I am from the Los Angeles area (Glendale and then Sunland-Tujunga). Born and raised, spent most of my (so far) adult life there. Educated there. Many family and friends there. Return there as frequently as humanly possible. I am from Southern California. That is it. My life attitudes, my politics, most everything are influenced by Southern California.
So I move to Hooterville a few years ago. (Family obligations.) I still really don’t know my way around. I refuse to watch local news. (Long story. They drove me to it.) So I don’t really know what’s going on in town.
Therfeore, I feel almost no connection to this place. It’s a place; it’s OK. It has decent access to some of the things I’m used to (movie theatres, malls, etc.), and what I can’t get (decent art supplies, Trader Joe’s) I mail order or ask relatives to send “care” packages. So, I’m sorta OK. But it isn’t “home” and I don’t anticipate that it ever will be.
So, I say I’m from L.A., and that I’m “currently exiled in Hooterville”. Because that’s the truth.
Questioning about an accent is definitely one way that where you’re “from” can vary. If I’m traveling outside of the Chicago area and someone asks where I’m “from”, do they mean where I grew up, or where I live now? I have a weird “Midwestern blend” accent due to living in 4 different cities in my life, and so I don’t know if they’re picking up on the accent from my hometown, from when I lived in Minnesota, from living around Chicago (with the many “local” accents I run into there), or what.
I don’t know if I’d call something like this annoying, but there have been times when it’s struck me as silly. I guess the silliness comes in when telling people where one is from is supposed to give the impression of being a bad mo’fo. I’m not talking so much about the stink raised around JLo, because I don’t care one way or the other. More along the lines of Eminem’s 8 Mile. I haven’t seen this movie, nor do I plan to, but the title cracked me up because I am from the same area.
Crime is crime, whether in Podunk, AnyState or downtown Deeetroit. Bad mo’fos come from all places as well. I realize some places are more crime ridden than others, but even coming from a high crime area, I’m pretty sure the time I lived in Detroit didn’t make me any tougher or badder than if I had come from Podunk. I’ve actually experienced more crime living in the Podunk town I live in today. YMMV
I was born in Mt. Prospect, IL, outside of Chicago. But we moved to Denver when I was just a few months old (as soon as they let me fly) and I’ve lived here ever since.
But when people ask where I’m from, I don’t want to say Mt. Prospect and have to explain where that is, and I don’t want to say Chicago because then people expect me to actually know something about Chicago and ask questions. But I also don’t want to say I’m from Denver because I get the “Oh, so you’re a native!” which is apparently Very Important and I don’t want to have to explain that I’m not really actually from Denver but from outside Chigago but only lived there a few months blah blah blah…
So I generally just say I was born near Chicago but have lived in Denver my whole life.
Okay, the complicated part is: grad school in north Jersey (Madison), year in Florida (Tallahassee), two years in Iowa (Ames), year in Wisconsin (Oshkosh), then back to Philly…
I’m thinking we probably crossed paths at some point, seal_clubber!
My brief answer is based on the presmise that the question is usually about “where were you born?” combined with “what are your formative influcences?” and the Michigan/Philly/California answer covers that info.
I was born in Barbados, and that is normally where I say I’m from. However, my parents were from Europe (Italy and Czech Republic) and I grew up speaking 4 languages, so I never picked up a Barbadian accent. As a result, I was always mistaken for a foreigner there.
My parents were also naturalized Canadians, and they registered me as a Canadian born abroad.
As a young adult, I moved to Italy and acquired citizenship of that country. I now have 3 citizenships. And now I live in the UK.
When people ask my housemate where I’m from, he answers “Italian”, because I moved here from Italy. If people ask me and he’s around, I may answer “Canadian”, because it annoys him (he’s Canadian born)
As far as accents go, mine belongs to no country, and I always find it amusing to hear what people try to guess. Here is a partial list: US, Canada, Australia, England, Ireland, Austria, Germany.
Due to this unusual set of circumstances, no country is “home”. I do not understand (emotionally) what patriotism is. I could happily live anywhere, I suppose.
I have two friends who were born in England and moved here as infants. They don’t know each other, which makes this even more annoying:
They consider themselves English, even though their knowledge of English culture/geography etc is very, very low, and the only English accent that creeps into theirs comes from their parents. They both call themselves immigrants to Canada.
