I will admit that I've never been to France. However, I've always heard how quickly the French will tell a person that they aren't French and therefore don't understand the French way. Has anyone wondered how these second and third generation immigrants must react to being told that they aren't French? In the United States by second or third generation everyone is pretty much an American. It doesn't matter where you came from.
Melting pot beats the stew pot every time.
You'd think the people who invented fondue would understand that.
So true. My dad got off the boat in the 1920s and used to get SO ticked off at his fellow Germans who romantically remembered the Fatherland, and bragged about their heritage and names ("von this" and "von that").
He told them, in as many words, "This is America. They don't care who or what you were in the Old Country. They give you a clean slate and tell you to show them what you've got. In return, they ask you to learn their language and adopt the culture that attracted you here. If you can't do that, go back and make room for those who will."
He told me that AFTER he boxed my ears for asking him to teach me German. "You don't need it, you're in America now."
That's why you don't see any German, Hungarian, Polish, etc. ghettos any more. They all assimilated and moved on - and up.
> I will admit that I've never been to France.
Nor have I, but a family member did a couple of years
ago, and related a tale from a B&B there.
> However, I've always heard how quickly the French
> will tell a person that they aren't French and
> therefore don't understand the French way.
They are snobbish with each other as well. The B&B
owner related that a neighbor, upon visiting the home,
reprimanded the owner about the corner mouldings at
the ceiling - not that they were untasteful - but too
fancy - they were "above her class".
> Has anyone wondered how these second and third
> generation immigrants must react to being told that
> they aren't French? In the United States by second
> or third generation everyone is pretty much an
> American. It doesn't matter where you came from.
What? You mean that John French Kerry's role model
country is not an egalitarian paradise? Why I'm shocked,
simply shocked.