Ethnicities on Lemma Soft Forum

[MaiMai]

Vietnamese-American, but ethnically probably Sino-Vietnamese since my dad's side had some Chinese blood in them. But basically, both parents are Vietnamese immigrants who moved to California after the Vietnam war and I basically can speak some basic Vietnamese, some elementary French, but my first and foremost language is English.

[Snowflower]

Everybody has some very interesting stories to share XD

We really are from all around the globe

[James]

I'm the typical 2nd generation Asian-American, both parents immigrated from Taiwan around 1980's.
If I want to make myself exotic I can say they came from the island of "Formosa" which is basically the same thing if you Google it.

I'm trilingual in English, Taiwanese, and Mandarin and managed to inherit a lot of the Taiwanese culture.
A sad story about my childhood. Because I was taught all three language at once and spoke in mandarin predominately. My teachers thought I was a immigrant and put me in ESL classes until 5th grade. Those are good memories.

[Elenakiara]

What part of Montreal? I used to live in Beaconsfield and went to John Abbott College.

Susan

Oh, that's cool! xD That's actually where some of my earlier friends live right now and they went to that same college! Me, I've been a bit in Cote-St-Luc, in Cote-des-Neiges, but I'm now in the same area as the Olympic Stadium! xDD Quite the trip around Montreal! :3

[VenusEclipse]

Chinese-Canadian.

Speaks/Language History:
- English
- Broken-ish Cantonese because of dialects. One Cantonese person can't understand the next due to this.
- 3 years of Japanese in high school.
- 1 year Mandarin during high school. I get 95% grades, and I don't understand 75% of the tests which pissed off the secretary (I think) of the school. =D. With my understanding of the material, my true and real grades would be under 50%.
- 8 years of "pretend to be smart because of glasses and get 93%+ grades" Chinese school. Despite all that, I still can't speak well. Har har. With my understanding of the material, my true and real grades would be 60%.
- 1 year of French in high school. I don't think that counts since I can hardly understand anything except what time is it, my name is, he is, identify family members, water please... wait. I can't even ask for water."

Interesting Info?:
My great grandpa used to own many houses in China with necklaces that touch the floor (I don't know how that works) until Mao took over. Grandpa inherits. Other than that, I should ask more about my family tree.

[El Presidente]

Born in Sweden & ethnically swedish, but now I live in Switzerland (yes they are different countries )
Speaking swedish, english & german.

[LVUER]

Just as I thought, this is truly the most "international" forum I've ever met. Now, where must I start... everyone have interesting story ^_^

I'm a (pure) Chinese, but my family have been living in Indonesia for 3 generations (2.5 for to be exact, I am the third generation and almost all my comparatively same age relative already have their children) that I can't think myself as a Chinese anymore nor I ever think about living there even once.

There are lots of Chinese ethnic, like Khe, Hokkian, Kongfu, and some other (Am I writing it right? Since I can barely write and speaking Chinese). Anyway, I am a Khe... but that doesn't matter anymore, like I wrote above, I don't feel I'm really Chinese anymore... and I bet China won't admit us as their citizen either. I guess this is the fate of immigrants.

My grandfather came to Indonesia long time ago and settled here. That was hard time, Indonesia are still at warring time (against Netherlands colonialism). And after that, there are several major (and very bloody) incidents too, which I don't think I should talk about here...
After that, my father was born here (and the rest of his bro), my two brothers, and then finally me... after that, my little sister. So as you can see, I was born in Indonesia...

Right now, lots of my relatives are living aboard, with most lives in Australia. After so hard to live here, they go back aboard... well, given chance, I also will go out of here, to Japan I hope >_<

I live in Bandung, a nice city with moderate climate (never too hot and never too cold). People here are overall nice and polite... but when they are angry, they are really scary (they're not hesitate to kill people). The English term amok comes from Indonesian word, amuk, which means raging out of control.

