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Hey guys, visit
http://www.nelie.org/crossword
to participate in crossword solving and test ur english from American as well as
British
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Simon, you never know how much you made me feel happy. I'm really glad to know, at
least, one English person on earth thinks that way. I'm more confident about myself.
Thank you, Simon.
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Simon, a little while ago, I did not want to refer to myself as American, English-American,
and anything else but "Christian." I am a Christian, and I felt that in the eyes
of God, we are all just His creations. But then I realised that I was more content
saying that I am "English." I do agree with all that you say, I am just saying that
the terms "blood, ethnicity, etc." really only mean where one's ancestors have come
from.
But you said yourself that Belgium is part of you. For me, England has that same
purpose! That is all that I am trying to say! You see, you do have "Belgian" blood
in you!
All right, I keep modifying where I stand on this matter, so I am going to stop here.
I will end with saying that I am proud of my English heritage and family, and I think
that everyone should be proud of where their family come from and where there ancestors
came from.
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You raise an interesting point, Clark. Nationalities were created a couple of centuries
ago, along with the nation state, e.g. France, England. Before then in Europe people
knew their locality plus the fact that they were a Christian.
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The concept of nationality is an interesting concept for me. It creates a lot of
hatred sometimes. But on the other hand, it can be a symbol of pride. I wish that
nationality did not exist, and instead, base what "group" one belongs to along linguistic
lines. If someone wanted to marry outside of their linguistic grouping, then so be
it! IT would be much easier. But then again, that would just be nationalism all over
again, without the borders--the only borders would be linguistic ones!
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I think in the past language formed around communities and if people moved into one
community they adopted the language to fit in. The society we live in nowadays has
become more complicated and languages are relatively stable. So identity seems to
survive loss of language. E.g. the Irish. But up and till the protestantisation of
English led to their rejection by mainland English society, English-speakers (Catholic)
in Ireland (e.g. the Pale) considered themselves English.
All nationalities seem to be formed negatively too. They seemed to be created in
a way that "I'm this because I'm not that".
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Simon, I agree. As humans, I think that we need a sense of belonging. Be it to a
football club or a country, we need to belong to something. I admit that I like being
a part of something, but as far as nationality goes, I feel as though I hava got
a raw deal. I do like the fact that I come from California though; but with America,
...um, not really.
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