At the ripe old age of eight, my older son has become preoccupied with his cultural identity. Just a year or so ago, he would stoutly proclaim that he was English (or rather, British, he used to say). This sounded somehow wrong to a Greek father and Romanian mother, especially since he had already spent a third of his life abroad. However, since we had opted for British citizenship ourselves, we could hardly disagree with his choice. But we did want to make sure that he knew he had a choice. Growing up with four languages and cultures represented in his family and environment, we wanted to spare him the 'brainwashing' that can sometimes occur when you are aware of only one.
Result? He now claims he is 50% British, 20% Greek, 20% Romanian and 10% French. It's interesting that after only 3 months in France, the French identity has already made such serious inroads. I am curious to see how these percentages evolve over time, depending on where he lives or goes on holiday.
But that got me thinking: what would my own percentages be? I do consider myself an amalgam of British, Austrian and Romanian, perhaps even Japanese and Greek, but I have always been reluctant to give any hard numbers. What I do know is that the country of my ancestors, Romania, has become more important to me as I grow older, almost in spite of myself. I've spent most of my life criticising, denying, apologising for, hiding, reluctantly accepting my Romanian heritage. I've spent only just over a quarter of my life there. I write and dream in English. I feel most at home in Vienna. And yet, I discover elements of myself that are deeply, profoundly Romanian, whether I like it or not.
It's almost as though you can build your identity around nurture only for so long, and at some point nature will find a way out.
What would your percentages be? And what about the rest of your family? This can lead to some lively discussions over the dinner table, I can assure you!
