Census What part of the world have you lived in the most/identify with the most?

What part of the world do you live in, have lived in the most, identify with the most?

United States here.

On the temporary boards, everyone seemed to be either from the US, UK, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, or somewhere in Europe. Surely there are other people out there on here?











(It's amazing how hard it is to find a good, current map of the world)

I am unsure of where I have lived.

Like, if someone like in Israel or Turkey, they might not know if they should put Europe or Asia, stuff like that.

You know, it woud've been much better if instead of "Former Soviet Union" you put simply "Central and Eastern Europe". Most of us from the post-Communist countries who weren't actually part of the USSR generally dislike being associated with it.

It has no South Sudan. Rejected.

I am from Brazil.

From the US, selected Australia as where I identify the most. I studied abroad there (TEN years ago, God I'm old) and fell in love with the place. If I hadn't started dating my now husband it's very possible I'd have moved there.

thanks for calling us 'other europe' ...why not keep it geographical correct? Also singling out the brits again tststststs and why those old maps? why not just get up-to-date ones...

I've lived in the U.S., Britain and Austria. I love Chicago, but if I didn't have a family, I'd like to emigrate to Norway or Sweden.

Czechoslovakia.

(I still haven't voted. I refuse to be associated with the Soviet Union. )

'Stralia

Originally I'm from Sweden but for the past 4.5 years I've lived in the UK. Now the latter feels very much like home and I do think this is where I will remain.

Why don't you just divide the poll by continent, and then have two additional categories for the US (1) and Other English-Speaking Countries (2) ? That would give you the gist of what I suspect you're looking to find out, and it's simpler.

I'm from Norway, lived here all my life.

I lumped them much closer together in the temporary boards poll, but EVERYONE who voted was from English-majority countries, or somewhere in Europe. And I mean exactly 100%. So I thought it was good to have those spread out into different options.

Are you aware of the many "countries" that have declared independence from Australia, including the Republic of Awesome, whose military currently consists of four people?
Apparently one of these separatist states (some county, I think) actually issues visitor visas when you get within their "borders".

I agree. England gets its own section and so does Canada and America, yet France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Sweden, etc. are lumped together. I think Greek culture is generally more different from Norwegian culture than American is from Canadian.

I feel so...un-unique having to vote American.

I was actually trying to divide up Europe while I was writing the post (that's why I tried to find a good map of Europe to post), but really struggling on how to divide it up.

Especially since we only have 10 poll options, at maximum. So I decided to just split it up between former Communist and former USSR countries (basically Eastern Europe, but with a very definite category over who's in it) and then the rest of Europe (basically Western Europe).

If someone wants to make another poll on "Europeans, what region have you lived in the most/identify with the most," please go ahead. As a non-European, I didn't want to make that call.

The only categories that are easy to come up with are: the British Isles, Iberia, Scandinavia, the former Yugoslavia states (though even those have huge differences between them), the former USSR states, and maybe the Baltic countries as their own category separate from Russia/Ukraine/Belarus. But how to even categorize the rest?

And at that point, you realize there's way too much focus on Europe and that it's crowding out the other options, since you can only have 10 at maximum. Especially since, from the temporary boards, it was evident that not many lived in Europe. The biggest thing I wanted to learn was how many Europeans here once had to live under communism, like my cousins did who couldn't make it over to America that we've kept in touch with since the 1910's, and that seemed like the easiest way to divide it up.

But if a European wants to make a similar thread for Europe, go ahead I don't claim I'm an expert about that stuff, that's why I created this thread, because I'm curious and I want to learn more about how other people view all kinds of things.

And I have absolutely no problem with that, just... don't group it under "Soviet Union". Really, not an association you'd like when the said Soviet Union invaded you with 200,000 troops and 2000 tanks and occupied you for the following 20 years.

It's always strange for me to imagine how it must be for people from English-speaking countries to know that pretty much the entire Western world has learning your language as a basic educational goal, already from primary school. To us who are not native English speakers, if I may generalize on behalf of all of us, we think of English as the bridge language, to make communication possible across borders/cultures. Also, it's the language of fiction, because Hollywood. While to you, it's just your language, it's what you speak every day, and incidentally the whole world speaks it.

I wouldn't call it arrogance - it's just that native English speakers probably feel less need/motivation/pressure to learn other languages, because "everyone speaks English anyway".