General Discussion

I grew up speaking only Americanized English, even if my ancestors were from Europe, and spoke other languages. I learned some of the languages of my ancestors, but in school as foreign languages.

We have a guy in our office in Dallas who is from South Africa. His ancestors were from the Netherlands, but he never lived there, and speaks Afrikaans, not Dutch. Although of European origin, like my family originally was, his family was in Africa for centuries, and he still feels very much African.

By the way, when we meet up in our Dallas office, he speaks Afrikaans to me and I speak Dutch back. He understands me fine, presumably because Afrikaners see Dutch TV programs and films. Since I learned Dutch as an adult, and have never been to South Africa, his Afrikaans, which is mostly 17th century Dutch, sounds to me like the English of Jodie Foster's character in "Nell," and I REALLY have to concentrate to understand it. But he has no one else there with whom he can speak his native language, and he jumps at the chance. Since his English is perfect, when I walk in and he starts in with his Afrikaans, newbies in the office think he has just suffered a severe stroke. For those who saw "Lethal Weapon II," yes we make the "diplomatic immunity" jokes.

As my ancestry came from areas that now stretch from Germany to Russia, they spoke languages that are foreign to me. What I know of them, I learned in school, except for Polish, which I don't speak well. I feel sort of at home in Germany, but I don't feel like I've become German. My wife is used to certain parts of the USA, but she'll never feel American, either. Only our daughters, who have spoken both languages from the beginning, and have lived in both countries before they were 20, feel a true dual identity. I wish it were that way with a vast majority of Americans. I think it would help greatly if way more of us would understand that there is no one superior language or culture in this world.