggers mostly Brits when Americans do this, A bit like someone who says they're going to Europe on holiday to a Brit it's obviously meaning mainland Europe as we wouldn't say Europe for going from England to Scotland
I don't hate that Americans say it but I'm just not interested in where their great grandad is from, they might be of foreign lands but you aint your American.
I think one of the big problems with Americans claiming they are their ancestry is the lack of knowledge or awareness about European history, particularly those claiming to be Irish, they have no idea how much fighting, how many people have died to be Irish and not British (I expect Native Americans also have same issue here). So although it may only be 100 years ago that the American person had an ancestor from a particular country, it’s not the same thing as people genuinely from there, of course it is fine to be proud of your heritage but to outright say to a person from that country that you are from there can just be plain insulting or even laughable if you don’t know the history of that place.
The problem is when Americans Yanksplain our culture to us. I am happy to help Americans trace their UK ancestry, but when they tell me they know my culture better than I do, I get angry.
Yes, and I see Americans make these claims about specific cultures that are completely off the mark. For example, as a Norwegian I remember seeing a post about some Americans making the famously Norwegian tater tots, which no Norwegian in Norway has ever heard of.
...and that girl that knows so little to start off with...
And when they start bringing race into it and telling us they're more 'pure' than we are now and how their families had to move to america due to persecution 🫣
What is UK culture? I’m 58 and from U.K. and I genuinely would love someone to explain to me what it is? Please don’t include the Royals. Thanks
What is UK culture? I’m 58 and from U.K. and I genuinely would love someone to explain to me what it is? Please don’t include the Royals. Thanks
I've been admonished by an American for calling a good friend of mine a "black guy" and not an "African American ". His family originated from the West Indies and he's never set foot in America ever. He himself identified as Black British, but apparently we were both wrong and he was "African American ".
by that logic assuming they mean only people in USa which they dont then they should say European American for every other American or Asian American
That's a common mistake, I think it's so ingrained to use the term "African American" that Americans forget what it means and continue to use it wrongly when they travel outside the USA
Yeah that one gets me aswell. 😂😂.
Americans think every black person is African American 😕
When Charlize Theron won her Oscar, I would have loved it if she'd used her acceptance speech to thank the Academy for being one of the few "African Americans" to have won an Oscar.
Because, like, it's not incorrect. She's from South Africa and now has American citizenship, so she's an African American. With pearly white skin.
I mean, it's not her fault if Americans have decided that "African American" means black, when there are innumerable examples where this just isn't true, so she'd have every right to drop that statement of fact into her acceptance speech.
Online Americans will scream about the US being the greatest country in the world, then turn around and say they are Irish because their great great aunties dog once passed through Cork. Also those ancestry tests can't really tell a specific Irish identity separate from British they are that vague. And I notice non of those yanks claim they have English or French nationality, English especially being what a sizable majority would have in their background lol.
Yeah, I feel like a lot of Americans look through their family history and then just pick whichever nationality they think is coolest or ost exotic and interesting.
It's never the English bit.
Very Funny mate 👍 🤣
I always find that thing about Americans constantly proclaiming that they "live in the greatest company in the world" so amusing. 1. It isn't necessarily true. 2. If they stop saying it they might give themselves a chance to think otherwise. Only kidding. 😇
@@ramblerandy2397 I known and still know some wonderful Americans, so not all are like this. But the ones who have totally deep throated the boot are impossible to talk to now.
@@varalys Indeed, and I know several too. And agreed, some are just impossible to talk with now.
I’m from NZ, also a young country in terms of the European population, younger than the US. I find we generally identify strongly with being a New Zealander and we would almost always specify if talking about heritage : eg I’m of Scottish heritage rather than I’m Scottish.
exactly
Agree. And that's what Girl Gone London doesn't seem to fully understand. The issue is not with anyone being interested in or proud of their heritage or the cultural heritage of their ancestors as that is commendable. It's that only American's use the inaccurate phrase 'I am Irish/Scottish/Italian etc' which is perceived as heading towards being delusional rather than simply saying 'My parents/grandparents/ancestors were Irish/Scottish/Italian' which is what those of UK?European decent from NZ, SA or Australia would say. Put the second way, most polite people would show an interest and ask the visitor if they knew which city or town their ancestor was from or when they left for the USA. But when someone says, they ARE from the country they are visiting, locals are left thinking that as this person sounds American, they probably mean their ancestors rather than themselves, but to assume that, may not be accurate and could cause offense so the conversation grinds to a halt which is presumably the opposite of what the American person wanted.
So what this really boils down to is Americans expecting everyone else to adapt to their way of thinking instead of aligning their thoughts and speech to the way the rest of the world thinks and speaks.
While being 5% of the world
exactly. so now we watched another manual on how to be more understanding with americans.
Yes, that has been my experience of them and I lived there for a year in the 2000s.
They live in what I came to think of as 'The Yankee Bubble'. They rarely travel very far so know little if anything of the outside world and because they have been brainwashed from birth into thinking that the USA is the greatest country on earth they can't understand why the rest of us do things differently.
Sad really. 😮
@@LalaDepala_00Less than 5%.
@@andypandy9013 google still says the first electric lights were by edison in 1880 somewhere over there he strung some lights, kinda in the same way Blackpool did in 1879 lol ;) don't tell google, it'll just go in a huff.
