Hi,

An interesting question.
I'm Polish myself, living in Sweden since 8 years back, my husband is Dutch, We speak English at home (me & him). We have two children born in Sweden. They speak 3 languages (I always speak Polish with them, their father -Dutch, they speak fluent Swedish too, the older one understands English). Wow....it's overwhelming for me to grasp sometimes and I do ask myself a question: how will they feel about their identity? I think most of all they will feel Swedish but who knows?
I myself don't feel at home when I go to Poland to visit my parents. Neither do I feel that I belong here in 100% even though I do love Sweden and I have my home here.
So I understand you, I really do.
But I think this situation enriches you, me and my kids.

Where I'm from?

Sometimes I say: be more specific, do you mean where I was born, where I live, my nationality or the way I feel, or the way people treat me? Sometimes I say I'm half portuguese half russian. Other times I say something else, depending of context.

Now, be ready for a my little story :)

My dad is Portuguese, my mum was born in Soviet Union, as myself. Her routes are mostly Ukrainian, but she moved to Moscow to study in Uni and there met my dad. My dad went to Moscow to study in Uni as his parents didn't have much money. So, Soviet Union, great powerful country those years, gave out some scholarships for "third world" and/or poor countries.

My parents lived in Moscow for about 20 years. For my mum it was more time spent in Russia than Ukraine.

When Soviet Union come to an end, people like my mum had the opportunity to choose a nationality, that choice was usually guided by the place where the person is currently living. So, from Soviet, she became Russian.

During that period, after I was born I lived my first 5 years in Moscow.

Then I was constantly moving – about a year in Portugal (living with grandparents and going to 1st primary class) then for 8month in Moscow, going to 1st primary class in Moscow and living with my parents. As school finishes earlier there, still went for couple a months to portuguese 2nd class and then stayed for 3rd and 4th class, so basically finished primary school living with my grandparents in Portugal.

After that, went to Moscow. I had a lot of difficulties at school there, they’re much more exigent rather than Portugal! Had extra classes with my teacher of russian and literature and worked hard at home mostly with my mum.
By the end of that year (first class of basic school - 5th), went from grade 1 to 5 (in russian language subject)!
Before I used to do many mistakes and mix some letters which have different meaning in latin and cyrillic alphabets).

During next years I lived in Moscow and used to come to Portugal at summertime and study portuguese with my dad at home in Moscow. I hated to recite poems and make essays but I’m so glad my parents made me do that!

When I finished 9th class there, I decided I wanted to finish school and Uni in Portugal and so I came to Portugal.

I didn’t have any problems at school here, much easier than in Moscow! Since then I’m in Portugal.

BUT my early childhood and early teen years were spent in Russia which have big influence in my character. On the other hand, as my portuguese side.

At the same time I don’t feel either of those, maybe european sometimes?

I’ve an english boyfriend who spent all his live in Portugal and there are so many emigrants and their children who are living currently in the Algarve for 10, 20, 30 years! Small or medium communities of people from England, Germany, Holland, France... They speak they’re native languages between themselves or english when together. They have much more english, german, etc habits than portuguese.

I love to hang out with them and feel much more like home there (Algarve, south of Portugal). So, maybe home is where you find people alike, people who respect your cultural background or basically more open minded people who aren’t somehow afraid or dislike “foreigners”?!

hehe, i'm a mixture of Fijian, english, norweigian, solomon islander, samoan, chinese, german, scottish.. and those are onl the ones we know about.. am a true mix but here, it's a culture all on its own.. i identify myself as a Pacific Islander tho cuz i'm am.. from the pacific.

Well... Seems that comparing to all these guys I'm not that truuu multicultural.=D
But still I feel it.
My origins are not that interesting, I'm just a Russian. We know that there are no "pure" nations, so I have some Polish origins (coming both from my mom and dad), some Ukrainean, and, maybe (not quite sure) Lituanian. Mostly Russian though. But I've always been mad about all Celtic.%)) And a little bit crazy of all Jewish also.)
So now I live in Brittany, learn Breton (not all the Bretons do), danse their popular dances, speak English and French fluently, try to learn Swedish, and want to start learning German, I'm kinda in love with Alsace, and I study Irish and Scottish culture and civilization. And I feel European.)

Having a multicultural background increases your cultural awareness, gives you a wider angle for your lense of the world. It is a great feeling to be able to speak several languages and relate with people from different cultures.

I come from a mixed family, with italian-german and romanian roots,I grew up In Romania (never felt I belong there) , lived in Canada and "married" a Sri Lankan with portuguese roots.

Its amazing reading about all of you guys!

Even if I don't have such a mixed background, I'm never sure what to answer when people ask me where I'm from. Normally I'll just say Montreal, and if they dont know, Canada- although I do not feel canadian at all.

My mom is 100% quebecoise (french-canadian) and my dad is from a french-canadian(mom) english-italian (dad) family. I grew up only in french (my parents' convictions) and I later learned english and spanish.

I've been living for two years in Colombia, and even if I don't feel Colombian, it's as easy for me to speak spanish then french.

So, I experience also the ''who I am'' question, as an italo-french-canadian-now-part-colombian girl! But, I wouldn't change it either, as I think this is why I'm so interested in other cultures and more open-minded.