Emotional support from an Asian American who is a bit weeaboo for Scandinavia, including a love of minimalist architectural designs, wooden churches, and smoked fish. I took a course on Icelandic sagas in college and almost started on a career path towards archaeology of Viking-era England.
Im a South Asian who is kind of a weeb for cowboys and rodeos? Except I did live in a small west texas town and at first hated it but then loved it. Does that mean I graduated from weeb and then went native?
More like millions. If you include "demi-weebs" (tm) like m'self, who get at least semi-obsessed with a culture, then actually travel to said homeland for some bona fide immersion, becoming for a time even more steeped in the grooviness and mystique of said culture. At least until yet another culture's shiny-ness distracts, and the cycle begins anew.
Maybe "demi-weeb" isn't so descriptive. Perhaps "poly-weeb"? "Bi-weeb"?
Very funny diary, btw. And do please get yerself to the Emerald Isle for a big kiss on the Blarney Stone. Near Cork. And bring your husband, as it's a two person job.
I'm Asian American a bit of a weeb for Germany. Which as I understand is actually fairly common in Asia and often comes with some unfortunate implications...
I'm a weeb for Finland, who actually visited Finland, and... it was exactly as awesome as I was hoping! The ways reality diverged from the pop culture were all new and exciting instead of disappointing.
You should go to Ireland! You will probably find exactly what you're expecting. There's a reason the exported pop culture is the way it is, you know. It's because those places *are* (in some ways) actually like that. You get a sanitized and idealized version in the pop culture, but it's still there irl.
You'd be a tourist, so you can go do the touristy things. To me, the "reality sets in" negative stuff would only come up if you tried to actually live there. But just visiting? You can still get the highlight reel.
Ireland, like Britain, has its lived reality (which is normal and quotidian enough) and its mystical overlay. For Ireland it’s the folk music and the mists and the weather beaten stone walls in the west, in Britain it’s the castles and the royalty and the recent addition to folk mythology be Tolkien and even Rowling. All are legit, the people living there (or here in the case of Britain) get a bit cranky with the mysticism as they try and pay the bills, but it’s absolutely fine for outsiders.
Same by the way for the US. Some versions of US mythology still survive in Europe - maybe it’s a fetish for New York, or route 66 or my sister who loves what she has seen of the Montana sky, mostly on television. She is going to visit and I’m sure she won’t be disappointed.
Well, I guessed you were collaborating with Heather Cox Richardson, but this is great, too!
I have 3/4 Irish ancestry and I am donating at a least a 1/4 of it to you; you've put in the time, you deserve it. Far more than I do, because I was/am a weeb for Denmark. It probably started with Hans Christian Anderson, but I cultivated it with a good dose of Karen Blixen in my teens and early twenties. I tried to get people to call me "Alma" for a while. I carried "Smilla's Sense of Snow" around in my NPR tote in the nineties. I was an OG watcher of Borgen. You get the picture.
I think I'm your mirror opposite. 100% Irish background with zero interest in Irish culture, but a lifelong cringey weeb for anything Jewish. Aged 14, I bought myself a book on conversational Hebrew and a yarmulke. I dragged bemused high school buddies on a tour of a synagogue. To this day, I have dozens of books on Jewish history, and am inexplicably drawn to the kosher aisle at our supermarket. I guess I'm a jeweeb?
Being Irish in America (as I am) is really nice as as everyone seems to be a weeb and is really primed to like you and root for your upward mobility. Now we’re the immigrants everyone likes!
They only thing tough is living up to everyone’s expectations that you’ll be really fun and “full of craic.” I think I’m reasonable social, but your expectations of the Irish are really high!
Being a (relatively) rare breed of Japanese living in northeast, I sometimes find weebs interesting but not offensive at all! At least it feels nice that ppl like your culture! So I imagine many Irish ppl would feel the same to you!
And I gotta say, Cranberries are GOAT! RIP Dolores O’Riordan
I, too, am an Irish weeb, but more embarrassingly, I started as an adult. A guy I went to music school with, who is actually Irish-American and grew up singing in the Milwaukee Irish Fest choir, started a Celtic folk band and invited me to play with them for a while. I now own a kilt, know a dozen or so Irish folk songs which I've made cringe recordings of, and pop over to Duolingo once a day to do a lesson in Irish. I hide all of this behind my big red beard, which in the eyes of most legitimizes my claim on Irish culture. They don't know I'm just an Irish weeb.
