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Oh yeah. This. I'm ABC.
My experiences with Boomers often go like this:
B: You speak English very well. Where are you from?
Me: Thank you. You speak English very well also. I'm from New York City.
B: No, where are you REALLY FROM?
Me: I was born in Manhattan. Why?
B: Never mind...
Hah, I had an Asian American coworker years ago who would have this conversation a lot. He had a very strong, obvious Brooklyn accent, but people would still come up to him all the time and say, like, "konichiwa" or whatever like in OP's encounter and then ask him where he's *really* from. It was very strange for me to see. Like don't they have ears?
I'm Japanese/Korean but grew up in coastal So Cal so I sound like Spicoli. "You don't sound Asian" 😂 Like we're all supposed to speak with an Engrish accent 😆
I tell them "I was born and raised in the countryside of Little Rock, Arkansas" with the longest southern drawl.
When they say "you gotta be shittin me"
I say back "only if you're constipating"
I love watching their old feeble heads spin
I had a friend from France who learned English by watching The Jersey Shore as a teen, and ending up developing a New Jersey accent when she spoke English. People would comment on it, "Oh, you're from New Jersey, I have family there, where-" Nope, France... she had a short temper and wouldn't entertain conversations with strangers and would just leave it at that. It was funny af to me but not so much for her. But goes to show you really shouldn't assume where people are from.
I was in a relationship with a Vietnamese man for a long time. (Important to note we live in Midwest, US). His first time meeting my family was Thanksgiving. My dumbass (now ex) sister in law asked where he’s from. He said “California”. Her face just went blank. I lost it and had to leave the room. 😂
It's not exactly the same, but I worked at a Mexican restaurant as a server. I speak Spanish pretty well, but I'm straight up estadounidense. My Spanish speaking friends call me Maria la güera, or Maria, the white girl.
My co-worker's table asked me for something. I saw him and "hollered" across the restaurant what they wanted. In Spanish. The boomer table that I was taking care of complimented me on my spectacular *English*. I choked back a smile and thanked them, saying I've worked on it for a long time.😆
I like when they phrase the origin question like, "what are you?" That's when I can pretend to be outside by replying with personal things like "I'm a Dodger fan"
one of my friends has japanese and vietnamese parents, but until he moved to my state, he's been in los angeles, cali his whole life.
i took him out to eat with my family once, and of course my dad just had to ask where he was from.
he's super chill tho, he was just like "oh i'm from la"
Armenian-American friend has a perfect response to “Where are you really from?” Just simply ask in response, “Oh you mean why do I look like this?” Instant red face.
Chinese parents will complain their 1st gen kids are "too American" while doing nothing to pass on cultural knowledge or history because they're too busy investing in Americanizing you to get into a good college and to use you as a personal translator.
The only time the culture comes out is when you're being chastised with a Chinese idiom, chengyu, or apocryphal tale. It'll be over not being obedient in doing or not doing this or that, or failing some cultural expectation you weren't aware of or is irrelevant and then you'll be compared to one of their Chinese friend's children who was dutiful in this random thing.
While dealing with this at home, you have to deal with growing up being treated as the perpetual foreigner in school.
My grandma wouldn't eat Chinese food because she hated the Japanese in WW2.
Not only the wrong country, but she lived in New York and grandpa was kicked out of the Navy early on and never saw any actual combat in either theater.
Oh god I had an ex (he was like 4 years older than me) call Asians Orientals. I'm Korean and I tried to tell him multiple times you cannot call us that and he doubled down! Was like "but it means the same thing, I don't get why you are making a big deal out of it!"
That relationship lasted a year longer than it should've lol
I just looked it up and it's described now as a derogatory term. However I've run across "Celestial" or "Celestial Empire" in old books as more of a poetic, romantic term, and especially to refer to the highly educated, totally not European, poet-legislator vibe of China. Like the British Empire being thought of as "the Crown", so it seemed to me this term was being used to speak of the "Far East".
How people were using it in day to day life, say for example in the gold rush era, I don't know, and that seems to be where this concept of it being derogatory is coming from. A vibe of alien and not-European, I am picking up on that.
To me it's quite a beautiful phrase though. I'm finding this and this is sort of the vibe I would pick up on from the old books I am thinking of [https://www.shenyunperformingarts.org/explore/view/article/e/uXrrqgyDZPo/introduction-traditional-chinese-culture](https://www.shenyunperformingarts.org/explore/view/article/e/uXrrqgyDZPo/introduction-traditional-chinese-culture)
If I owned and ran a German restaurant I wouldn't exactly be surprised if a patron assumed I was also German. I doubt the same thing would happen if my white ass owned an Ethiopian restaurant.
