is that a man and a woman in ur avatar jen?

no its two emo bois getting durty

although, with emos its hard to tell who is male and female. the one on the right could be female a suppose, with a small bust

yes its one of those 'mind benders' where you stare it and never get an answer

Did you know that Portland was nominated the "Most Promiscuous City" recently?

Why would you need to speak German or live in Germany in order to be influenced by German culture? Much of the way you think is greatly influenced by your parents and family, pretty much anyone you spend much time with. If those people are from Germany, or the people they acquired their culture from where German, then they could be born in Nebraska, speaking only English, and still greatly influenced by German values.

The point I was trying to put forth is that you need to be from the country to be considered that nationality.

But to answer your question directly - I never said that you have to live in germany or speak german to be influenced by their values. However, if you were born and raised in America, it rarely matters what values your parents attempt to impart on you. Since you are surrounded by American culture, you grow up knowing American culture.

Your family might have some traditions from their past, but overall, you cannot transfer culture without living in an area or a nation that shares those cultures.

I consider myself Portuguese. I was born and currently reside in Toronto.
My family immigrated in the 60s and 70s.
My first language was Portuguese.
By 3rd grade my english was superior to my families.
I grew up in a portuguese neighbourhood with fresh off the boat people arriving daily.
I speak portuguese daily.
I try to teach portuguese to my gf, currently, she can say "Your mother smells of fish."
Portuguse and Spanish music is on my playlist.
I spent 4 months in Portugal, in 1988(Azores, all islands) and 1993(60% of the main land)
My father hires portuguse people only, portuguese soccer is on the radio, and gives days off for big matches.
Majority of my jobs consisted of mostly portuguese and italian people.
Majority of my friends from school and work are portuguese or italian, and either thier families, or they, are/were fresh off the boat, and dont speak english at home.
Weddings I go to consist of 300 portuguese people, eating bacalhau a portuguesa, while listening to bacalhau a portuguesa. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gs-DM-d2xDY
the song translates to, "I want to smell your codfish, Maria.", a big portuguese hit.
While growing up, portuguese soap operas were always on TV, was a struggle to get to watch transformers/he-man/GI joe.

The only way I could be more portuguese is if I drank more and spent time at billiards... and if my name was Joe... oh wait.. it is.

Being able to call yourself a nationality outside of that nation applies to alot of people from Toronto, it has the largest population of alot of nationalities outside of thier native country. It also applies to other large multi-cultural cities.

Listen to bacalhau a portuguesa, knowing the translation, and imagine 100+ portuguese people doing a weird 3 step, half of them drunk and singing it... often occurrence in my life. If I wasnt portuguese, that would be torture, but its not, because I am one of those 100+ people.

You said "you cannot transfer culture without living in an area or a nation that shares those cultures." which is true, but this applies to many people in large multi-cultural cities in north america.

Yup Yup, Ask Abysis he knows all about how classy of a city we have.

I tell people I lived in Boston when I really was in Cambridge.

Fuck you pals it's across the bridge.