Quote:
Originally Posted by icarus
Was it real pity, or the kind of playful faux-pity that an Albertan might show to someone who said he was from, say, Toronto or Newfoundland?
My ancestry in English, Scottish and Irish and I can't say I've ever experienced this, and I'm not aware that any of my Scottish or Welsh born and bred friends have experienced this in England but maybe London and the South-east is a bit more cosmopolitan than other parts of England.
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I think part of it is that in Europe today, ancestry isn't as important as nationality. Almost everyone is mixed if you look hard enough and in Canada, people are brought up to embrace those mixes. In Europe, no matter what your mix is, most people will identify or "feel" as a particular nationality (to the point of even denying or downplaying what other ethnic mixes there might be).
You may be English, Irish and Scottish; but how do you actually feel when it comes to nationality? If you told an English man all 3, he would probably have trouble understanding that.