This is a very important topic of discussion and I thank you OP for bringing this up for all us Armenian redditers to discuss. First and foremost let me say that I am an Armenian-American who was born in the United States. Unlike most Armenian-Americans in the states, I was privileged enough to attend an Armenian school in Los Angeles from age 4 to 18. Henceforth my experience as an American national with Armenian ancestry might differ from other Armenian-Americans who grew up in various parts of the country that don’t have sizable Armenian demographics. With this said, let me say that despite having a great level of exposure to Armenian history, language, literature and culture at Armenian school, I’ve still noticed that a lot of my fellow classmates and friends display a great level of assimilation today. However, this is not their fault and is to be expected by anyone with even a small sense of rationality.

You see, living in the west (and in this case the United States) it is difficult to not assimilate to a certain degree. There’s nothing Armenian parents can do to stop it (other than completely shutting off all outside forms of media from their child.) We grow up watching cartoons, movies, television shows, playing video games and reading books all in English. This is of course to be expected. When our families decided to emigrate to the West, there was a certain level of realism that they needed to face and accept before making the move. When immigrating from the east to the west, one has to realize that future generations will indeed suffer when it comes to preserving culture. Sure there will always be exceptions, but we’re talking about the big picture here right?

The Conflict: I believe that all of this has presented itself a conflict in the current Armenian-American community. As of today we (Armenian-Americans in Los Angeles) are still in the early stages of assimilation. Sure we may speak to one-another in mostly English, but we still have a sense of identity and knowing where we came from. Even if you don’t know anything regarding Armenian history, you still have Armenian friends and are exposed to the various elements that attribute to the Armenian community here in LA. A large part of us still mostly have Armenian friends and most of our significant others (may it be husbands, wives, boyfriends, girlfriends) are Armenian. This had a lot to do with our upbringing. Even though we were exposed to all the various types of western media during our embryonic development stages, we were still growing up as Armenians. Even though the cartoon we watched was fully in English, it was our mothers and/or grandmothers who told us to stop what we’re doing and join the dinner table in Armenian. Whenever we spoke to our friends in English, it was our fathers and grandfathers who angrily told us to speak in Armenian. Whether we’d like to admit it or not, these events had a lasting impression on us until today. This is why most of us still possess certain elements of being Armenian to this very day. However, here comes the conflict.

Though we are ethnically Armenian, we are still nationally American. Some of us were born here and call it home. We grew up on this soil; we ate the food from the soil and drank the water of this land. So as much as we would like to remain Armenian, we have to realistically accept that we are not the same Armenians as say, people in Armenia. We speak differently; we think differently and even look different than Armenians in Armenia. I was born into a “hayastanci” family and spoke eastern Armenian growing up. When I travelled to Armenia for the first time in the mid 2000’s I was shocked to find out how different me and my friends were from people over there. That’s when the conflict started. I was neither fully Armenian nor American. I was both. When I spoke English to non-Armenians, they were always quick to ask me “Hey where are you from? Your accent sounds interesting.”And coincidently, when I spoke Armenian with Armenians from the Republic of Armenia, they were again quick to ask “Are you from the America? Because you don’t sound like you’re from here.” This is a conflict that I was faced with after high school. Essentially I’ve grown up to be a mixture of both Armenian and American, without fully being either of the two in the traditional sense. Even though I was born and raised in the United States, people have a hard time believing that I actually was because of my accent. And even though I grew up speaking, reading and writing Armenian, people in Armenia didn’t accept me as one of them because of my obvious Diasporan accent. So where do I actually fit in? How was I supposed to feel about this particular predicament; this conflict.

That’s when I decided to observe Armenians in every way I could. Whether it was at a Hayasanci wedding in Glendale or at a Bolsahye house party out in the Valley, I knew that I wasn’t the only one who felt this way. I knew that there was something special about the topic of assimilation when it came to our people. I came to the conclusion that we Armenians are masters of assimilation while retention. Now before you go off and attacking me for saying that, please let me explain. See, I’m a fan of Armenian history and culture. If you know anything about Armenian history, you know that our land and our people have (for the large portion of our history) been under foreign occupancy. Whether it was the Persians, Romans, Byzantines, Seljuks, Ottomans or Soviets, we were always successful at assimilating to the culture of the occupying body while retaining our very own Armenian culture. As centuries passed, we still didn’t forget what it meant to be Armenian. Sure our accents or clothing style changed, and sure we incorporated small bits and pieces of neighboring (and occupying) cultures into our own, but we still knew that we needed to instill the sense of being “different” to our children to help preserve the faith of our people in the years to come.

So are the Armenians in Los Angeles that we categorize as “rabiz” or “fob” more Armenian than me? I don’t necessarily think so. Even though I may not listen to Spitaktsi Hayko, I do however listen to Ara Gevorgyan and Reincarnation. Even though I don’t watch Vorogayt or Glendale Life, I do however watch the Color of Pomegranates and Civilnet videos on youtube. Even though I don’t dress up in pointy dress shoes and Italian-made shirts, I do however wear Armenian themed shirts from AratheRat.com. This sense of being “rabiz” as the only way to be part of this anti-assimilation movement is false. There are different ways a person can still remain immensely proud of his or her Armenian background while respecting the culture of the country he or she is now living in. Do you think the Armenians in the Roman Empire were the same as the Armenians in the neighboring Persian Empire? Do you think the Armenians in Yerevan during the Soviet Union were the same as the Armenians in Damascus at the same time? The answer is simply YES and NO. Even though the Armenian in the Soviet Union spoke a different type of Armenian and had adapted to the customs and culture of the Soviet/Russian lifestyle, there was still something bigger than that still connected the Armenian from Syria with the Armenian from USSR. Do I call the Armenian that mixes Turkish into his or her Armenian vocabulary “Turkified” or assimilated? No. Do I call the Armenian that incorporates Russian into his or her vocabulary “Russified” or assimilated? No. No I don’t…because I know our people’s history. I’ve studied our tendencies as a people to the best of my abilities. We will always find a way to scrutinize an Armenian for not being Armenian enough without understanding what it truly means to be Armenian first.

Anyways, I know there are exceptions to every discussion and I am fully aware that there Armenians in Los Angeles that are more assimilated than others. Most Armenian-Americans are not like me. They don’t read r/Armenianews on a daily basis. They don’t go out of their way to read Richard Hovhanissian’s books on Armenian history. However, I’m not going to doubt his or her Armenianess. I can see and understand how many people can worry about the possible assimilation and eventual integration of Armenians into American culture. It has already happened to a great deal in the East Coast and will probably happen here in the generations to come. Our job as the current generation is to figure out a cultural formula or a way to maintain that sense of uniqueness and pride into our children. Whether it’s through language and alphabet modifications or whether it’s through repatriation to Armenia, we need to intellectually think of a way as a community to stop whatever it is that is currently pushing us farther and farther away from eachother. Regardless, I will do my best to teach my children the language and the history. However, how they end up acting and feeling later on in their lives can’t be blamed on me, or our generation for that matter. People evolve and progress. Especially when they start living in an entirely different world with different customs and traditions.