Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Gerry on December 6, 2009 at 11:42am

An ethnic group or nation is a family at the highest level. There's the nuclear family, the extended family, clans, tribes and finally the nation (ethnic group). Familes also adopt. When people move to another country and become a part of it they are adopted just like in a family. Therefore, being French can mean French by blood (indigenous) or by adoption.

The United States is a nation of immigrants. Everyone's roots come from outside the United States except for the American Indians.

Permalink Reply by Gerry on December 20, 2009 at 2:07pm

People need to act like the people in the family that they belong to. It's the same when someone changes citizenship. So immigrants should learn the language of their new country and they should assimilate into the society.

Permalink Reply by Robert Roth on March 8, 2010 at 4:10pm

Gerry said:

People need to act like the people in the family that they belong to. It's the same when someone changes citizenship. So immigrants should learn the language of their new country and they should assimilate into the society.

A very valid point, Gerry. That's why the Citizenship test is in English. There is a great group of people on this website. But outside of here, one thing that irks me to no end as a native New Yorker is when I hear various disparaging comments about my city like "la nourriture est mal surtout les fruits et les legumes." Yeah, right. Then why are you here? :) Even worse is when the speaker was not exactly a shopper of Fauchon back home.

Permalink Reply by Robert Roth on March 14, 2010 at 1:59pm

Gerry,

I just logged on and clicked the box marked "sign in" which responded by deleting your reply. Please re-post. Sorry!

Permalink Reply by Gerry on March 14, 2010 at 1:59pm

Robert Roth said:

"...one thing that irks me to no end as a native New Yorker is when I hear various disparaging comments about my city like "la nourriture est mal surtout les fruits et les legumes."

I'm a native Long Islander. I've heard French people say things like that many times. It doesn't bother me because the French take food more seriously than Americans do. The French eat for pleasure whereas Americans eat for sustenance, generally speaking.

Permalink Reply by Robert Roth on March 14, 2010 at 2:05pm

[Glad to see you got this re-posted.]

That's a stereotype. SOME French people take food more seriously than SOME Americans.

Who do you think is shopping at all the McDonald's throughout France? And who is shopping at Whole Foods, Grace's, Dean and Deluca, etc.?

The point I was making is that if you came to the United States from somewhere else you should at least pretend to like it here otherwise you have a rather simple solution to your displeasure.

New York is not Paris. Vive la difference!

Gerry said:

Robert Roth said:

"...one thing that irks me to no end as a native New Yorker is when I hear various disparaging comments about my city like "la nourriture est mal surtout les fruits et les legumes."

I'm a native Long Islander. I've heard French people say things like that many times. It doesn't bother me because the French take food more seriously than Americans do. The French eat for pleasure whereas Americans eat for sustenance, generally speaking.

Permalink Reply by Gerry on March 14, 2010 at 2:23pm

Everyone finds things that they like and things they don't like when they travel to another country. Alot of Americans, when they're in France, think bidets are funny. When French people come here they find some things funny too.

In 1989 a French cousin stayed at my mother's for a month. My mother was involved with some French foreign exchange students at that time. My cousin came with me to my in-laws and we saw a teenager was shooting baskets with a basket ball while his friends were throwing firecrackers around him. Later on my cousin told a group of French students that he saw a guy playing with a basketball while firecrackers were exploding all around him and he acted as if this was perfectly normal. They thought it was funny. To me it was perfectly normal for the basketball player to not be fazed at all by the firecrackers.

Permalink Reply by Michèle Jean Marie LE GOFF on March 25, 2010 at 8:38am

I am the american daughter of Breton frenchman and american mother. My beloved Breton grandparent's photo is attached. There is no question that I am an american woman, I was born of one american parent in the U.S. However I have french blood in me and I think that I am french by bloodright. My father was a full blooded Breton and I have two hundred years of Breton French family. Currently, my french identity is on the line, as the french administration will determine my french nationality.

Attachments:

• photofrenchgrand-parents0001.jpg, 970 KB

Permalink Reply by jacques merab on March 29, 2010 at 1:35pm

This question of who is French(or German or Italian or whatever else) is futile,depasse, irrelevant to the global age.
I thought that French culture and humanism in its golden age aspired to be universal anyway .
We are all first and foremost human beings.We all belong to the same planet.
Tsunamis do not stop at national borders,nor do diseases, nor hunger, nor deforestation,nor the internet. .The issues of the day can only be addressed through a global effort.
It is ironic that people living in NY and writing in English are still debating what makes a French French.
Let's grow up
Jacques

Permalink Reply by Valerie d'Aubigne on March 29, 2010 at 2:05pm

Je pense que si la jeune Charlotte Gainsbourg, fille des celebres chanteurs Serge Gainsbourg qui etait juif de nationalite russe et Jane Birkin juive de nationalite britanique, est consideree aujourd'hui par tous les medias en tant que "French Royalty", en passant par Catherine de Medecis, Napoleon, Alain Delon et jusqu'a notre premiere Dame de France Carla Bruni-Sarkozy qui sont italiens d'origines (voir mon blog: Ces italiens qui ont fait la France), et le President de la Republique Francaise lui-meme, qui est de pere juif-hongrois et de mere juive-grecque (voir mes videos d'Enrico Macias et celle de Douce France), alors Michelle Jean Marie LE GOFF est aussi francaise et Duchesse Anne de Bretagne de plein droit.

Michèle Jean Marie LE GOFF said:

I am the american daughter of Breton frenchman and american mother. My beloved Breton grandparent's photo is attached. There is no question that I am an american woman, I was born of one american parent in the U.S. However I have french blood in me and I think that I am french by bloodright. My father was a full blooded Breton and I have two hundred years of Breton French family. Currently, my french identity is on the line, as the french administration will determine my french nationality.

Permalink Reply by Valerie d'Aubigne on March 29, 2010 at 2:26pm

Permalink Reply by Valerie d'Aubigne on March 29, 2010 at 2:31pm

jacques merab said:

This question of who is French(or German or Italian or whatever else) is futile,depasse, irrelevant to the global age.
I thought that French culture and humanism in its golden age aspired to be universal anyway .
We are all first and foremost human beings.We all belong to the same planet.
Tsunamis do not stop at national borders,nor do diseases, nor hunger, nor deforestation,nor the internet. .The issues of the day can only be addressed through a global effort.
It is ironic that people living in NY and writing in English are still debating what makes a French French.
Let's grow up
Jacques

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