Oh yes, I should check that OT again. It's been a while.Hehe I was actually thinking about you while reading this topic, I remember you bringing this up in the Suomi OT =P
Oh yes, I should check that OT again. It's been a while.Hehe I was actually thinking about you while reading this topic, I remember you bringing this up in the Suomi OT =P
Please post something too, it's kinda dead.
Nice to hear! You were probably in Bled and/or Ljubljana. Tourist are generally welcomed anywhere but those two places are pretty popular so I'm not surprised.:)I went to Slovenia for a few days and everyone was so friendly to outsiders there.
We do count like Germans tho.lolPersonally, I feel like there are currently too many economic, political, and cultural divides to really consider myself a European as a sort of identity. In terms of economy and politics, a lot of the time in American political discussions you hear how great "Europe" is, but lumping all of us into a single basket is an easy way to ignore the problems and struggles a lot of European "citizens" have to deal with. The EU has done a (somewhat) good job at trying to solve this, but I feel like it still has a long way to go.
That's not me being anti-EU though, as I do feel like a close political and economic union is the best shot we have of solving these inequalities. But it's just not there yet.
Online, I will just describe myself as European. But that has less to do with a sense of cultural identity and more to do with the fact that I can reasonably assume most people will be able to point out Europe on a map, which isn't really something I can say for Slovenia. And even a lot of the people who have actually heard of the country still seem to have wild misconceptions about it. Things like how it's a post-soviet dystopian hellhole, or that we're actually secretly just Germans.
I don't disagree with this take. First and foremost I feel Portuguese. Feeling European comes more as consequence of that, in this increasingly connected EU, than anything else really.For me feeling European is a very strange thing. I feel Swedish (should this be capitalized? Brainfart over here), but since every European country is so different I think it's hard for people living in them to feel some broader sense of belonging.
Greets from Dortmund, Alter.European > German -> Westphalien ->Hammer.
My beliebe in the European Idea is strong.
Greetings neighbor!
Any way, I am pro pan-European in general, but this is also resulting in problems because of how it affects enforcement of standardised language - erasure of many native minority languages in European countries, in countries like France and Germany we are seeing native languages disappear, like Saterfriesisch (or in general the Frisian languages), Breton, Alemmanisch (I still hear it where I am currently), Niederrheinisch, Limburgish etc.
Yeah France is, for better and worse, terrible at recognising regions and their heritage. You're never taught anything about your specific region's history, traditional territory limits have been erased, regional languages and their specificities are being limited, etc.Any way, I am pro pan-European in general, but this is also resulting in problems because of how it affects enforcement of standardised language - erasure of many native minority languages in European countries, in countries like France and Germany we are seeing native languages disappear, like Saterfriesisch (or in general the Frisian languages), Breton, Alemmanisch (I still hear it where I am currently), Niederrheinisch, Limburgish etc.
I feel more Frisian than Dutch, so no I don't really feel European, there are so many differences between the cultures.
Edit.
I am pro EU though.
European identify is much more about shared values than cultural uniformity.But to be fair, and to go back to the thread's topic a bit, the erasure of regional identities started a loooooong time before the EU entered the picture, it's been going on for centuries here.
Yep. Being breton I find it really shameful and sad to see the culture, the knowledge, etc. disappear. Thankfully there are still pieces of the breton identity here and there (though France is still trying to erase them) but if I hadn't been interested and hadn't looked for it myself I would know nothing about Brittany's history. And most of the younger generation is completely ignorant about it.European identify is much more about shared values than cultural uniformity.
The EU doesn't want Italians to be less Italian or Swedes less Swede. Diversity as a European is to be celebrated.
Something that culturally centralist countries like France or Spain certainly have been doing wrong for decades.
There was plenty to love from the French during the time I spent there as an Erasmus student (the correct term was already Socrates then and I don't know what it is now) but being a Catalan in Best, their willingness to erase their regional identities was quite disgusting.
I'm in a different situation. I identify mostly as a Frisian, since I am from the northern region of The Netherlands called Friesland. I don't see myself as European first, but it is part of my identity. I value the European project and the amount of people around me (I'm 26) that have studied abroad thanks to the Erasmus program is growing everyday.
I value the European project, but I don't identify as a European. I'm Frisian first, Dutch second and European third.