SINCE I AM A YANK DOES THAT NOT MEAN I CAN BE SCOTTISH

[derrickvalchar]

I HAVE HAD MUCH THOUGHT OF WHAT OTHER PEOPLE HAVE SAID. IS IT TRUE SINCE I AM A TEXAN I CANNOT BE A SCOT TOO DOES MY ANCESTRY NOT MEAN ANYTHING! WOULD I BE WELCOME IN SCOTLAND OR AN OUTSIDER BECAUSE OF BANISHMENT IN THE 18 TH CENTURY SOMETHING I COULD NOT CONTROL NOR DEAL WITH AT THE TIME. I KNOW HOW MANY WOULD FEEL IF AN OUTSIDER WOULD COME AND U WOULD KNOW IT DOESN'T SPEAK THE SAME LINGO AS A SCOT DOESN'T REALLY DRESS LIKE A SCOT BUT HAS THE BLOOD OF A SCOT IN HIM. DO U ACCEPT HIM DO U SHUN HIM THAT IS WHAT I AM WONDERING MAYBE SOME ONE COULD POSSIBLY ANSWER THE ? CAN I NOT ENJOY THE BEAUTY OF SCOTLAND THE AIR AND THE MOUNTAINS THE WATER AND THE BUILDINGS I FEEL IN LOVE WITH SCOTLAND AND WITH WHAT IT STANDS FOR SOMETHING U DON'T SEE EVERY DAY I LIKE HAGGIS AND I KNOW THE MEANING OF IT THE BAGPIPES ARE LOVELY I GUESS I'M JUST A DREAMER LET ME KNOW WHAT U THINK OF THIS

[you]

Re: SINCE I AM A YANK DOES THAT NOT MEAN I CAN BE SCOTTISH

id say that if your Texan then you an American....you could be of Scottish descent tho.
you wouldn't be classed as on outsider if you visited, you'd receive the same great welcome all our visitors receive
no one would know or care about what happened hundreds of years ago
and Scotland is a 21st century modern country with thriving cities and towns, its not all haggis and bagpipes

also using caps is considered shouting by the way

[derrickvalchar]

Re: SINCE I AM A YANK DOES THAT NOT MEAN I CAN BE SCOTTISH

really didnt know that thank buddy

[Kelly d]

Re: SINCE I AM A YANK DOES THAT NOT MEAN I CAN BE SCOTTISH

Thank you, You-very well said!

Derrick,

You have been over to Edinburgh and to Roslin, the people in Scotland are lovely! We want to be proud of our heritage all the way around because it is what makes us an individual.

Son, what I need to do is get you busy helping with Homecoming 2014! You will have to come over then and see your ole Maw!

[derrickvalchar]

Re: SINCE I AM A YANK DOES THAT NOT MEAN I CAN BE SCOTTISH

i love the scots i love scotch i just wish it wasnt 80 dollars a bottle over here i love the mcalleans and the glen fidichs my buddy is a Mcloud why are there two different mclouds did it really come down to a women

[apictish1]

Re: SINCE I AM A YANK DOES THAT NOT MEAN I CAN BE SCOTTISH

I am also a yank. I also have Scottish blood (Ross) and perhaps even more importantly, I FEEL Scottish (Maybe I was a Scot in a "former life" although I don't really believe in reincarnation). But I'm not sure that is enough to be considered a Scot. Maybe...
More likely though, it would take a commitment to living our lives in Scotland. If I were to make that commitment, I trust that (at least in time) the Scots would accept me as one of them. Without that commitment, however, probably the most that could reasonably be hoped for would be that they consider me a distant cousin. Would be interesting to get more input on this from Scots.

[Alastair]

Re: SINCE I AM A YANK DOES THAT NOT MEAN I CAN BE SCOTTISH

The plain facts are that there are far more people of Scots descent in the world than there are Scots in Scotland. The most successful Scots were ones that chose to leave Scotland. While there are always exceptions Scots of today way under perform their ancestors of 1, 2 or 3 centuries ago. On the whole they tend to look inward rather than outward.

