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I'm looking for a way to express the feeling that sometimes comes up when the
way you feel about yourself contrasts with surface-level observations about
you. In English we have the "identify as" construct e.g.

"I was born in France, but I identify as American."

You can replace "I identify as X" above with "In my heart, I am X". The
closest thing I could find in Jisho was:

「自分が別人になった感じだ。」

Using that I did my best to translate the sentence above as:

「私はフランスで生まれだけど、自分がアメリカ人感じだ。」

"I was born in France, but I myself feel like an American."

Is this accurate, and if not, what would be the best way to express this type
of sentence in Japanese?
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translation word-choice phrase-requests
Japanese equivalent of "I identify as X"
Here are two possible expressions you can use (After the "I was born in
France" part):

```

    (私は)もうすっかりアメリカ人になっています。
    
    (私は）自分の事をアメリカ人だと思っています。
    
```

I think if you modified your above attempt to say "自分がアメリカ人みたいな感じ", it would
be a little more natural.
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Here's some other variants:

フランス生まれだけど、心は日本人。 I was born in France, but my heart is Japanese.

カナダ人ですけど、考え方はフランス人。 I am Canadian but I think like a French person.

マレーシア生まれの中国人ですけど、長い間ドイツで仕事したので、感覚はドイツ人かもしれないです。 I am a Malaysian-born Chinese
but because I have worked in Germany for a long time, my sense (way of
thinking) is likely German.

アメリカで生まれたが、カナダの価値観を持ってます。 I was born in America, but I have Canadian values.
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You can say 「私は **フランス生まれだ** けど、」 ("Though I **am French-born** ," ) or 「私は
**フランスで生まれた** けど、」("Though I **was born in France** ,") but not
「私はフランスで生まれだけど、」 ("Though I'm in France born,"(?)).

Tweaking your translation (minimally), we may come up with:

> 私は[フランス生まれだ/フランスで生まれた]けど、自分がアメリカ人[のような/みたいな]感じだ。

Or you could say something like:

> (私は)生まれはフランス人ですが、心はアメリカ人です。 (I am a Frenchman/Frenchwoman by birth but an
> American at heart.)

There are myriad ways to express it, really, especially the latter half.
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I think the most widely applicable phrase might be:

> 自分のことを **X** だと考えている

  * 自分のことを **日本人** だと考えています  
I identify as **Japanese** （国籍）

  * 自分のことを **プログラマー** だと考えています  
I identify as **a programmer** （職業）

  * 自分のことを **阪神のファン** だと考えています  
I identify as **a Hanshin fan** （団体所属）

This is very similar to saying "I think of myself as X", which I think is
basically equivalent to "I identify as X".

In contrast to fact:

> 私はフランス生まれですが、自分のことをアメリカ人だと **考えています** 。  
>  私はフランス生まれですが、自分のことをアメリカ人だと **感じています** 。

  * Using 考える as above sounds like perceive yourself as American rather than French 
  * Using 感じる as above sounds like you realize that you are French, but you _feel_ American
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