Am I Romanian,without speaking Romanian?

Well...I know that many of you guys are not so intersted about languages around the world..but,I had this interesting chapter in my TOK class (Theory Of Knowledge-I`ll explain to you later on) about languages that dissapeared,or dead-languages and the teacher put some interesting questions ,like:"What will it happen if we would all talk in a single language,a global language?" or "Am I Romanian(for example) without speaking Romanian?"

I captured my attention on the second question,which seemed to be a subject that not many people think about.

So..We can look at this question,from two points of view..for example..my first answer would have been "Yes,I am Romanian if I don`t speak Romanian".Why this answer?And I think many of you thought about this answer.But think about it very deep...If I wouldn`t speak Romanian,because some reasons,like for example,everyone in my family are speaking English since I was born,but they are also Romanian,but they just like to talk in English (stupid example but let`s just pretend it)..if there was like this,I would have thought:"Ok,I was born here,I live in this country,I live by its rules and the most important thing:all my family is born in this country..so my blood is a Romanian blood,let`s say.I also know its history and its culture so.I can consider myself a Romanian.without speaking Romanian".This case is very rare,because it`s kind of impossible to live in a country without speaking the language that is in that country.But let`s pretend that I was born in America,I lived there for 15 years with my parents (which are Romanian) and we talked only in English..and they told me about Romanian history,the culture and so on.This could be a real case that maybe many of you could be in.

So now,I`m asking you:"Are you Romanian,without speaking Romanian?"Only knowing some history,some traditions and that`s all?!You can`t just say that you know its culture,beacause the language of a country,represents a main part of its culture.From another side,we all know that every nationality has its stereotypes,and when I say this,I think about the behaviour of a mass of people.In this case,I think there are many people that don`t speak that X language very good,or not at all,but during the years,they learned how to think in that country,how to behaive by its rules.As a friend of mine told me,and I`ll make a parallel with the Americans,he told me that "to speak english (birtish english) you need to think british.";so there is a big difference between USA and Great Britain,a big difference between their "thinking",even if they basically talk the same language,but with different accents.

From my second point of view,I think that when the teacher put this question,I could have answered "I`m not Romanian,without speaking the language"Because language is very important ,as I said before,it is a main part in the culture of a country.Without speaking that language,the language that all your family ,for example was raised with,you might not be able to develop yourself in a community,you may lose lots of useful information about things that are happening around you,and so on.No,I`m not Romanian,because I don`t speak Romanian.I`m not pretending that I`m Romanian,just because all my friends are Romanian,and all my relatives are Romanian,and just because I think Romanian.If I want to act like a Romanian,or like a German,or whatever,I must know the language.If not,I`m not teoretically a Romanian.
BUT it also counts how do you think and how does the language affects you or not,how does the language makes you more "powerful" in a community,or how the people around you think and behave and that might be the sollution,just to learn how they think,to learn their principles of life.
In my oppinion,you could be Romanian like with all your legal documents,and with all your Romanian family and your knowledge of the history and culture and places,BUT you should think Romanian if you consider you are one and that means that you should also speak Romanian.
So I ask you now,is it important to speak Romanian,if you are a Romanian?