This is hilarious. My little sister and brother were in Irish dancing, and I got dragged to whatever feis was going on that weekend. I'm not really that into it despite some serious red hair and freckles Irishness in the family. I think the cartoon American versions of the various European ancestorial cultures are fun though and I hope people keep doing it. It was fun going to the Greek kid's house, or having Matzah in the house for the Jewish kids if they came over, or ending up down the street at my buddy's Italian Christmas Eve, or showing up and some old person is speaking Polish.
Was weird moving from the Northeast where all the white people were chopped up into their various groups to the south where white people were just white. Made me appreciate that stuff more when I came back.
Love this! I'm a zero percent Irish, American white guy living in the Irish hinterlands (looking forward to Kilkennomics, Noah!). My (American) wife is also half Irish and has tons of local relatives- but she's also half Chinese so everyone assumes I'm the Irish American one. Perhaps she'll inspire some Irish weebs for Asia? Ireland is great and your fantasy version does have a ring of truth, even if mistiness sometimes veers into months-long stretches of dreariness and cozy affability can turn into gossip. I have yet to meet any Irish dancers here, but my 12 year old son has taken up the tin whistle in a trad band, so full cheeseball assimilation is under way.
This is very sweet. I am Irish living in Ireland, with a pint of Guineas in hand and 2 red headed kids. Keeping enjoying the bits of our culture that you enjoy. Also find Garron Noone on social media and Foyles Arms and Hogg
Hah a funny coincidence having just discovered Cartoons Hate Her via a link somewhere - hmmm Slow Boring? - to the Atlantic article (or some recent article of some magazine I don't subscribe to).
Emotional support from an Asian American who is a bit weeaboo for Scandinavia, including a love of minimalist architectural designs, wooden churches, and smoked fish. I took a course on Icelandic sagas in college and almost started on a career path towards archaeology of Viking-era England.
This is fascinating! We need to gather together a coalition of weebs from various cultures (and towards various cultures.) There are dozens of us!
I’ll bring the cod sashimi :)
Im a South Asian who is kind of a weeb for cowboys and rodeos? Except I did live in a small west texas town and at first hated it but then loved it. Does that mean I graduated from weeb and then went native?
More like millions. If you include "demi-weebs" (tm) like m'self, who get at least semi-obsessed with a culture, then actually travel to said homeland for some bona fide immersion, becoming for a time even more steeped in the grooviness and mystique of said culture. At least until yet another culture's shiny-ness distracts, and the cycle begins anew.
Maybe "demi-weeb" isn't so descriptive. Perhaps "poly-weeb"? "Bi-weeb"?
Very funny diary, btw. And do please get yerself to the Emerald Isle for a big kiss on the Blarney Stone. Near Cork. And bring your husband, as it's a two person job.
I'm Asian American a bit of a weeb for Germany. Which as I understand is actually fairly common in Asia and often comes with some unfortunate implications...
We are all coming out of the shadows!
I'm a weeb for Finland, who actually visited Finland, and... it was exactly as awesome as I was hoping! The ways reality diverged from the pop culture were all new and exciting instead of disappointing.
You should go to Ireland! You will probably find exactly what you're expecting. There's a reason the exported pop culture is the way it is, you know. It's because those places *are* (in some ways) actually like that. You get a sanitized and idealized version in the pop culture, but it's still there irl.
You'd be a tourist, so you can go do the touristy things. To me, the "reality sets in" negative stuff would only come up if you tried to actually live there. But just visiting? You can still get the highlight reel.
Ooooh, I want to go to Finland! I want to go to Lapland in the middle if winter and learn to drive on a frozen lake!
Ireland, like Britain, has its lived reality (which is normal and quotidian enough) and its mystical overlay. For Ireland it’s the folk music and the mists and the weather beaten stone walls in the west, in Britain it’s the castles and the royalty and the recent addition to folk mythology be Tolkien and even Rowling. All are legit, the people living there (or here in the case of Britain) get a bit cranky with the mysticism as they try and pay the bills, but it’s absolutely fine for outsiders.
