1/2 and 1/2

[_ave_]

I am half French and half japanese. I would love to learn about my French genealogy. I think everyone expects that I would be more culturally inclined to embrace my "Japanese-ness" or w/e because it's the half of me that the world can't get over. It's the half of me that makes me most different, and so it's the half that people associate me the

Comments

[fresh007]

i have this weird thing where i don't see people by ethnicity or race at all. i just associate people by their traits and pin their traits onto their faces. my best friend in middle school was a mix of hispanic, indian and african american and it completely never crossed my mind that she wasn't exactly the same as everyone else until two years after when we had to do a survey on ethnic backgrounds.
it could also be that i'm really horrible at discerning ethnicities too, hahah. i can't look at someone and know. -__-. i have to think really hard. i didn't know you were mixed or part asian until someone brought it up and then i did a doubletake.

and i've always been fascinated with family history although it's hard to figure mine out because all my great grandparents died before my grandparents were old enough to know their own ages or names! :(

[fresh007]

why would you say that if you don't know the circumstances behind the environments i grew up in?

[anonymous]

I've wondered about this in the past as well, and finally got some stories from our French grandmother during aunt Nathalie's wedding about 10 years ago.

Apparently our grandfather's side was a bit more on the farmer side, coming from the Provence area. Our grandmother's side of the family was closer to Normandy and Paris.

One great story I remember had to do with a great great uncle or some distant relative, many years ago, who fell in love with some young woman of the aristocracy. There was all sorts of romance and passion and drama in the story, and the couple ultimately made the headlines when they were both found dead in Paris at the Hotel de Ville. Double suicide, or jealous murder/suicide, I don't remember the details, but it has all the makings of a fabulous French film.

hello

[freezerburning]

I am also part French, and i've wondered the same about my family history. I don't know very much about my French relatives, nor will I get to know much as both my grandparents on that side have passed. I suppose there is always the language aspect... At least I have that going for me.
Do you speak both Japanese and French?