Originally posted by Baron Dants Half Armenian shmalf Armenian. I couldn't care less. I know many people who are half-armenian and who are prouder and more knowledgeable about Armenia than people who are "full" armenian.
My main problem is with people who just don't seem to care about Armenia or their armenian community, and who will just bring it up when they need something. I don't just remember my "armenianness", I LIVE it every second of every day.
Language for me IS a very big issue. It is one of the pillars of our culture, and it's very hard to deny it. And it IS something to be proud of, as we have an extremely beautiful language, that will die if we don't use it.
Also, one of my biggest pet peeves are people called Garo who will want to be called Gary, or Anto as Andy, or Sevan as Steve, yevayln. It's too "I'm one of you guys..no no, really, I am...please embrace me as an American/Canadian!"
My main problem is with people who just don't seem to care about Armenia or their armenian community, and who will just bring it up when they need something. I don't just remember my "armenianness", I LIVE it every second of every day.
Language for me IS a very big issue. It is one of the pillars of our culture, and it's very hard to deny it. And it IS something to be proud of, as we have an extremely beautiful language, that will die if we don't use it.
Also, one of my biggest pet peeves are people called Garo who will want to be called Gary, or Anto as Andy, or Sevan as Steve, yevayln. It's too "I'm one of you guys..no no, really, I am...please embrace me as an American/Canadian!"
To say that "language is unimportant" essentially saves ourself the process of having to go through with learning this language, and instead carrying "Armenian" around like a label. Morever, I attribute it more like a "feeling" that comes with speaking it, just like my feeling of God that comes with my faith. In any event, sad that so many Armenians think that just by carying a label they are holding on to something "Armenian".
That is not to say you shouldn't learn other languages, on the contrary there is an Armenian saying that equates to the knowledge of languages to your humanness. But most of all mayreni lezun chmoranak. Armenians forget that it is precisely their language of Armenian that they speak, which makes them Armenians as a whole able to accept other languages more easily, for historically a small people such as this have always spoken not just Armenian, but also the language of the occupiers. Perhaps no other language has the phonetic clarity of Armenian, it's precision, and lack of ambiguity are unmatched, hence in my other thread I mentioned why anthropologist Margaret Mead stated that Armenian should be an international language, yet few Armenians realize the the genius that Mashtots andAbovan in their efforts in developing this language.
Comment