In my view if you are of Scots descent then be proud of it and try to visit the old homeland at least once. But remember that your ancestors made a decision to leave Scotland and they likely did a lot better than they would have by staying in Scotland. They not only passed on their genes to you but also that can do attitude which likely made you a success in whatever country you now call home.

Alastair

[apictish1]

Re: SINCE I AM A YANK DOES THAT NOT MEAN I CAN BE SCOTTISH

I've been thinking more about this since my post yesterday. I'm not sure it is possible for someone whose experiences do not match the experiences of Scots to be considered Scottish. In my case, though I strongly identify with Scottish history, I was raised in New Jersey and will always carry those experiences (and that burden) with me. Being from New Jersey will always be part of who I am, just as being from Texas will likely always be part of who Derrick is. If part of me will always be "Jersey Boy" then it is not possible for all of me to be Scottish. So even if I did make the commitment to live my life in Scotland, it is probably not realistic to expect the natives to ever consider me fully Scottish. If it ever got to the point where they considered me "mostly Scottish" - that would be a victory. For now, though, I'll just have to accept being partly Scottish - and take/make full advantage/pride in that.

[apictish1]

Re: SINCE I AM A YANK DOES THAT NOT MEAN I CAN BE SCOTTISH

Point taken. But I do wonder how much of that "can do" attitude can be passed on genetically. And there MAY also be some "I'm going to run away from my circumstance rather than stay and fight" attitude in those who left (and I'm not necessarily saying that would not have been appropriate). Personally, I am much more introspective than "can do." So maybe Scotland would suit me better?

[Alastair]

Re: SINCE I AM A YANK DOES THAT NOT MEAN I CAN BE SCOTTISH

I'm sticking to a Scottish theme here but I might add that I think the Western world as a whole has got dumber.

However as I focus on Scotland and the Scots I have tried to dig out books to illustrate what they achieved. I have also put up biographies of many Scots and their descendants as well as publishing books about Religion and Education.

I have an idea that Religion actually played a significant role in the development of Scots. Part of this was the ministers examining children on their knowledge of the Bible. I have been quite amazed at how many Scottish children could recite whole passages of the Bible. This must have helped them develop a method of study and a retentive memory which must have done them good at school.

The other factor I read of quite often is discipline at school. It seemed to me the phrase "spare the rod and spoil the child" might have some place in also understanding the Scots. At first I was quite concerned how many times I read of what seemed to be quite cruel teachers. But just about every person that mentioned the harsh climate at school went on to do very well indeed in the world. Many of the small schools were also attended by mixed age ranges.

And so I wonder how much the role of religion and education in Scotland played a part in the development of Scottish children who grew up to do so many amazing things.

Today we have a well developed social system where we are looked after from cradle to grave. Might this be at the root of the problem?

I think it would be very interesting to take a period say 1800 to 1850... and research how children were brought up in some considerable detail. Then we could take the period 1950 t0 2000 and do a comparison. Or if that's too long a period why don't we just look at the years 1850 and 2000 or this current year. I think that would make a great research project.

Scotland of today is hugely different from the Scotland of a century or more ago. I think we need to try and document these differences to try and understand the changes that have been made and to try and see what these changes have done to us as a race.

That's in part why I have been doing more social histories on the site. I could go on and on on this theme but just as another example one big difference is the National Health Service. It just seems to me that we have more and more allergies these days. One of the old timers writing about his life in the mid 1800's talked about Doctors as being the scum of the earth and that they sold you drugs you didn't need and charged a fortune for things that you should have been able to cure yourself. I think for most countries the cost of medicine is the single largest cost a country has to bare.

And when it comes to lawyers... look at that huge payout MacDonald's had to make just because their coffee was too hot and someone burned their tongue. Has the world gone mad?

Anyway... I won't go on but I do think someone should try to do research on how children were brought up in the old days in comparison to these days.

Alastair

[TanasiWoman]

Re: SINCE I AM A YANK DOES THAT NOT MEAN I CAN BE SCOTTISH

Well, I'm Cherokee with Scots ancestry which I very much honor. My dad's family are Scots-Americans with nearly full Scots ancestry which they rather exult in. However as I was not raised in his family but by my mother's, I'm mixed-blood Native.

