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.
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...
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'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.
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.
Irish culture has been amplified by the high levels of emigration to places like the US, Canada, Britain, Australia and New Zealand along with Argentina. St. Patrick’s Day amplifies this. I can even remember celebrating it in Hong Kong when we took over an Irish bar.
My sister lived in Greenville in South Carolina for many years and my niece went to school there. About one third of houses put out Irish flags on St. Patrick’s Day and there are lots of parades throughout the South with the biggest in Savannah. On a number of occasions my sister and I went into my niece Abby’s class on St. Patrick’s Day to tell the children about Ireland and the kids used love my sister translating their first names into Irish Gaelic.
We Irish are great at promoting our culture given the opportunity. For this reason others buy into it. On St. Patrick’s Day many places around the world like the Great Wall of China are lit up in green. Now we have even invaded Netflix with The House of Guinness.
Sing Street is a must-watch if you're a Weeb for Ireland. Fun film, and an interesting view on Ireland before the 1990s era economic boom. Of course there's also the Commitments, an older and better-known Irish musical film.
Ireland suffers from Penal Law Traumatic Disorder. Their irrational Jew and Israel hatred know nearly no bounds. It's an ongoing thing because their Umma is occupied by alien Colonialists in Northern Ireland. Too bad they don't understand that they are Kuffir, and will either convert, be raped and slaughtered or live as Dhimmi if and when Sharia comes. The rest of the world for that matter....
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!
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 :)
We are all coming out of the shadows!
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...
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'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.
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.
Fun read! The CHH lore always amuses me. 😂
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.
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.
Irish culture has been amplified by the high levels of emigration to places like the US, Canada, Britain, Australia and New Zealand along with Argentina. St. Patrick’s Day amplifies this. I can even remember celebrating it in Hong Kong when we took over an Irish bar.
My sister lived in Greenville in South Carolina for many years and my niece went to school there. About one third of houses put out Irish flags on St. Patrick’s Day and there are lots of parades throughout the South with the biggest in Savannah. On a number of occasions my sister and I went into my niece Abby’s class on St. Patrick’s Day to tell the children about Ireland and the kids used love my sister translating their first names into Irish Gaelic.
We Irish are great at promoting our culture given the opportunity. For this reason others buy into it. On St. Patrick’s Day many places around the world like the Great Wall of China are lit up in green. Now we have even invaded Netflix with The House of Guinness.
"Now we have even invaded Netflix with The House of Guinness."
I assume this is a prestige miniseries about the development of statistical practice in brewing? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Sealy_Gosset
Sing Street is a must-watch if you're a Weeb for Ireland. Fun film, and an interesting view on Ireland before the 1990s era economic boom. Of course there's also the Commitments, an older and better-known Irish musical film.
Ireland suffers from Penal Law Traumatic Disorder. Their irrational Jew and Israel hatred know nearly no bounds. It's an ongoing thing because their Umma is occupied by alien Colonialists in Northern Ireland. Too bad they don't understand that they are Kuffir, and will either convert, be raped and slaughtered or live as Dhimmi if and when Sharia comes. The rest of the world for that matter....
Go visit Ireland. If only for the green.
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!