The question "Where are you from?" comes up all the time in class. We're well aware that everyone is from a foreign country, that is, except me. I'm from here... am I?
Students often ask me that question. They usually want to know if I'm actually from Ireland or Scotland, and sometimes, like today, somebody says Sweden or Norway or Denmark. I always say America, and then New York, or sometimes in the opposite order.
Once, on the elevator on the way home, a group of people get on, and this middle-aged woman is staring at me, and in kind of an angry way. Then she says finally, bluntly, "Where are you from?" with a strange hint of accusation.
"America..."
She rolls her eyes. "No, where is your family from. Your ancestors!"
"Oh... well, mostly America, but before that [x, y, z...]."
"You look like you're from Sweden. It's that beard."
Her friends laugh to themselves.
"Actually, the color is Belorussian, I believe."
She crinkles her brows. "What is Belorussian?" she asks the universe.
Her friend informs her, "It means it's from Belarus. The country."
One of her older male friends chuckles as the elevator opens and says to me, "The mighty North Man!"
When I think of it now, I wonder if I had completed the DNA test sooner, I simply could have opened my phone and shown her this picture:
So, I am... uh... a human being?
With ancestors from somewhere in Pangaea, most likely in what we now call the African continent? And we used to think our species homo sapiens evolved in Ethiopia but now it's Morocco and might be Greenland at some point in the future. And before that there was a series of evolutionary steps of life flowing through species, which may or may not have begun in some puddle God knows where on this planet? Which came from the sun, which came from... space? Which is a place... or something?
I guess New York really is the easiest answer... but the back story kinda matters. Well, it matters in who I have become and am at the moment... however, is it really necessary to know about beyond simple curiosity? Every day I meet people from all around the magic spin ball, and yes, culture shapes them somehow, but individual traits tend to be much stronger, and transcend borders and genetic histories.
This brought up the topic of immigration to the United States, and who gets to use the word "America," especially since Vespucci really only traveled around the coast of Brazil, in South America, although we "Americans" only have one word we were taught to describe our nationality, so Argentinians and Chileans shouldn't be put off when they ask us, "Where are you from?" and we reply the only way we know how, "America."
I think what I love the most about this Amerigo character is he was a map maker, and that wherever you come from, it's truly how you explore the world that really matters
Students often ask me that question. They usually want to know if I'm actually from Ireland or Scotland, and sometimes, like today, somebody says Sweden or Norway or Denmark. I always say America, and then New York, or sometimes in the opposite order.
Once, on the elevator on the way home, a group of people get on, and this middle-aged woman is staring at me, and in kind of an angry way. Then she says finally, bluntly, "Where are you from?" with a strange hint of accusation.
"America..."
She rolls her eyes. "No, where is your family from. Your ancestors!"
"Oh... well, mostly America, but before that [x, y, z...]."
"You look like you're from Sweden. It's that beard."
Her friends laugh to themselves.
"Actually, the color is Belorussian, I believe."
She crinkles her brows. "What is Belorussian?" she asks the universe.
Her friend informs her, "It means it's from Belarus. The country."
One of her older male friends chuckles as the elevator opens and says to me, "The mighty North Man!"
When I think of it now, I wonder if I had completed the DNA test sooner, I simply could have opened my phone and shown her this picture:
So, I am... uh... a human being?
With ancestors from somewhere in Pangaea, most likely in what we now call the African continent? And we used to think our species homo sapiens evolved in Ethiopia but now it's Morocco and might be Greenland at some point in the future. And before that there was a series of evolutionary steps of life flowing through species, which may or may not have begun in some puddle God knows where on this planet? Which came from the sun, which came from... space? Which is a place... or something?
I guess New York really is the easiest answer... but the back story kinda matters. Well, it matters in who I have become and am at the moment... however, is it really necessary to know about beyond simple curiosity? Every day I meet people from all around the magic spin ball, and yes, culture shapes them somehow, but individual traits tend to be much stronger, and transcend borders and genetic histories.
This brought up the topic of immigration to the United States, and who gets to use the word "America," especially since Vespucci really only traveled around the coast of Brazil, in South America, although we "Americans" only have one word we were taught to describe our nationality, so Argentinians and Chileans shouldn't be put off when they ask us, "Where are you from?" and we reply the only way we know how, "America."
I think what I love the most about this Amerigo character is he was a map maker, and that wherever you come from, it's truly how you explore the world that really matters
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