[Alastair]

Re: SINCE I AM A YANK DOES THAT NOT MEAN I CAN BE SCOTTISH

We have quite a bit of information on the Cherokee nation on the site and the Scottish connections.

It might interest you to know that here in Canada they call a native half breed of Scots descent an "Improved Scot" <grin>

[noun in Hudson Bay, a person of mixed Scottish and Indian blood CANADA, 1987]

I talked to an intuit leader and he said that around half of them are half-breeds and of them 75% are Scottish half-breeds.

Full of interesting facts I am <grin>

Alastair

[FriedaKateM]

Re: SINCE I AM A YANK DOES THAT NOT MEAN I CAN BE SCOTTISH

Hello...Not sure if this will have anything positive to add to this discussion...But I follow Scotsman.com newspaper, and have done so for many years. I have observed that the Scots who read this paper, will often put many "comments" on the several topics brought up in news daily. I also read some of the English papers, such as Guardian & Daily Mail. The Scots overall have many more comments on their site, than the English. If you go down, trying to follow their "thread", you will find sometimes 150 or more comments on one news story. Are the Scots more isolated, possibly?? What do you all think is the reason for their commenting on so many news items??? I do realize that a few of them are on islands, such as Barra, Skye, etc. Please comment???? Joan PS: to another posting, I too enjoy the little message upon entering our forum!! Mainly asking me if I should go to bed!

[miolchu]

Re: SINCE I AM A YANK DOES THAT NOT MEAN I CAN BE SCOTTISH

I am a late arrival to this thread and have read it with some interest as there seem to be embedded points that are not explored at length with some exceptions.

There is the social point regarding what it means to be 'Scottish'. The American posters appear to have a cultural perspective. I have seen this during my military service with German Americans approaching Germans and proclaiming in a roundabout way, "hey, I am one of you." The Germans replying in an obtuse way (they tend to be obtuse when conveying bad news) "no, you're not."

I saw English-Americans proclaiming the same thing in London with similar results. What emerges here that many Americans are hypenated, that is they perceive a continued connection to the cultures that their forebears left. I suspect that this is because, for a lot of Americans, there is no readily identifiable culture to belong to. A problem arises in how much does an individual know about the culture(s) that they're trying to identify with, speak the languages, and live a similar lifestyle?

Other posters in this thread hint at a more national point of view as one should be what one's birth certificate and and passport says one is. For many Americans that can be challenging as America's cultural models seem to come from Hollywood and Madison Avenue.

[Ward Whitehorn]

Re: SINCE I AM A YANK DOES THAT NOT MEAN I CAN BE SCOTTISH

I HAVE HAD MUCH THOUGHT OF WHAT OTHER PEOPLE HAVE SAID. IS IT TRUE SINCE I AM A TEXAN I CANNOT BE A SCOT TOO DOES MY ANCESTRY NOT MEAN ANYTHING! WOULD I BE WELCOME IN SCOTLAND OR AN OUTSIDER BECAUSE OF BANISHMENT IN THE 18 TH CENTURY SOMETHING I COULD NOT CONTROL NOR DEAL WITH AT THE TIME. I KNOW HOW MANY WOULD FEEL IF AN OUTSIDER WOULD COME AND U WOULD KNOW IT DOESN'T SPEAK THE SAME LINGO AS A SCOT DOESN'T REALLY DRESS LIKE A SCOT BUT HAS THE BLOOD OF A SCOT IN HIM. DO U ACCEPT HIM DO U SHUN HIM THAT IS WHAT I AM WONDERING MAYBE SOME ONE COULD POSSIBLY ANSWER THE ? CAN I NOT ENJOY THE BEAUTY OF SCOTLAND THE AIR AND THE MOUNTAINS THE WATER AND THE BUILDINGS I FEEL IN LOVE WITH SCOTLAND AND WITH WHAT IT STANDS FOR SOMETHING U DON'T SEE EVERY DAY I LIKE HAGGIS AND I KNOW THE MEANING OF IT THE BAGPIPES ARE LOVELY I GUESS I'M JUST A DREAMER LET ME KNOW WHAT U THINK OF THIS

I think that you'd be welcome as along as you don't mention that you're from Texas :wink: