this post was submitted on 28 Feb 2024
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They're absolutely not their parents' nationality, but they are their parents' ethnicity. They're only their parents nationality if they get citizenship in that country.
My kids are not Korean citizens because they would be required to serve in the military. But I consider them ethnically Korean because their mom is ethnically Korean (and grew up in Korea). I probably wouldn't consider their kids Korean though, assuming they don't marry another Korean. They don't speak Korean and have no desire to live in Korea, but it's part of their heritage and we sometimes read to them in Korean.
So as long as you have actual ties in the other country or actively practice its culture (and you have ancestry from there), I think you're good to claim that ethnicity. Otherwise it's a bit of a stretch for me.
by nationality there I didn't mean the legal definition of citizenship, but the more vague sense of being able to confidently say "I am [insert country]-ish/ese/an"
if they don't speak Korean then I personally wouldn't consider them Korean, as without the language they are disconnected from the history and culture of Korea. Even when you translate said history and culture, it's just not the same thing, every language conveys untranslatable nuance to stories said in that language.
I disagree. They eat primarily Korean food at home, they hear a lot of Korean being spoken (their mom with friends, their grandparents), and there are certain other cultural habits and whatnot they got from their mother (different "home" clothes from "outside" clothes, take off shoes when entering house, use chopsticks for eating, etc). They're certainly different from their American friends.
I would argue that if they spoke Korean but otherwise didn't partake in any Korean cultural heritage, that they shouldn't be considered Korean. I speak a foreign language (other than Korean), but I would never consider myself "from" that culture because I have no ancestral or legal ties, I just lived there for a couple years to improve my language skills. I'm also very interested in that country's history, but only academically. I don't see them as "my people."
seems like a difference of perspectives then. I've felt more commection and sort of "oneness" with an Egyptian guy who's been to Poland once but spoke near perfect Polish, than with any of the Polish Americans that could barely pronounce dzień dobry. There's enough differences in upbringing within a single country anyway, "how do you do things where you're from" could apply to anything from the town next door to the country on the other side of the planet