I heard an American woman IN DUBLIN saying that to experience real Irish culture, you need to go to Boston. 🤦😂
That Boston in American that the Lincolnshire Boston was named after? 🤣
@@Jill-mh2wn hahahahaahah aye, tell them that they'd believe it too lol (psst, better not tell them about new YORK and even moreso new AMSTERDAM lol
It's not the claim of ancestry that annoys; it's those who boldly state they know better than the native. This happens a lot.
That must be so annoying 🤦🏻
@@JJLAReacts
It is! When I lived in the States I had more than one American insist that our then Queen "ruled" over us and made all the laws.
When I asked what they thought our Parliament was for the standard reply was "To rubber stamp what she says".
In the end I just let them get on with it. It was easier. 😅
@@andypandy9013😂
ffs I just spewed yoghurt all over my screen and keyboard when you said that the family does poppers on Christmas 😃
Ffs!! You just made me spit tea all down my favourite jumper reading this.. thx 😢
It just makes no sense! I work in London, and one night a colleague ( Who is Irish and speaks 4 languages ) and I were out and an American said "Cool, I'm Irish too", so she promptly spoke to him in her mother tongue and he said "I am actually more Italian", so she spoke to him in Italian too.....................
Well done!
😂
Odd that you never hear someone refer to themselves as "English American". Cheers from Ireland.
Back in the 19th century there were a lot of white supremacist Americans used to big up the Anglo-Saxon / Anglophone heritage thing. Manifest Destiny (of the Anglo-Saxon people) etc. Not just being superior to people of colour but all those inferior Europeans like the Irish, Italians, Jews etc,, etc, etc. Carried on well into the 20th century. The. World War 2 came along and white supremacism took a back seat for a while. Leaving the idea of “Anglo(-Saxon) American” off the menu. Left just all those other hyphen Americans lol. Just imagine millions celebrating St George’s Day like what happens on Paddy’s Day lol. Not!
I think it’s because of British Empire built the whole east of the USA and obviously the war of 1776 after that they then called themselves Americans even tho there were from Britain which is actually correct where your born is where your from your heritage means nothing other than otherwise
I've occasionally bumped into Americans who claim that they are 'also English'. They often have somewhat racist ideas about what it means to be English though, and are indignant when I give examples of black and Indian English people as being English in a way that an American never will be.
@@garethm3242 Most actual English people don't have those views. I'd say that it's more to do with being overly preoccupied with ancestry. Building an identity out of ancestral descent, genetics, or 'blood' will push people towards unseemly views.
@5IVE-OH-ONE That makes a lot of sense, and i don't suppose there have been any mass emigration of specifically English people since independance. Obviously the OP has a chip on his shoulder about britain, glad something interesting came from it though.
I'm a Scot
Yes we hate it because it it's just Americans being obsessed with race. When Scots think of being Scottish we are NOT talking about DNA. We are talking about geography and culture. Immigrants and the first gen are the only people we kinda let away with being Scottish-something. If you're parents were born in Scotland and you were born in Scotland then you are just Scottish. If you were born in America and your parents were born in America, then you are nothing but an American. It's not hard.
I did once hear an American freaking out because they'd just met their first Glaswegian black person... Like, they just couldn't get their head round him being black, but being actually Scottish, and speaking with a Scottish accent.
This strikes me as an aspect of the American habit of forgetting that non-Americans exist. As described, this is a perfectly understandable expression when used among Americans, but hasn't been altered to for the context of speaking to Europeans.
Cultural appropriation is not just a case of adopting or admiring another culture, but of cynically and selfishly exploiting it.
Some people do confuse heritage and nationality. Years ago, I was on a plane back from New York and chatting to a woman from the US who was sitting next to me. She sounded perfectly American and had a US passport, but when we coming in to land and the staff were saying that non-EU nationals needed to fill in a landing card, she said she didn't need one because she was German. I didn't hang around to see what happened when she got to passport control.
😂
I knew a girl from California who’d say she was “a quarter this, a quarter that and one eighth something else”. It was ridiculous
It shows that underneath their arrogance and being loud, Americans are longing for cultural root and identity. That's sad.
Americans love saying that "Europeans don't understand genetics" - simply because we refuse to call Tommy, who was born in the U.S, doesn't speak Irish, can't find Ireland on a map and has no Irish parents - "Irish"
just ask them what hurling is, what a tin whistle is or to sing a bit of the fields of athenry. Ive never met an american (other than the ones that moved here) that knew what any of these things were. 100% of irish people know these things. I showed an american a picture of biden being given a hurl and asked him what it was and he said 'is that the cricket stick thing' to which i replied -_-... ... ...
@@WookieWarriorzI'm not Irish, I'm Dutch, but when Americans say they are Irish I am angry in your name xD
Ah, but just a minute, they're MORE 'Oirish' than the 'Oirish'.
As a Brit visiting Boston once there was a local guy who identified as Irish and told me that when I return to the UK I should tell the Queen to get out of his country. Bemused and a tad irritated I replied by saying I thought we did in 1783......he just looked at me confused! 🤣
You have SIXTEEN great great grandparents. To claim you are German based on TWO seems like a bit of a stretch 😂
My recent ancestry includes Scottish, English, Jamaican (so primarily Nigeria, Ghana, Mali and indigenous American), Italian and Finnish. But I tend not to call myself anything other than British. Similarly someone born in England to Irish parents will generally be considered, and consider themselves, English with Irish parents (there's always nuance to it of course) - because it's the culture that you grow up in that informs your values and perspectives more than your DNA. Whereas an American with a 3x Great Grandfather from Ireland is Irish-American. That's where the difference is.
There's definitely more to it than just nationality vs ethnicity, it's almost like nature vs nurture - so you'll hear Americans claiming traits because of certain ancestry (and deadly seriously) whereas that's much less common in Europe - and the culture you're in now is more important. It's also the selectiveness that rubs us the wrong way a bit, an American could be have 70% English ancestry and 30% Scottish (and realistically with 8 great grandparents a wider mix than that) and you can guarantee they'll be looking for kilts, joining Clan societies and professing a new found love of Scotch; and almost completely disregarding the English ancestry. It's a reduction of a culture to stereotypes and superficial paraphernalia too, almost like a fetishisation and exoticising that causes friction too.
I know from discussions that many Americans imagine that we have some unbroken connection to our ancestry and full knowledge of our lineage - we don't, most of us know as much as you do (most of us know who our great grandparents were if that). Secondly they seem to imagine that our culture and DNA are frozen in amber, that nobody moved from elsewhere in Europe and beyond, whereas America is the sole melting pot. Of course that's nonsense.
There is also a keenness to talk about 'blood' which for us sounds a bit too close to eugenics and the Second World War etc.
Kieran B
Well said!!
"I'm Irish" means you're from Ireland. "I have Irish ancestry" means your ancestors came from Ireland. Americans haven't worked that out yet.
Americans speak :English simplified' they just need to learn more
I only get annoyed when I see American who are from a certain ancestry, acting like they are from that country and know more about it that you, an actual person living there. Which I've seen multiple times online, the conversation usually goes like this.
"Oh this is what Englands like"
"Oh do you live there?"
"No but my grandparents-"
"Then you don't know what it's like and shouldn't be spouting your mouth of about a place you've never been too!"
Maybe it does happen with other nationalities but seriously, I've ONLY seen americans trying to tell people who live in that country about it, like they know more than the person living there.
I can't tell you how many times I have read (from people who've never set foot in Scotland) " *I know my Scottish clan from two hundred years ago, I'm more Scottish than Scots who do not. Also, I am more Scottish than non-whites who were actually born and raised in Scotland. And this politician should be leading Scotland, and I can say that because I am Scottish. My great-grandfather came over from Glass Cow* "
I have no issue with those genuinely interested in their ancestry (I am too, and my ancestors have been in Scotland as far back as I can trace), who isn't curious about their family history. But they need to leave aside any sense of entitlement, or feelings of authority, for somewhere *one of* their many ancestors left long ago.
I bet they don't even know what Buckfast is.
The drink of the gods 😉
Especially when describing themselves as "Skattish"! I'm a Scot, as were my family as far back as we can go. I'm not a SKATT!
Their great grandfather was William Wallace don't you know. Now tell them what their clan tartan is so they can buy a cringe cheap tourist tat kilt from the Mile, they're just as Scottish as you
I read somewhere about an American who visited Scotland for the first time. He announced he was Scottish in a pub and almost got thrown out.
It's not so much that people mind people claiming ancestry, it's just that if you live in England, or Scotland, or Italy, or Germany - then 'English' or 'Scottish' or 'Italian' or 'German' just naturally means the nationality. If a person (USian or otherwise) were to say 'my ancestors were Scottish' no-one would have a problem, but just saying 'I'm Scottish' doesn't mean that in Europe - it mean you are literally from Scotland (or naturalised there). Sometimes when you're travelling or talking to people overseas you sometimes need to adjust your language to avoid confusion or offence - and this is one example. One interesting point on this is that usually British English is a 'higher context' form of communication than American English, which tends to me more literal and explicit in its phrasing. I would suggest this is a notable exception, where us Brits are more likely to take it literally for cultural reasons.
Claiming that you’re Irish from America and not knowing anything about their history, eg the troubles or the fact that Ireland is split between Northern Ireland and the republic will probably not go down well either.
Yup it's very offensive as someone who lived through the troubles. Even in this video he naively says he's Irish and protestant not understanding that Irish = catholic to Irish people and protestant = British haha. But seriously the oppression we faced is something that connects us culturally as a people and American don't even know basic history nevermind our struggles. Bro Americans don't even know what a tin whistle is or that the language is called Irish not Gaelic.
Perhaps if Americans said "I'm American", instead of separating, the country may be more together....what do I know? 🙄 One love from Scotland. 💙
I didn’t realise that Americans appear to claim nationality, but they’re actually claiming ancestry. I’m English, born and raised. My Dad was Irish. I have never said: “I’m Irish”. I have Irish ancestry.
You will qualify for an Irish passport though - so not identifying with something doesn't necessarily mean its correct not to. Yea, yor choice but a lot of uk will be part Irish, enough to have a work around brexit
my mum is Scottish born and raised ,both I and my sister are British ( born in England) but our ancestors were Scots- Irish but sadly too far back for an Irish passport 😢 4 generations ago to be precise.
I keep hearing all this stuff about young country but there were great civilizations in the US for hundreds of years prior to the founding of the US and even in the 19th century much of the country was controlled by powerful indigenous empires rather than white Europeans. Why isn't that celebrated?
