Thanks for the extended response! It made me think about how thin is my identification with Scandinavian-American culture--we claim that pretty loudly here in MN but most people's idea of what it means is little more than "mild-mannered white people." Last night in class, we were interviewing and introducing each other and my interviewer was like "Oh, you're Finnish! That's something to talk about!" but I couldn't think of much of anything to say about that, except that I pronounce "sauna" correctly. Anyway, northern European cultures seem to have disappeared into unmarked American-ness a lot more easily than southern European cultures, and it's interesting to see what a difference that makes.
I wonder if the 'ease of disappearance into unmarked American-ness' factor has to do with the times at which different areas of Europe tended to emigrate to the US.
In Finnish, it's pronounced "sow-na," rather than "saw-na." The U makes a difference.
I think the time of immigration makes a big difference, but it doesn't seem like that can be all of it. The Finns came over around the same time as the Irish, I think. Maybe visibility has something to do with it--since they mostly moved to relatively remote places which are not very populous even now, Finns didn't become part of the ethnic patchwork of the major cities, so there wasn't a lot of stereotyping and that kind of thing. I'm really, really just guessing at all this, though. And I know there are other Americans who have a stronger sense of Finnishness than I do, which probably has a lot to do with how I'm not very close to my dad's side of the family.
This is lovely. I know my complexion and last name beg to differ, but I'm secretly a quarter Italian-American and that's the only part of my family I knew growing up
( ... )
I am thrilled and fascinated by the idea of Korean-Italian food! I especially love the practice of serving pickles as a side. That's a custom I can get behind.
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I wonder if the 'ease of disappearance into unmarked American-ness' factor has to do with the times at which different areas of Europe tended to emigrate to the US.
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I think the time of immigration makes a big difference, but it doesn't seem like that can be all of it. The Finns came over around the same time as the Irish, I think. Maybe visibility has something to do with it--since they mostly moved to relatively remote places which are not very populous even now, Finns didn't become part of the ethnic patchwork of the major cities, so there wasn't a lot of stereotyping and that kind of thing. I'm really, really just guessing at all this, though. And I know there are other Americans who have a stronger sense of Finnishness than I do, which probably has a lot to do with how I'm not very close to my dad's side of the family.
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