If my grandparents immigrated here am I second or third generation American? Does it matter whether or not they were naturalized citizens?
You are a third-generation American. Your grandparents were the first generation to get to America, your parents second, and you are third.
The Japanese-American community would call you “Sansei.”
Actually, your grandparents are “immigrants.” Your parents are first-generation (as in the first to be born here) and you are second-generation.
Mrs. Kunilou and I both had grandparents who immigrated. Mrs. Kunilou indeed is a sansei, but it means “second-generation.” She’s not around and my Japanese is weak, but I believe our children (third-generation) are “ohsei.”
I understand all the words, they just don’t make sense together like that.
I’m afraid I’ll have to beg to differ here.
Among Japanese-Americans “Issei” refers to immigrants from Japan. The root of it comes from the Chinese/Japanese word for “one”.
“Nisei” refers to the first generation born in the U.S. and it has the word for “two” as its root.
“Sansei” are third generation Japanese-Americans and again the root word is “three”.
Fourth-generation Japanese-Americans are referred to as “Yonsei” which uses a different root than the word for the number “four” because the Chinese number for four can also mean “death”.
However, the OP doesn’t make reference to where his immigrant grandparents are from, so different culture may refer to things differently.