'Christmas Poppers', would make for a unique kind of Christmas party. 😳🤣
What she didn't say is that Most English Welsh and Scots have some of each other's blood traces when we have a DNA test done. So even though an American has a trace of Scottish blood it doesn't mean to say their Scottish ancestors weren't from Wales or England or even France or Ireland. As British Blood is so mixed up anyway.
Not always though. I AM a Scot and have traced Scottish Ancestry as far back as the 16th century (with the expert help of the people in Register House in Edinburgh - a 30 minute drive from my home.) There is no other strand noted.
The 16th century isn't far back enough to fully explain DNA traces. The book I'm reading says they find Roman traces in almost everyone in the British Isles. Even though I'm red haired and Freckled I have traces of Mediterranean Nordic and Welsh in my DNA. Red haired and freckles show up in Africa and can be traced to Ireland and Scotland.
@@vanburgerthose DNA tests are not that accurate, and if you did DNA tests from the different companies offering them, you wouldn’t get the same results, as all the results show are the similarities of your DNA against a DNA database that company holds, which is mostly made up of samples from modern-day people, so you’re be being compared with other people alive and any heritage percentages are very rough estimates AT BEST
@vanburger I wouldn't trust the book you are reading if it claims that everybody in the UK has Roman traces. People very often don't understand that very few Roman soldiers actually came from Rome or even Italy. The legions and auxiliaries came from all over the Roman empire, so could have come from Spain, North Africa, the Middle East, the Balkans, Gaul, the Netherlands, etc.
You're just being to literal. If I were to say the traces of DNA can be traced back to Roman Times would that help..
I don't usually get into the minutiae of arguments when all I'm saying. No such thing as pure English Welsh Irish or Scots blood. There isn't a chance that over 2000 years someone hasn't procreated with someone from elsewhere. Just like Orkney and Shetlanders have strong traces of Scandinavian blood.
Just try not to be so literal.
Also, I did my ancestry test and I am 50% Native American, 45% European (Mostly all Iberian/Spanish) with a bit of smaller stuff which I always forget. My parents are South American but I am British (lived here all my life).
My great grandfather was Italian. I speak fluent Italian. I am not Italian.
If you could go back far enough, even those that say they are British or Scottish would probably find they are of mixed race just from that, seeing as Briton was invaded by the Romans, the Vikings, the Normans and the Anglo Saxons way back when, so even Britons and Scots are probably not just Scottish or British. I doubt there are many in the world that are not mixed race at this point, other than some, way out there tribes maybe :).
Funny enough Celts came from Central Europe. We even had potatoes here before Ireland, as well as lord of the dance- which is Bohemian.
@JJLA That your family get together at Christmas and do "poppers" explains everything‼️😂😂😂😂😂❤🇬🇧😁
🤣
Super interesting to hear both sides. The thing that stands out to me more than anything else by far: using the term 'I'm Irish' to represent ancestral connection rather than literally being Irish as in nationality is a purely American phenomenon. The issue being that Americans are not aware that they are the only ones speaking in this way, and therefore fail to recognise that they are being borderline offensive - especially for those in places such as Ireland where societal struggle and oppression is deeply routed in the Irish experience/ history- and genuinely confusing in their phrasing (the rest of the world has no idea that they are referencing ancestry, which isn't hinted at at all in the phrase 'I'm...') . in other words, it just seems to be miscommunication at its finest.
Lol the title😂😂😂 Brits are europeans
@15:34 Britain is a part of Europe. Just like Canada is a part of (north) America. Let's wrap our heads around that. ;) I always refer to the country just south (and west) of Canada as the United States to do my little share of not confusing a country with a continent.
I loved you summary and comedy at the end btw. :D
My Ex was American, I never said anything when she said 'I'm Irish' but it made me grit my teeth every time, I never pissed on her parade but I said to myself, if she ever visits Ireland, we're going to have to have a little talk first so she doesn't get laughed into the sea by the locals. My great grandfather was Irish and I've never once told a single person I'm Irish. But I get it, I think the video is interesting and JJ's comments are too, creating a better understanding is always good, and tolerance is always a good trait but it's fair to take the piss a bit every now and again as well. 😃
I was born in London. Raised here lived in spain for 15 yrs as an adult.Both my parents and my three siblings are American. It's never not once occurred to me to say I'm American or even British American. I'm English or British.
you would be american british then :)
@robopecha and If I count my Canadian and American grandparents who have three different native American tribes in them, I could go around saying I'm more American than most Americans....but I don't...because that would be weird 😅
Being a young country should never be an excuse. Most of central and south America was colonised at the same time and you'll never see an Argentinian say they are Spanish or a Brazilian say they are Portuguese they are Argentinian and Brazilian through and through. Maybe the individual nature of the US has stopped you from forming new paths because you keep looking at the past not what you have built over last few hundred years.
That's interesting, what you say about these south American countries. I never thought of that before.
You would never get a person from the UK or Europe do this...our ancestry could be roman, viking, germanic, french etc...especially in the UK, just from the anount of times we were invaded!!!! 😂
You forgot all the immigrants and refugees that came to Britain from elsewhere, plus the people from colonies.