Same by the way for the US. Some versions of US mythology still survive in Europe - maybe it’s a fetish for New York, or route 66 or my sister who loves what she has seen of the Montana sky, mostly on television. She is going to visit and I’m sure she won’t be disappointed.
Well, I guessed you were collaborating with Heather Cox Richardson, but this is great, too!
I have 3/4 Irish ancestry and I am donating at a least a 1/4 of it to you; you've put in the time, you deserve it. Far more than I do, because I was/am a weeb for Denmark. It probably started with Hans Christian Anderson, but I cultivated it with a good dose of Karen Blixen in my teens and early twenties. I tried to get people to call me "Alma" for a while. I carried "Smilla's Sense of Snow" around in my NPR tote in the nineties. I was an OG watcher of Borgen. You get the picture.
I think I'm your mirror opposite. 100% Irish background with zero interest in Irish culture, but a lifelong cringey weeb for anything Jewish. Aged 14, I bought myself a book on conversational Hebrew and a yarmulke. I dragged bemused high school buddies on a tour of a synagogue. To this day, I have dozens of books on Jewish history, and am inexplicably drawn to the kosher aisle at our supermarket. I guess I'm a jeweeb?
Being Irish in America (as I am) is really nice as as everyone seems to be a weeb and is really primed to like you and root for your upward mobility. Now we’re the immigrants everyone likes!
They only thing tough is living up to everyone’s expectations that you’ll be really fun and “full of craic.” I think I’m reasonable social, but your expectations of the Irish are really high!
Being a (relatively) rare breed of Japanese living in northeast, I sometimes find weebs interesting but not offensive at all! At least it feels nice that ppl like your culture! So I imagine many Irish ppl would feel the same to you!
And I gotta say, Cranberries are GOAT! RIP Dolores O’Riordan
I, too, am an Irish weeb, but more embarrassingly, I started as an adult. A guy I went to music school with, who is actually Irish-American and grew up singing in the Milwaukee Irish Fest choir, started a Celtic folk band and invited me to play with them for a while. I now own a kilt, know a dozen or so Irish folk songs which I've made cringe recordings of, and pop over to Duolingo once a day to do a lesson in Irish. I hide all of this behind my big red beard, which in the eyes of most legitimizes my claim on Irish culture. They don't know I'm just an Irish weeb.
I’m a fellow weeb for Ireland, and spent my 50th birthday last year in Kilkenny. On Saint Patrick’s Day. Yes, I’ve got it bad.
It’s a delightful town. Try Matt The Miller’s pub. They serve a mean shepherd’s pie.
This is hilarious. My little sister and brother were in Irish dancing, and I got dragged to whatever feis was going on that weekend. I'm not really that into it despite some serious red hair and freckles Irishness in the family. I think the cartoon American versions of the various European ancestorial cultures are fun though and I hope people keep doing it. It was fun going to the Greek kid's house, or having Matzah in the house for the Jewish kids if they came over, or ending up down the street at my buddy's Italian Christmas Eve, or showing up and some old person is speaking Polish.
Was weird moving from the Northeast where all the white people were chopped up into their various groups to the south where white people were just white. Made me appreciate that stuff more when I came back.
Go visit Ireland. If only for the green.
Love this! I'm a zero percent Irish, American white guy living in the Irish hinterlands (looking forward to Kilkennomics, Noah!). My (American) wife is also half Irish and has tons of local relatives- but she's also half Chinese so everyone assumes I'm the Irish American one. Perhaps she'll inspire some Irish weebs for Asia? Ireland is great and your fantasy version does have a ring of truth, even if mistiness sometimes veers into months-long stretches of dreariness and cozy affability can turn into gossip. I have yet to meet any Irish dancers here, but my 12 year old son has taken up the tin whistle in a trad band, so full cheeseball assimilation is under way.
Fun read! The CHH lore always amuses me. 😂
This is very sweet. I am Irish living in Ireland, with a pint of Guineas in hand and 2 red headed kids. Keeping enjoying the bits of our culture that you enjoy. Also find Garron Noone on social media and Foyles Arms and Hogg
Hah a funny coincidence having just discovered Cartoons Hate Her via a link somewhere - hmmm Slow Boring? - to the Atlantic article (or some recent article of some magazine I don't subscribe to).
Very entertaining.
My father would occasionally note an old saw to me that there were only two kinds of people in this world: the Irish and those who wish they were.