I'm bilingual, English and Indonesia (obviously, since it's our national language). At first I was really bad at English, fortunately, there was a great RPG game titled Chrono Trigger. That game is so interesting that I force myself to open English-to-Indonesia dictionary while playing it. After finishing it, I was pretty good at English ;p

Currently I'm working as high school teacher (teaching computer classes) and a lecturer in a college (again, teaching computer classes). I used to be a programmer for 2 years, but find that I didn't enjoy that kind of work, so I quit ... strangely though, I really love making games (like hybrid-VN, that's why I'm here ^_^ )

[PyTom]

For me, it's actually a bit hard to pinpoint where I'm from, both because it's been a really long time since my ancestors came here, and because the map of Europe has been randomized a few times since then.

On my mothers's side, part of her family was Czech - I think. The other half left from Poland, but (and it took Lech Walesa* to point this out) the city they came from is in Lithuania now.

From my father's side, I'm 3/8s Irish, and my surname is German, but that branch of the family tree goes back quite a bit further. My grandfather once got in trouble at school for calling himself an American, rather than some particular ethnicity.

When the 2000 census asked me to describe my ethnicity in one word, I wrote "Complicated".** I pretty much consider myself an American, although I went to the Saint Patrick's Day parade last weekend. (But around here, even the Sons of Italy march in the Saint Patrick's Day parade. ***)

* True story!
** Another true story!
*** The truth just keeps on coming!

[Aetheria]

I'm American, born on the east coast of the US and still living here - albeit a few hours further south. My dad's family is from New York, and are all descended from Irish immigrants around the turn of the last century; my mom moved here from Korea when she was nine. So sometimes people get confused trying to figure out what my origins are, but I just think of myself as American.

I kind of wish my mom had taught me to speak Korean, though. Living in Washington DC, I'd be qualified for a pretty comfy government job if I were bilingual, now that everyone's paranoid about North Korea... ah well.

[LVUER]

Why not learn from now? I hear that Korea language is far easier to learn compared to Japan and Chinese language. I'm not that really interested though, since it's far better to learn Japan language (for reason I bet you know why ^_^ )

[Voight-Kampff]

Standard fare western European decent.

Let's see...On my mother's side, both of her parents' families are French-Canadian.

Quite a few years ago, we had a massive family reunion, at which, everyone got a copy of the family genealogy. I was too young at the time to pay it much attention. But I do recall looking over the shoulders of various family members as they were pouring over the stacks of poorly-photocopied pages. Their side of the family traces back a few hundreds years. First to France, and prior to that, England.

My father's side is German. His parents both came from German families living in Poland. As far as documentation, we only have info going back to my great grandparents. Although, what my father's side lacks in pedigree, it makes up for in drama.

One favorite yarn that my eldest uncle likes to spin involves my grandfather as he was attempting to flee Poland after the Nazi invasion in 1939. Apparently he was stopped at the border. Despite having proper documentation, the guards didn't believe him. As the story is told, the guards were going to shoot him unless he could recite the Lord's Prayer in German.

Ah, Nazis. So classy.

[Aleema]

Um, American? Caucasian, yay I'm boring.

My ancestry is Austrian, though. Austrian, like the Sound of Music, yea~!! From what I hear the family was wealthy and used to be "von Mick". Just the like von Trapps! Unf. Now I'm just "Mick", which people automatically assume is Irish because it's their racial slur. =P

[Voight-Kampff]

Um, American? Caucasian, yay I'm boring.

My ancestry is Austrian, though. Austrian, like the Sound of Music, yea~!! From what I hear the family was wealthy and used to be "von Mick". Just the like von Trapps! Unf. Now I'm just "Mick", which people automatically assume is Irish because it's their racial slur. =P

Well, maybe you should add something else to your last name to help reinforce the Austrian decent. You know, something cool and powerful sounding. Like the German word for "hunter". Which, um...would make you Mick Jäger.

Okay. Maybe not...

[Pyonkotchi]

Im American. born an raised in America. I lived here my entire life. That's all I really am
as for blood line...half African American on my dad's side. On my mothers side, mostly Mexican. there's some French and some other European of sorts thrown in there too
I probably identify more with Mexican since I've grown up in a Mexican dominant neighborhood but even still... Also, I don't speak Spanish :T

[IonicMomo]

Oh boy, this is really easy for me. I'm 100% Indian (that's Asian Indian). My parents arrived in North America...a long time ago, so I'm a second-generation immigrant. And I live in the United States, so I suppose that makes me Indian by ethnicity and American by nationality.