I'm Scottish. I've got thousands of American cousins in multiple states, but there was no contact with Scotland after the next generation was born in Rhode Island or Michigan or Utah etc, and I had no idea about these people until I started my family geneology as there was no family memory of these long forgotten folk.
Nobody wants to admit to being American these days 🤣🤣🤣
It is weird. When you are talking about great-grandparents for instance you have 8 of those.. so they ALL came from wherever - or are you cherry picking whichever lineage you like best? I'm English, I have a great-grandparents who are Irish. I wouldn't claim to be Irish because they were.
All of mine were like me -Scots!
I think one of the issues with this is that Americans seem to assume that theirs is the only country that people emigrated to, rather than understanding that throughout European history many people have also migrated between countries yet we don't feel a need to identify as being from a country that our ancestors were from. I'm English, my parents are English but recently we had a family party where one of my dad's Irish cousins commented on my son's red hair and said that was the Irish in him. My son was so confused and asked me if he's Irish 😂 I told him no, but your great grandma came from Ireland. I doubt he'll give it a second thought and certainly won't make it a part of his identity.
When I hear people claim to be from somewhere they are clearly not I just think "I can understand but saddened why you don't want to be associated with where you're from"😄
The main problem is that Americans with distant Scottish ancestory often become experts in thier own family history, and think that makes them experts on our culture. Your great x 4 grandfather might have been a farrier in Dundee, but you don't know anything beyond that. There's more to being Scottish than eating haggis on St Andrews day. You don't speak any of our native languages, and you couldn't tell a sgian dubh from a clabby doo.
Also, I would avoid GGL's videos. She's started making full length adverts disguised as content, dropping the sponsors name and script throughout the whole thing.
What i find odd is i have both Irish and Scottish ancestry but was born and raised in England....the last thing i would ever do is claim to be either of those, im English and proud to be so. why is this not the case for Americans?.... Also the French moved to the US in droves but you never see proud French Americans...lol
Please don't take this comment offensively, but your channel has almost exclusively become a "Girl Gone London" reaction channel, mixed up with music group videos and the occasional meme reaction. Don't get me wrong, the reason I'm still here is because I think you're awesome and love your reactions, but could you mix it up a little? However, you do you and define your channel as you want - I just wanted to give some feedback. Have a great christmas :)
I wonder if they feel something is missing in their life and they have a need to have strong, solid roots that being "American" doesn't give them.
In my opinion its more that they usually wanna be special, different from the „normal“ majority around them and cosplaying as a different nationality is literally the easiest way to stand out
@@PPfilmemacher I think it's both those things, cosplay & roots.
Be yourself, not a label
Mixed heritage isn't unique to the U.S. My grandfather's were English and Italian. My Grandmothers were Scottish and Indian. When asked, I along with anyone I know who is born here will reply British (Or maybe English, Scottish, Welsh or Irish). Also we don't say African British to describe black folks. It would just be weird.
There was a great sketch on SNL last week called' 'What Americans Think Will Happen When They Visit Ireland...'
Definitely worth a watch in relation to this video.
I talked to an Irish lady on an Irish page and she was talking about her ancestral home. Since so many ancestral homes don’t exist any more I said it must be interesting to be able to track your family line. She said the ancestral home was collapsing and they couldn’t afford to repair it even though some family members wouldn’t put in any money.
I asked if she lived in it , she said no.I thought maybe that was why other family members wouldn’t contribute because they wouldn’t be living in it. She asked if I had been to Ireland I said all my life Irish citizen with Irish father/ English/Irish mother.
So you’re Irish no I’m a mongrel and a citizen but I can’t claim to be Irish I was born in England.
She told me she was Irish and I said yes because your heritage and birth are all Ireland.
Then came the rub she born in the US. she had traced her roots back to her 3 great grand parents found Her ancestral home because the family name was the same as her 3x great grandparents and found distant relatives in the area.
These were the “family” members who wouldn’t pay into a fund to resurrect the house😮😮 She blamed them letting it become a wreck since they lived there but the house belong to them all .
Gobsmacked didn’t cover it.
She was American had never been to Ireland had no proof the house has anything to do with her heritage and fell out with complete strangers who wouldn’t cough up
money for her dream.
If someone told me this I doubt I would believe it but she had me believing her plight. Couldn’t decide if she was delusional, entitled or just plain nuts.
If an American is talking about their heratige or Ancestry then they should describe it as such. This goes against one of Girl Gone Londons previous videos you watched about the different context clues when Americans and Brittish people are talking.
Additionally many of those americans who describe themselves in this way (without the context) would themselves still scoff at someone non-white (particularly of asian/indian descent) who said they were American, even when they WERE born in the USA
Yes!! Thank you!!!!!!!
Their minds explode when someone like me says I'm British and that my parents, grandparents etc were British. Or a French colleague similarly says he's French.
People especially Americans seem to have no awareness of European Empires and the implications on citizenship of black and brown people around the world.
Unless someone specifically asks your heritage please don’t tack on another country’s name and claim it as your own if you weren’t born there
I find it weird that Kaylin's reasoning behind this is that Americans want to belong to a sub set of their American culture. It just sounds like a way to further divide people. It seems to tie in with the obsession with skin colour, and eugenics, which doesn't seem like a good thing.
