It's very strange to people coming from outside America. When I told people I was half German, half South African, they promptly would say things like "Oh, I'm German."

I'd ask them if they have a German passport or if they speak German. At that point, they would explain to me that their great grandfather 300 years ago etc came to America from Germany.

That doesn't even remotely make them German or French or anything else.

I have no idea why Americans find it important to know their ancestry. Nobody in the rest of the world does.