European identities
Europe is very old and very white. It's not the new world where pretty much everyone is from everywhere. In Paris, I have a couple of non-white friends who, while they freely say they are French, always add to it with, "Oh, but I am Madagascarian" or "Oh, but I am half Lebanese" or whatever as the case might be.
Personally, I've never felt the need to add an addendum to the response, "I'm Canadian." Of course, that doesn't mean people won't further ask, "Oh, but what's your ethnic background?", however they usually do this out of curiosity and not as a way to demonstrate how I am not a real "Canadian". You can tell it is an awkward question for them to ask based on how long it takes for them to formulate a politically correct way of phrasing the question and how embarrassed they are to ask it--or at least, I've felt this is the case. Point is, I don't just offer up the Chinese part of my identity because I do identify myself more as a Canadian. And usually, when in North America, people just accept the answer.
I will have to see how my relatives in Toulouse identify themselves. Wish I had some Asian friends in Paris to interrogate!
Oh, et je suis malade. Quel dommage. Je pense qu'il a commencé à Berlin où j'ai mangé des barre-arachides. Comprends? C'était stupide. Toutes les personnes savent ces arachides sont malpropres. Je ne sais pas si le mot "malpropres" est approprié ici. WHATEVER!
Oh, French doesn't have a translation for "Whatever" exactly. But some variations: "On se branle"... hehe. Sam, if you're reading this: it's so you!
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5 comments:
Meaning the french should take example on the canadians and stop categorizing people. :)
..never understood the appeal of french.. they did have the most integrity in their colonial policy.. e.g. 'speak french, be french' during their occupation of afghanistan and the like. if i remember my imperialism/colonization history correctly, once the black men (or africaan frenchmen, whatever) both entered their brothels and started being more popular with the ladies than the frenchmen themselves, they found (characteristically) nuanced ways of expressing their.. *shrug* apathetic and pained superiority?
still enamoured by your posts.
http://living.oneindia.in/home-n-garden/pet-care/2008/cat-wings-sichuan-feng-040908.html
"n'importe quoi" for "whatever"
"n'importe quoi" is not for whatever. it means "bullshit". on s'en branle or "on s'en fout" is the most appropriate, it exactly means "we don't give a shit".
It's not true that people say "I'm french" and then they add something else. "Le Malgache" (only a few will not look for this term in the dictionary right now) always say that he's "Malgache". But it happens that he has the french passport so he can't say "no, I'm not french".
Otherwise, everyone I know that was born in France, wherever they parents came from, say that they are french. And it piss them off that people start asking about they parents (and not "their") background.
The "on s'en fout" or "on s'en branle" etc... means "I dont' care" wich is an indirect way of saying "whatever". It's true that there's not a direct and accurate translation of "whatever". Neither in spanish, but you can still say "lo que sea" though.
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