I know this isn't on you (the original video did this), but one thing that annoys me is when Americans (for some reason) distinguish Britain from the rest of Europe, like they're not a part of Europe. Distinguish Britain if you're talking about them specifically or mainly (the lady in the original video lives in the UK), but why is it so often "Britain AND Europe" when talking about Europeans overall? Is it because to many Americans Europe = EU and Britain famously left the EU?
I'm Italian my parent ate Pizza !
🤣
Helping an American friend find her British ancestors, I discovered that we were distant cousins, sharing an ancestor in the 13th century.
You are related to everyone in the world.
I think most people are annoyed but not especially when Americans drop their "x-American" suffix, when both parties know what they are just talking in shorthand, but when people genuinely claim to have heritage, that upsets people.
Claiming heritage is fine with me as a Brit -- all the Anglophone countries have significant British ancestry -- but I just find it funny that they have to have a prefix. You may have Irish ancestry for example, but you don't know the first thing about actually being Irish. It is clinging to another culture rather than just simply being American.
@@francisedward8713 Right, I'm English, all my Grandparents were born and raised in the Republic of Ireland before moving to the UK. Can you imagine if I walked around saying I was Irish-English. I'd be laughed at, quite correctly, by everyone. It's my heritage and ethnicity but it's not where I'm from.
@@francisedward8713 Apologies, I mean when people claim heritage all because of one very distant ancestor they have no relation to other than blood, unlike say, the Irish American community in parts of the US especially New York and Boston which still maintains a sense of shared heritage
Yeah and when they speak for the country that they've never even been to "as an Irish person I think x" and then everyone from Ireland is thinking "well that's not right at all"
@threestepssideways1202 Similar boat here! Dad's sides all Irish, mum's is all English. Still, I'm an Englishman through and through and to say otherwise is incorrect. However, Irish culture is very similar, -- so I would say that we have a better idea of that than an 'Irish-American' -- but I would never call myself Irish-English because that simply isn't true. I'm proud to be English, which isn't popular these days, and I will leave it at that!
Yeah poppers would be a whole different kinda situation 🤣
To my (apparently, at times?!) juvenile mindset, 'poppers" didn't go straight to some kind of "substances" but to the phrase: "Where 'ere you be, let your wind go free!!" (Sorry😅!!)
If you use poppers at Christmas, I'm guessing that would be a totally different type of celebration 😂😂
My sister in law is Hungarian and I thought she had mentioned the eating fish on Xmas eve before. So I googled it and it says it’s originally a catholic thing, particularly Italians. But they also do it in Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland, Hungary, Austria, Germany and Croatia. So there you go, you learn something new every day! 😁
& Finland
You know you're at a special xmas party if there's poppers involved 😂
This is a completely irrelevant thing but hearing "the blacks" and "whites" feels so strange as a British person. Like I feel that's a language difference
In Dutch it would sound even more wrong and harsh. "De witten" and "de zwarten". No thanks
Remember watching an American on an ancestry program find out that their ancestor was actually a rent collector and "enforcer" for the landlords. Rather than one of the stereo typical poor oppressed Irish, that they had assumed.
Most of the poor Irish who left Ireland, went to England, Scotland and Ireland. The ones who had some money, went across the pond.
My wife's parents were of the Windrush generation and literally from Jamaica, but my wife was born in England; she's 100% British, couldn't even fake a Jamaican accent if she tried and would be (mildly?) offended to be called Jamaican. Her genetics may influence her physical traits buts that where it ends.
Europeans are familiar with people who are from other countries, maybe even still living in the country of their birth. Generational ties vary depending on closeness of family but rarely exlend beyond living relatives. When you were born in a country, saying you were from a different country because that's where your great-grandparents were from seems extremely weird and delusional. Just say your ancestors were from that country; no-one is going to be offended by that. Better still, say nothing because no-one cares.
Chances are, one of your ancestors did something horrible. Why not go around telling people you're a racist rapist because your great-great grandfather was one?
Yes, we do find it really weird. I did a DNA test and found I was mostly Northern English, around 70%, Scandinavian around 17%, and about 13% Iberian (Spain/Portugal). Would I call myself English/British, yes. Would I call myself Swedish, yes in some circumstances, Spanish? No! I have UK and Swedish citizenship. UK by birth, Swedish by naturalisation, since I have lived in Sweden almost 19 years. I would never describe myself as Spanish, unless it was in the context of DNA dicussions
It’s not confusing when people claim to be Scottish but were born in Idaho, it just makes them look like they don’t have a firm grasp on reality.
I also think that Kalyn was being rather generous in some of her reasoning. There are people in the US that can trace some of their ancestry back the best part of four centuries in the US but still claim to be x, y or z American. I was born in Scotland to parents who were both born in Scotland but my Paternal Grandma was English, I don’t claim to be English (neither has my Dad, nor has his twin brother who has lived in England for most of the last 60 years). My Paternal Granda’s Granda’s parents were both born in Ireland but there have been no claims in being Irish (even though we were just going back to the mid 19th century with their births).
The biggest issue for many is when people who know nothing about living in a specific country tell people born and bred there that they know better because they ARE that nationality, even though they have either never been there or have maybe visited a couple of times. Claim your heritage and you’ll be welcomed, people will engage with you to find out how much you know and if they can give you more information and tips on best places to visit/stay in that area. Claim that you’re from there and you’ll display a level of arrogance that most people won’t want to engage with. But people from the US like to claim famous people in their ancestry as though they are just desperately trying to collect celebrity ancestors for some weird bragging rights (where personally I’m more impressed by my female ancestor that was a pit head labourer in Ayrshire or the crofter from Skye than I am about the possibility that I might have connections to an Irish princess that was sainted in Dalriada).
