Quote:
Originally Posted by Capsicum
I bet Italian Americans and Canadians are more likely to do that because there's not a population of Italian-speakers nearby to compare them to (the so-called "authentic" Italian culture is far away).
On the other hand, anglicized French Canadians have the "authentic" home culture nearby to compare things to. Once they see that they're not like or not doing things the way things are done there, it'd probably easier to be self-aware of how much assimilation has took place and thus more difficult to brag about identity.
You see that too with Franco-Americans. Since their point of comparison is only often Anglo Americans who speak no French, there's no shame is playing off the ancestral roots as identity because they're not comparing themselves to the Quebecois they've long lost touch with.
|
Yes, I was going to mention that some Franco-Americans will do a variant of the "Italian thing".
This is certainly true of Cajuns in Louisiana who are massively English dominant or unilingual in English at the moment. Yeah, I know that their primary identity is not "French" but rather "Cajun" but the two do get mixed up a lot. Anyway, even if they've lost their language they still have a strong identity.
Franco-Americans in the NE also do this to some degree in my experience. There are "French" or "Franco-American" clubs all over that region that AFAIK operate primarily in English or bilingually, and lots of members don't speak any French at all.
But in Canada both you guys are right: basically no one who doesn't speak French identifies with that aspect of their identity. A decent chunk of my extended family is like that and they primarily identify as un-hyphenated "Canadians". They're certainly aware of their French roots but to them it's all part of a big Canadian "mash-up". Their culture is Tragically Hip, Trailer Park Boys, Roots, hockey, the Blue Jays, the Raptors, poutine (
) and of course all of the American stuff that occupies a segment of the the Canadian mainstream: Super Bowl, SNL, Jimmy Fallon, Big Bang Theory, The Simpsons, Family Guy, NCAA March Madness, Star Wars, etc. And when we're lucky CBC Radio and the Globe and Mail...
I am almost positive that they don't think about their francophone roots much more than once a year (if that), but when they do like at family gatherings for funerals, anniversaries or weddings) there is often a bit of uneasiness that I sense on their part. As I have mentioned before my siblings have also "gone anglo" and I have noticed they and their families are drifting towards this type of uneasiness as well in recent years.