Ethnicity Activity three

Ethnicity and Communication
When people read my last name they tend to make some sort of comment about it being French. Although my last name is indeed French and I am also part French, the majority of my ethnicity is German. With both my grandfathers being almost completely German it is inevitable that I am too. Besides being German, I am also Italian and Norwegian. These three are what is the most prominent in my ethnicity. However I don’t think that it made that big of an influence on the way I was brought up.
The way I was raised was not focused so my ethnicity instead it was focused the traditions that my mother was brought up with. My grandmother spoke German and English, but it was not forced on us growing up to know German. I think that spending most of my childhood at my grandmothers made me the person I am today. She grew up with thirteen siblings in a small farm house, so obeying her parents was a must and doing your part around the farm was something her or her siblings couldn’t get out of. I grandmother took the ways she grew up and instilled that into her children and my mother instilled it into me and my sisters and brother. My grandmother is a strong catholic and attends church weekly, although my beliefs are different than hers I believe that I am a better person today because of her influences that she had on me as a child. She grew up in a house where swearing and talking back we not tolerated. These rules stuck with her and it is still in place today. I think that since I was raised in a house where there was no swearing and we had to do daily cores it will have an impact on the way I raise my kids. I think that it I good to know where your roots are and to have ties to your ethnic background. Knowing about your ancestors is an exciting experience.
I believe that when people meet me they would not be aware of my ethnic backgrounds. By my looks I don’t think people would assume off the bat that I have a strong German background. After getting to know me I think then you may be able to see something’s that tie me to my ethnicity. I am told that I can be stubborn and that trait links me to my German side. Other than that and my last name I don’t think people would be able to tell what my ethnicity is.
After doing this assignment I began to think about what I would want to learn from my ethnicity. I think that someday I would like to learn German and possibly how to cook the German food that my grandma makes. How about you what would you like to learn from your ethnic background?