I’ve lived in many places throughout England, a few in Scotland and I’ve obviously visited even more. I fully comprehend that there is a massive difference between living somewhere and visiting it, that is what so many US tourists don’t seem to get, they just work under a perpetual presumption that everywhere works the same as the US and that people are all like the average US American…whilst also not understanding why people don’t get how diverse the US is.
I have had an American who didn’t know his history but thought he did know insult me because I mentioned how the Scots came originally from Ireland. That’s because the early residents of what is now called Scotland were Picts, there were Norse settlers later but no one knows for certain why the Picts either intermixed with the Scots or were wiped out by them.
I'm myself born in England (A small place called Hull) & my mother was scottish Irish (Scottish born mum, Irish born dad) and my own dad is just plain old English, But I've always been known as just English. All of my family going back multiple generations are either Irish, Scottish, or English through & through!
Or when they start talking about what clan they belong to
I went out with an american girl who, depending on the conversation in hand, would lay claim to being either Scottish, Irish, English or Dutch. Fashion accessory is a useful term for it. I prefer to use 'mongrel' though 🤣
Sorry but this is absurd. No one talks about being English American despite the fact that this is true of many. It’s all about cherry picking romanticised views of other cultures, conveniently avoiding the darker sides.
Claiming Ancestry is one thing, and I've no problem with that, but to say that all American just mean that isn't right by along shot, I've talked to Americans that actually claim to be full on whatever nationality (especially irish) is in their Ancestry, and will argue with native from those places, that they know more about the place or customs, i was talking about good whiskys ti try, on a whisky drinkers site, i mentioned to someone one of my favourite drinks is Octomore and he should try it, and a American told me i didnt know what i was talking about because am English, and he was Scottish by his great, great grandfather, not sure how knowledge passed on in watered down DNA, but he was adamant that nothing i could say as a English man should be taken into account over him, i dont mind different views people may have reasons to disagree, but to pull the my ancestors were Scottish your English card is maddening
Fun fact.
You have two parents.
Four grandparents.
Eight great-grandparents
thirty-two x3 great-grandparents
And that just covers about a century.
How many of those 32 3x-great-grandparents came from the same place?
Unless you are from Norfolk?🤔🤔
Some of those 3X grandparents are likely to be the same people especially if your family didn't move around.
In the 60s when visiting America, my British grandmother said something very critical about the Germans, because of ....only to be sternly told off by my American aunt because her friends were of German Ancestry. Thought it was funny at the time, but now it makes me think.
Your British grandmother was as likely to have German ancestry as the US folk she was visiting. 😂
@MsPeabody1231 maybe, but not in recent memory and just 20 years earlier, her 3 sons were fighting in a war against Germany, which was probably more at the forefront of her mind.
"Italian American" cannot even say pasta or Bologna.
and then they insist everyone else is wrong
What is... pasta? Do you mean 'noodles'? 🤣 j/k
I had an Irish great grandmother, an Italian great grandfather and a Scottish grandfather, but I would never say that I'm Irish, Italian or Scottish. I'm English and feel no affinity to any other nationality.
A) you are making the declarative statement I am (nationality) not my family comes from. B) you belong to that subculture in the US but that doesn’t mean you uphold the traditions of that culture in your family. (Watch Gino di’ campo an actual Italian debate Italian food with an Italian American). C) great grand parents is far removed one set of my great grandparents was Irish, as an English/british person I do not identify as Irish in any way. 3 of my grand parents were Londoners I do not identify as a Londoner. You are better off as identifying as a Floridian, or New Yorker it will give us a better insight in to who you are and what you believe.
You're the modern day Byzantine Empire to the UK's Roman Empire :D
~5mind -Yes, here in the UK on Christmas poppers are essential!!
Just to pickup on one thing whilst we are mostly all from Africa this same ‘I’m from’ argument does extend even here as there is DNA in some humans today that have origins outside of Africa aka Neanderthals and Denisovans
Stand up and be proud to be an American, be the first generation of many to follow to say it out loud. You will always have the ancestry, that will always live inside you if you truly follow the family elders of your heritage.
I have many Pakistani friends, and they do this very well, 99% that are British born would say they were British, but still very proud that their heritage and ancestry are Pakistani.
The DNA test will be way more accurate that just "sub Saharan African" there are many distinct racial groups in Africa, and the tribes stayed intact until very recently. They would definitely be able to say Ghanian v Somalian for example.
Ghanaian and Somalian are nationalities that were invented by the Europeans colonizing Africa.
Actual ethnic groups/tribes are different. They cover areas of Africa that are made up of parts of two or more countries.
In addition there is a lot of intermarriage between some ethnic groups in parts of Africa because people generally don't marry their cousins. The ethnic group/tribe you belong to is then based on one of your parents. This is why there are a few people like me and a few of my friends who people have difficulty stating where we are from, and children don't look how people expect.
Lived In the States for 31years and never lost my accent. When we spoke, we almost stopped traffic. We tried not to talk as it was a ticket for people starting with 'what a cute accent where are you from etc' Hated it and yes we are 'Scottish' nothing else..
