[Fairygdmther]

Jaz, I was taught that ancy refers to a person, where ency refers to a thing, such as a colony has dependency upon the mother country, but for taxes, your kids are your dependants. Independence, as a concept, and not a person, gets the 'e'.

[RLacey]

You all may find this suitably confusing .

[Jazhara7]

Originally Posted by Sage

Jazhara, how in the world do you remember all that? Is there some sort of mnemonic device involved?

I don't know, it just comes naturally to me. Also, I know where to look things up when I'm not sure.

I had very good English teachers, I guess.


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[MoriartyL]

Is it strange that I don't celebrate this holiday, despite having been born in America? I really don't feel much of a connection with the country. Last night my father asked me how I was going to celebrate, and the truth is I didn't realize it was Independence Day until he reminded me. I just don't see myself as an American anymore. I'm not sure why- probably because I'm so disgusted by the phoney patriotism I see in some of my extended family.

[Jazhara7]

Here in Germany we don't really celebrate German Union Day all that much, apart from the official celebrations.

German Patriotism has been described as a kind of "silent patriotism" (Reactions of Football fans don't really count, I think. ). People might be proud of Germany, but they don't really express it. Still, it's rarely to the extent that is attributed to many citizens of the US.

I'm not really patriotic. Sure, I am sometimes proud if things are from Germany (for example:Nivea creme), but that's more of a scientific pride.. I'm just born here, and I would not be proud of the politics all that much.

I often tell about German culture. Some of my favourite topics include the Christkind and the Nikolaus, the Adventskalendar (all three relating to Christmas), and maybe Ahoj-Brause. But that's not patriotism, but more relating to culture. I like to explain things that might not be immediately known about German culture and habits ('Christmas Eve is the time when we get our presents, and also the day we put up our Christmas tree.'), and correct popular misconceptions ('No, we don't normally hide a pickle on our Christmas tree.'). (Ahoj-Brause is just something that I find spiffy to explain to people, because it seems mainly a German phenomenon. Sherbet seems to be similar. However, Ahoj-Brause is first intended as a way to create drinks, and second as a sweet [to a limit. It can be *very* bitter when not made into a drink]. Sherbet seems to be mainly a sweet.). I don't want to force it on anyone, but it is fun to talk about. This is not limited to things relating to Germany, as I also love talking about other things people might not know. I love explaining all kinds of things, from Ancient Egypt to Zoology.


No, I'm not patriotic.


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[pinkgothic]

Originally Posted by Jazhara7

I'm not really patriotic. Sure, I am sometimes proud if things are from Germany (for example:Nivea creme), but that's more of a scientific pride.. I'm just born here, and I would not be proud of the politics all that much.

I often tell about German culture. Some of my favourite topics include [...] Ahoj-Brause.

Jazhara, I think I love you. You are the Loony Empress! And in your insanity, you know what really matters.

[Melanie68]

I'm not really patriotic either. It's the birthday of the US. The US has it's good points and definitely it's faults but for good or bad, it's where I live. That said, I'm always interested in other countries and their history and achievements. It's taken the contributions of many people from many nations to make this world a very cool and interesting place.

[Panthera]

Hey Jaz, We've stolen your Christmas-celebration. Now we put up the christmas tree the 23, in Norway we call it "little Christmas". Besides that, everything else is the same..