Korean Job Discussion Forums

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I always tell people who ask that im Canadian, but for some reason I always end up getting the following reaction:

them: "Really?? But you don't look Canadian." (what, exactly, is a Canadian supposed to look like?)

me: "Well, both my parents are from Portugal and immigrated when they were very young."

them: "Ah, so you're Portuguese."

me: "...actually I was born and raised in Canada. I'm Canadian."

them: "Right. So you're Portuguese-Canadian..."


Are there any other canucks that go through this routine a lot?

Im proud of of my heritage and my family's culture, but im Canadian first and Portuguese second. I think far too many Canadians mention their ethnicity first when asked what they are, even if they were born in Canada and have lived their entire lives there. It can get irritating.

[ChimpumCallao]

[i can do]

[Smee]

[Boodleheimer]

[crazylemongirl]

[billybrobby]

I'm from the south and I've mainly wished I was more southern. My parents were born in the north and I grew up in the suburbs so there's not much in me that's really deeply Southern other than a distaste for unsweetened tea. I listen to that song "A Country Boy Can Survive" and I think "f*ck, I don't know the first thing about running a trout line or making my whiskey or my own smoke too."

Listening to a lot of Bob Marley in college, I thought the Jamaican accent was the coolest in the world. I thought it would be cool to be a dreadlocked rasta who lived out in the hills and got high all day.

[ella]

I love being American and Irish (I'm a dual national). If I wanted to be something else, I would be.

[SPINOZA]

CC is right.

Your nationality is where ever you're born whether you like it or not.

I've got an Irish and Spanish heritage but my sole loyalty is to the country I was born, brought up and educated in. Irish blood, English heart. Ultimately, people who have these fantasies of being other nationalities simply aren't very happy people, low self-esteem.

People often feel another country has a cooler identity - it's as trivial as that - and they can distance themselves from the herd, feel aloof.

Identifying oneself with a foreign country is like spitting in the face of your parents. They're economy drainers, job thieves, and general useless, worthless trash.

[peony]

[Big_Bird]

Ha ha...I laugh when some w@nker fancies himself Irish, because his great grandfather came from the old country.

One day somewhere in Itaewon, I got in a discussion with some yankee tosser who had a big bloody green shamrock painted on his back. He detected my English accent and started mouthing off to me about what the nasty English had done to his beloved Ireland. I listened patiently to him prattling on, and then I excused myself to leave. As a parting shot, I told him "By the way my name is xxxx <insert well known Irish family name>. At that he looked shocked and totally embarrassed, as it dawned on him that I was probably as Irish, if not more Irish than him. Did he not realise that many Irish emigrated to England as well as the US? Bloody prat!

I can't stand plastic paddies. My brother is one of them. He claims to be Irish and not English. He was born and partially raised in England (partially raised in another far away land) and has never set foot in Ireland, but carries on like a big w@nker on St Patrick's Day.

I have 2 passports, and my little boy has 2 with a third in the pipeline. He's a lucky little citizen of the world!

[jajdude]

I don't feel particularly Canadian as I was born in Newfoundland, and have spent only a bit of time elsewhere in Canada. When I visited Montreal it felt like another country, and Vancouver is quite different as well.

I think there's something about the culture in Newf. that makes one a NEwfie first and foremost. My parents were born before it joined Canada in 1949, and my father always referred to the rest of Canada as "the mainland." I got a feeling a lot of Newfies feel like I do, unless maybe they lived elsewhere for a significant length of time.

Probably all this applies to many people from wherever, like someone said, "a Texan first, then an American," and I'm sure Quebecers feel similarly. Maybe Londoners as well.

Some people are snobs about where they're from though, and look down on small town "hicks."

"Gee, Mr. Big City Guy, I guess I made a mistake being born in Sticktown."

I've heard it said that Koreans abroad like to say they're from Seoul, even if they aren't. Then again maybe the other person has only heard of Seoul anyway.

Saying you're from Newfoundland is pretty useless when talking to Asians though, even those who have lived in Canada for a year. I just say I'm from a small town in the east to avoid the hassle of explaining a place not many people have heard of. Then they might still respond with, "Toronto?" ..... kind of annoying....

Another thing that makes you wonder is when an Asian asks you about a particular place, say Vancouver, and you explain you have never been there, it's so far from the east coast. They say, "Really, you have never been there? Why?" You assume this person may know what a world map is, and that the width of Canada is like crossing an ocean, but still you get some people who figure you must know the place they're asking about because it's in your country.

"Uh, sorry, it's not a 4 hour drive away."

[kiwigirl :O)]

i am proud to be a kiwi but i wish i could have access to a euro passport...unfortunately mum, dad and the grandparents all born in either nz or aussie .... so its up to me to get a euro passport ....

[Ya-ta Boy]

When I was young and married and really really angry at my government we checked out the possibility of emigrating. Set up an interview at the NZ consulate.

The day before the interview I backed out. I had come to realize that I didn't want to give up being American. As angry as I was with it, it was too much of what I am.

But if it weren't French, I could see being a Tahitian. That would be really cool.

[kermo]