There are many things that make a person and their communication unique. One of those things has to do with your ethnicity. I think that your ethnicity has a profound influence on the person you become and the style of communication that you have.
I am primarily Swedish and Italian with some Irish. My maternal grandmother was a full blood Italian and my maternal grandfather was Swedish. My grandmother grew up speaking Italian while she was at home with her parents and siblings. She learned English in school. My grandfather was raised knowing English. What was always interesting to me about my grandfather is that he learned many different languages. He was in the army so he traveled to many different countries and was given the chance to learn those languages. My paternal grandparents were Irish. They only spoke English. Occasionally they would swear in Irish but that was the extent of it. I loved my grandparents accents.
I think that my ethnicity influenced me and my communication very much. My maternal grandmother spoke Italian whenever she was feeling nostalgic and I'm sure that is why I personally think that Italian is a very beautiful language. Today whenever I hear the Italian accent it makes me miss my grandmother. I think that my ethnicity has influenced me because Italian's are a people that hold their family very close to them. I would definitely say that I am a person who values my family more than anything. I also think that the Italian language has had an influence on me. The language is beautiful and whenever I hear someone singing Italian I feel that it should be a love song. I wonder why that is? I think that my Italian ethnicity has probably had the biggest influence on me. Italy has always been this lovely dream in my head that if I were to go there, everything would be perfect. I think that realistically, that is not the case. I think that my Swedish and Irish ethnicity have a smaller influence on me. I consider myself a Swede only because I am like my grandpa. I share qualities that are similar to his. However, at the same time I do not have the fair skin and blond hair and blue eyes that so many Swedish people have. I am my grandmother's granddaughter in that area. The only thing that I feel is Irish about me is my name. My last name is considered to be very Irish so my parents gave me and Irish first name to go with it. I do not feel as though I talk similar to anyone of my grandparents. I am purely American. My vocalic's are American made.
I think that some people may be able to guess that I am Italian based on my looks. I do have the dark hair and eyes. However, I do not think that this influences the way in which they talk to me in anyway. Do people talk to you differently based on this? I have not experienced it, but maybe I was not paying attention to it. I think that the only time that people talk to me differently based upon my ethnicity is when I am with extended family members, usually my Italian extended family. Usually at family reunions, there will be aunts and uncles that come and talk to me and say things in Italian that they feel I should know. However, I actually have no idea what they are saying to me. I just smile and nod and everything is fine.
In your experience, do you think people treat you differently within your own family based upon your ethnicity? Do you think that there is a reason why?
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
I've never noticed my family treating me differently based on my ethnicity. I think this is because we have similar backgrounds. I do get treated differently, however, based on how I grew up. Most of my mother's side grew up on a farm in a small town, whereas my father's side grew up in Chicago. I have influences from both of their backgrounds, so I can usually follow along with the farm talk to an extent, but then my mind begins to wander. I know they know this, so they usually choose to ask me about school. This works out nicely.
ReplyDeleteMy family has never treated me differently because of my ethnicity. My whole family is primarly the same ethnicity and all of our lives are basically lead the same way. My family is also very close and would never single anyone out or treat them differently.
ReplyDeleteMy family does not tend to treat me different based on my ethnic background. However when thinking about my grandparents I think they assume that after everything they have been through in their lives based on the challenges they had to overcome, they believe that I should always live up to their expectations.
ReplyDeleteMy family has never treated me differently because of my ethnicity. Both sides of my family are from Europe and they are from two countries that do not have a lot of conflict. Everyone in my family is either related by blood, and the ones that are related by marriage are all of similar ethnicities. Like Ashley said too, my family is all very close and we would never think of singling someone out because of something like that.
ReplyDelete