This annoys the hell out of me for some reason ! I don’t know why. They are as Canadian as anyone, considering most Canadians - and Americans, probably - have parents or grandparents who were born elsewhere.
And many Black people, descendants of slaves, who have been on this continent as long as anyone but the natives, often report their annoyance at these questions:
‘Where are you from?’
‘Toronto.’
‘No, where are your parents from?’
‘Nova Scotia’
… and so on, and so on.
I guess the conclusion from this is that ‘Where are you from?’ is a pretty meaningless question, if you expect a one-word answer. My response is always ‘Why do you ask?’
I was born in La Paz, Bolivia, but I moved away when I was less than a year old. I don’t speak Spanish well (only scored mid-600s on SAT II, while a true native speaker should score near 800), don’t look Hispanic, and don’t even have a Spanish last name. But it’s such a beautiful place, and much more exotic than Oklahoma (8 years) or :sniff: Flahrida.
Of the Canadians that these two friends and I know, most either were born elsewhere (eg Colombia, Mexico, Israel, England), or have parents that were born elsewhere (Israel, England, America, Iraq, Estonia, Georgia, Argentina, India, Australia, Ireland, Scotland, for starters). They consider themselves to be Canadian, even though their link with their parents’ nation of origin is no less distant than these friends.
In contrast, the people I know who were born here, and whose parents were born here, number 3: myself (although my grandparents immigrated as teenagers) and two others.
I cannot do any better than that, unless you want to come round and meet them all personally. Maybe my experience doesn’t generalize to everyone in Canada, but it certainly does generalize to my two friends, as it is their experience as well.
I have trouble answering this question with more than a helpless shrug too.
0-11 months Amesbury, MA
11mo-9 years Lawerence, MA
9-10 years Plaistow, NH
10-18 years Raymond, NH
18-20 years Taunton, MA
20-25 years middleofnowhere, NH
Conversations go like this:
them- Where are you from?
me- Middleofnowhere, NH
them- oh so did you go to MNHS?
me- No, I went to RHS, in Raymond
them- So you were born in Rayond, then?
me- no…
As for accent, many people are confused by mine, since I don’t really sound like I’m from MA or NH. The way I say some of my words(leaving off the endings to -wer words, for example), rather than how my voice sounds, is the tip off that I’m a new englander.
I used to answer the question by saying “Born in San Diego, grew up in Baltimore” - and it worked for almost 30 years. Once I moved to Florida and got married, I generally answer “I live in Jacksonville” since that seems to be what people are asking. If someone wants my life story, including a list of the places I’ve lived, they’ll likely get it if I’m in a chatty mood.
I was born and raised in Mansfield, Ohio – an hour from Cleveland and an hour from Columbus. How I answer the question depends on where the asker is from. Example: most people I know in Florida have never heard of Mansfield, Ohio. Most have heard of Cleveland. Since I’m somewhat familiar with where things are in Cleveland, I usually say that or, “a small town outside of Cleveland.” Normally, a vague answer is sufficient as the purpose of the question is merely for small talk/general conversation. Sometimes I just say, “Ohio,” if the asker doesn’t seem like they’d be able to relate, i.e. Southerners who have never been north of the Mason-Dixon line. (To them it doesn’t matter where I’m from, once they’ve established that I’m a damn Yankee.)
If the asker is from Ohio, then I just say, “Mansfield.” Most Ohioans have driven through on I-71 on their way to Cleve. or Cols. and can make some sort of small talk about the town… usually a discussion of the prison there.
OK, try this on for size: Born in Vermont, but my parents were living in NH at the time. Grew up in NH - left at 18, came back at 21, left at 23. Been living in the DC Metro area since. Have been told, on more than one occasion, that I have a Western Mass. accent. Both my parents are from there, one town in particular (Haydenville) was a locus for several generations on both sides.
So, where am I from? Vermont, where I was born? NH, where I grew up? DC, where I live now (since I know pretty much how to get around)? Or Haydenville MA, from where I get my accent and my deep roots?
This is a big WTF moment for me… I could’ve sworn I typed Texas, not Okla. I’ve never even been to OK.
