POLL: Different Nationalities?

1CharluvsDee1

OK, since I work with couples like everyday I see some really crazy mixes sometimes. For us here in Miami, it is very common to have mixed backgrounds and so on...sooo Do you and your Fi fall under this category? If so, what are your nationalities or backgrounds?Were your parents of different nationalities or backgrounds?Do you plan on teaching your kids both languages if you speak something other than English?I will post mine momentarily ..

cinthia122

LOL....My poor children are going to be the biggest mutts. My mother is Dominican my father is French.  My FI is Italian.  I speak English, Spanish, and French and hope my children will too.  He speaks Italian and hopefully I learn it as well as my children.  

goldie3474

Yes He is Romanian - speaks it fluently but refuses to teach me. He says he feels like an outsider when he speaks it. I'm Italian ... well technically American BUT family is italian - my grand parents speak it, my parents A LITTLE, and I know a few words and phrases. I'd love to teach my children about both of our heritages and cultures.

EliNick

I am Jamaican/Indian and FI is Haitian.  Sorta similar in some ways but different in many ways.  I'm sure FI plans on teaching our kids Creole but he doesn't really speak it much himself so...we'll see. 

avee10

I am Colombian and FI is Dominican, but he is a very Americanized Dominican. My parents are both Colombian and they always hoped I would marry a Colombian, lol.  But thats ok because my FI has adapted very well to our culture : ). The language thing is a biggie for me.  I was born in Colombia but have lived in Miami since I was 4 (26 years).  My spanish is perfect and most people assume I grew up in Colombia.  I hope that my kids can be fully bilingual.  Meaning they can speak, read, and write BOTH languages PROPERLY.  What I've seen my cousins do with their kids is speak to them only in spanish for the first few years of their lives and let them learn english from TV and in PreK.  The only problem I forsee with this is that FI's spanish is TERRIBLE, so I jokingly tell him that we cant have kids until his spanish improves!

jennej24

Well, I always just say I am American, on both sides of my family you have to go back pretty far to see what their original country was, and even then they are all different. My FI is half Puerto Rican and half Guatamalan. My dad was Jewish and my mom is Christian, although neither of them are super religious.I want to make sure my kids can speak both languages, so they can communicate with their Grandmother, however FI isn't comfortable with his spanish skills, so I don't know how this will work. I really want to learn Spanish better so I can communicate with FMIL better. Also, there are lots of studies that show how much easier it is for kids to pick up languages before they are 5, so I want to teach them at least a second language while they are young and can pick it up easy.

rrive008

I am Colombian, he is Nicaraguan I am big on culture, to me it is extremely important in knowing who you are. My children will definitely learn their culture and speak the language.

1CharluvsDee1

My mom was Dominican and dad is Dominican. Fi's mom Jamaican and his dad was Half Puerto Rican half Nicaraguan.Do you plan on teaching your kids both languages if you speak something other than English? I plan to speak to my kids in Spanish and English so that they get both languages from early age.

cinthia122

WOW so many Dominicans.

avee10

rrive, I am totally with you on culture being important.  I cant for the life of me understand why my FI knows absolutely NOTHING about his culture and has never bothered to learn more. I definitely plan on teaching my kids all about their Colombian culture and I guess I will have to read up on Dominican culture so I can teach them that too!

littleyello

I'm Jamaican, FI is Haitian. So similar, yet so different. Language is the biggest difference. FI and I are both very americanized, but our families...not as much, linguistically anyway. I really want our kids to spend summers in both countries to stay true to our culture. I also want our kids to learn Creole. I need to work on that myself first tho, lol.

murrc2

Wow, so many mixes =)I am half Peruvian and half CanadianFI is half Irish and half African AmericanI'm teaaching Fi spanish now and plan to teach our children as well.  I used to speak french fluently but I kinda lost it, still understand it perfect but its hard to come up with the words.

JaiKriBaby

I'll play even though I'm not a knottie anymore I love hearing about where other people are from. Both sides of my family have been in the U.S. since the 1600's from Germany.  My husband was born in Colombia to a Colombian mother and an American father, but has lived all over the world.  I'm jealous that he speaks 5 languages!I will speak only English to our son (because that's all I know lol) and he will speak only Spanish (at least in the early years).  Hopefully at some point he can teach him some of the other languages he knows, but we don't want to confuse him too much!