Hi JJ. Thanks for your thoughts on your family origins. I appreciate your candour. I guess even in Europe we all have links to other peoples if we go back far enough. I'm Irish, I was born and live in Ireland, most of my ancestors are Irish but I also know I have some Scottish and Viking lineage in me from centuries ago. It is only in America that the music of the 20th century could have been formed. Jazz, Blues, Country, Rock, Calypso, and everything in between miraculously came together, was exported and reassembled in Europe and Africa to become the world music we have today. So thanks America.
I’m a south Londoner.. and hav been all me life, parents come from Surrey n Sussex there’s just a little further down the road.. now there parents, dads Irish and mums side Polish.. so I suppose that makes me either Irlish! Or Porish
Nah you are a bloody Londoner mate!
@ I know that, you know that… but in the eyes of an American.. I’d be multi cultural!! And I’d prefer to be called bloody English.. not just a bloody Londoner
I think it goes back to stereotypes, most Brits instinctively see Americans as arrogant and then claiming a British culture just feeds into that stereotype
As such a “new kid” on the block I think many Americans are trying to find traditions to follow that the U.S.A has yet to develop. As their self proclaimed greatest country in the world hasn’t really got what more established countries would call history to bind its citizens together. After all we have homes still in use within Europe that are considerably older than the U.S.A
"I am ...." is not the same statement as "A few of my ancesters origin from ..."
A nationality is a combination of language, culture, law and traditions.
150 years is about 5/6 generations ~ 2^4/5 relatives = 16 to 32 ancesters that lead to you.
In between is the industrial revolution, the Napoleonic war, 2 world wars, open border policy triggered by the EU for 50 years; the cold war; split and reunition of germany etc etc
I live in western Austria and have 4 countries within 50km; another 2 countries in 200km. I am pretty sure that any analysis would spit out ancesters within the last 5 generation of at least 3 nationalities (not counting any border shifts that occured; e.g. Austira-Hungary split; the switch of south Tyrol to Italy etc), that does not make me anything else than my passport states.
Technically I am Norman, with my ancestor coming to the UK with William in 1066!
Hello Norman.
@@vallejomach6721 Ha ha. I did a fair bit of work to find out my ancestry, as it was before any of these phone apps...
I'm English and my grandparents were Irish, yet I don't feel even remotely Irish or even think about my ancestry. It's very strange to non-Americans
I consider myself British-Indian - my father's parents emigrated from India to Kenya where their children were born and brought up, at a time when both countries were still under British rule (India gained independence in 1947, Kenya in 1963). My father himself emigrated to the UK in the early 1970s, but due to him being born under British rule (in 1952) he was entitled to a British Passport. My mother's ancestry is purely British as far as she knows - in fact her family was based in Englefield Green, close to Egham which I believe you've been to.
However, while my family have visited Kenya several times, none of us has ever been to India...
It's interesting how you connect with India but not with Kenya. It must have been a very close knit group to keep your connection to India so strong when so much of your family was born in Kenya. 👍🏽😘
@@titanium_di2402 part of the reason is that the whole family on my dad's side - who are all now either in Kenya, the UK, USA, Canada and Australia - kept up Indian traditions and stayed true to their heritage. There's nobody in the family actually in India any more, but in any of their homes, it's all Indian aesthetic. Though I love visiting Kenya. Two of my aunts actually taught me Indian cooking when I was little, and my grandmother on my mother's side taught me English stuff like roast, bangers & mash etc - my mother herself is, shall we say, not a good cook!
I rarely give people that detail nowadays.
I just say I'm black British.
Then when they ask about my parents and grandparents I say they were British also. Then depending on who they are I explain about British colonisation.
I am now aware that not all my great grandparents aren't hence my last name.
Btw does the place in India your ancestors come from still exist in modern day India? I knew and know people whose ancestral home is in modern day Pakistan or Bangladesh, so they have no ties to it other than knowing which ancestors were born/lived there until they emigrated to another place in the British Empire.
@@MsPeabody1231 Yeah I guess that's a fair way to see things, British colonialism spread very far and wasn't particularly pleasant in a lot of places.
My family came from Morbi in Gujarat, which still exists and is where my grandparents took their surname from: maps.app.goo.gl/1MGNQ8hR5hFwr1BP8
All comes down to loyalty, for example if the 2 countries you claim to be from are the only 2 left in the world and are going to war and there is no option not to fight then which side are you going to die for?
It pains me to say but I think it triggers mostly Brits when Americans do this,
A bit like someone who says they're going to Europe on holiday to a Brit it's obviously meaning mainland Europe as we wouldn't say Europe for going from England to Scotland
I don't hate that Americans say it but I'm just not interested in where their great grandad is from, they might be of foreign lands but you aint your American.
I think one of the big problems with Americans claiming they are their ancestry is the lack of knowledge or awareness about European history, particularly those claiming to be Irish, they have no idea how much fighting, how many people have died to be Irish and not British (I expect Native Americans also have same issue here). So although it may only be 100 years ago that the American person had an ancestor from a particular country, it’s not the same thing as people genuinely from there, of course it is fine to be proud of your heritage but to outright say to a person from that country that you are from there can just be plain insulting or even laughable if you don’t know the history of that place.
It's funny how Americans with English heritage make up the second most highest percentage but you never hear any of them claiming to be English 🤣