YHFoxtrot

I'm Jewish and He's Irish!

rrive008

Avee* yea i think i go a little too far sometimes though correcting FI when he misuses a word or when he doesn't know something about Nicaragua (eventhough he was born there!). To his defense though, my bachelors degree was in Political Science with an emphasis in Latin American politics so I may expect him to know a little too much. lol. eitherway, he does appreciate my passion for culture.

avee10

rrive, can you believe that when I met FI he had no idea that Juan Luis Guerra was Dominican????

muddilicious

Mrs. JaiKri that is the way to go!Well, I am half Italian and GermanDH is half Cuban and ItalianIF we had a wee one, his Grams would be talking to him in Spanish 100% of the time.  Neither of us are fluent :-(

rrive008

omg Juan Luis Guerra is like the ambassador of DR!! I loooove him.

JaiKriBaby

Hopefully it will work out Jenise. I just can't imagine not giving him that skill if we have the ability to.  I hear it may hold him back a bit in the beginning with language development, but that he will catch up quickly after awhile so we'll see.  Hope you both are doing well

mrodriguez1285

I was born and raised in Argentina, came to the US at age 14 and FI was born in Cuba, came to the us when he was 10.

1CharluvsDee1

cinthia122:wow! well you got a little bit of everything. European with some island flavor!Goldie3474: has he taught you at least any words like "i love you"?I agree, I plan to teach my kids about all heritages and traditions.EliNick: Yeah, Fi's grandmother is Jamaican/Indian and after chatting with his Jamaican family and stuff I noticed we are very similar for example in what foods we eat..Fi'  speaks some Spanish, but I can't trust him teaching it to our kids lolAvee10: I agree I speak, read, and write spanish perfectly so I want my kids to do the same. Fi on the other hand doesn't agree that I speak only spanish to the kids when they are young cuz he says they might have a hard time learning English...I know that is not true, so I will speak to the in Spanish!Jennej24: Are you able to speak to her at all?rrive008: Could not agree more!

cinthia122

JaiKri- You are right at the begining it is tough.  My mother says I used to mix up the names to everything in different languages.  I went to an English speaking school in France and my mother only speaks to me in Spanish and my father only speaks to me in French.  I'm doing fine now (I think).

goldie3474

yes he does, that and good night... that's all I get. When he says "te iubesc" I find it adorable. I asked him about engraving our bands - mine with "te iubesc" and his with "ti amo or mi amore" but he looked at me like I was nutso.

JaiKriBaby

Cinthia...you seem like you are doing perfectly My MIL only spoke to my husband in Spanish when he was a baby and my FIL only spoke to him in English.  Then he learned Portuguese on his own when they lived in Brazil as a child.  He picked up Italian and French in the U.S. Army crazy enough. I guess it was just easier for him because he was immersed from the start and Portuguese and Spanish were good building blocks for French and Italian.  We'll see!! Hopefully we are making the right decision with our son.  I'm sure it will be one of many decisions I'll agonize over ;-)

1CharluvsDee1

Wow! There are soooo many mixes.JaiKriBaby: You are more than welcome to play. :)I'm so envious of people that get live in a bunch of different places.... 5 languages that's impressive.  Yeah, I think you should just stick to two languages at first.rrive008: I correct Fi ALL the time!avee10: Are you serious dude? He did not know that!?Well, I cant talk much cuz I cannot dance Bachata for the life of me! lol I love dancing and got rhythm, BUT cannot get it together with Bachata! I still attempt it though. 

tiffanyc0922

my parents were born here in the US - one grandma was born in Puerto Rico and the my Great Grandparents were born in Italy, Austria and Germany. I'm Half Puerto Rican and Itilian/German He's French & I think either German or Irish.

Karamel99

We are definitely a crazy mix. I'm Romanian/Yugoslavian & he is Portuguese/Brazilian.  I'm slowly learning Portuguese & he's slowly learning Romanian lolololI definitely plan on teaching our children both languages. I don't think I have much of a choice anyway. I know for a fact my family is going to speak Romanian to them from birth and the FI's family is going to speak Portuguese to them from birth.I would love my children to be tri-lingual!

jennej24

My FMIL understands English, but FI swears she can't speak it at all, really I think she just doesn't feel comfortable. When I ended up alone with her, she spoke a couple of sentences of English that sounded fine to me. I took Spanish in high school and can pick up a few words when I hear her talking, but not much. I just need to get back to practicing!

1CharluvsDee1

goldie3474:awwww I thought the idea was cute! JaiKriBaby: He will be fine! :)tiffanyc0902: dang girl! that is a mix!karamel99: Yup, I feel you too because my family will speak to them in only Spanish.

mikki75

I'm of Irish descent and my FI is from Trinidad : ) But I always say that I'm an Indian girl stuck in a white girl's body. LOL : )

**Octoberbride09**

I'm brazilian/German he is colombian and yes are kids are going to be born trilingual. Psth. they better be.