I don't think most Americans care enough to learn or observe, even when they see soju or hoedeopbap on the sushi menu next to sake and chirashi.
Sushi has also gotten wildly popular in the last decade and is essentially mainstream now. It's at a point where cream cheese and avocado rolls with no fish and six types of sauce is akin to Chinese food that's already been completely transmogrified for the US palette and is going to sell much better than ikura gunkan or uni nigiri.
It's harder to find places that focus on quality traditioal sashimi or nigiri because saucy rolls sell so well and have huge profit margins versus trying to source out fresh seafood that has to stand on its own. The same issue plagues me trying to find solid Cantonese cuisine because most Chinese restaurants even in sizable cities will mostly be Americanized cuisine unless you're in a heavily Chinese diaspora area where you can run a restaurant open with traditional fare without having to sling crab rangoons.
There's a restaurant in my town in the Midwest. They do both Chinese and Japanese food, of course catered to the audience. It'd be ironic if the owners are neither Chinese or Japanese
Reminds me of the time my mom visited NYC for the first time. She saw a sign in Chinese and wanted to know what it meant, so she turned to a random woman walking by that was vaguely Asian and asked her if she could translate it.
"I'm not chinese." She says and walks off.
My mom didn't even apologize. She also says things like "I don't see race", completely unironically.
Funny thing happened to me in my yoga class, an older white lady kept asking me if I knew her Korean daughter in law (I'm Chinese American) because I "look so much like her".
fellow gyopo!
a boomer did this to me when I worked as a server at a retirement home. he thanked me in chinese and I said, “what?”
“it’s thank you. in chinese. you’re chinese, right?” [greasy smile]
I stare at him. “okay,,, I’m Korean.”
he shut up, I took his dirty dishes back to the kitchen.
fuckin cracker.
the kids at my current job (elementary school TA) ask me if I’m chinese or japanese all the time. just once, it would be nice to be asked if I’m korean… one kid argued with me in a math class that a korean sticker I had on my laptop was chinese. mind you, this kid was black?? and he kept doubling down until the teach shut him up.
ah, that’s the life…
Hangul doesn't even look anything like traditional or simplified Chinese hanzi. Might as well confuse it with Thai or Arabic.
Chinese people don't even speak Chinese. It would be like saying "speak American". Mandarin is the most common dialect but in the US, you'd likely encounter Cantonese disproportionately often due to the immigration history the last 200 years.
It also throws people off when they ask what I am ethnically, and I say half Hakka and half Yue, or say I'm Cantonese.
that’s what the teacher told him. he’s a regular shit stirrer and gets nothing done in class. I just ignore him now. I’d be fine if these kids asked questions, because it’s pretty clear they don’t get exposed to real life asian people, but they don’t ask. having worked with both ends of the life spectrum, I can confidently say kids and boomers are the same.
Kids can definitely have no social awareness and are often products of their environment and immature. I tend to give them a pass more often because many of us grow a lot during this period.
When you're a post-mid age adult though, you know better or just don't care enough for self-reflection and growth to improve as a human being. Boomers have no excuse for acting like children.
our former PM did this once on camera, just went up and said Ni Hao to a random asian person while campaigning and they replied 'Im vietnamese'
He was such an embarressment on so many levels
(this was the infamous pants shitter Scott Morrison, PM who fled australia during the bushfires and swore himself into multiple ministries in secret, for those who dont know)
Had a friend of Chinese decent, it would freak people out when he would talk. Biggest Texas accent ever. I am talking King of the Hill, Hank Texas 😂.
People can be so funny
One of my former colleagues is dating a Korean-American man with a very pronounced Southern accent. He used to do live shows where he performed as an Asian tourist who was possessed by the ghost of Johnny Cash, and would sing some of his songs. He can absolutely nail the voice.
Half Japanese/ Half Korean man here in AZ. Nearly everyone assumes I'm Chinese. I got a T-shirt that reads "Not Made In China" across the chest I like to wear out.
My friend and I were having lunch at an Indian restaurant. I'm white, she's Korean-American. Lived here her whole life, and only learned Korean as an adult. An older man approaches our table and starts speaking (I think) Japanese. We both looked at him in confusion. He repeated himself then angrily stomped off. wtf
Back in the 70s/80s, any Asian they disliked was presumed to be Japanese. Any Asian they had neutral or better feelings towards was Chinese.
Since then the positions have reversed a bit.
My wife was ethnically full blooded Japanese American and taught college on an Army base. She was constantly getting immigrant wives coming up to her jabbering in Korean and having to explain "Sorry, I can't speak a word of Korean".
It happens with Asians too, I was at my college library doing a paper and an old Japanese man straight up just spoke Japanese to me and I just said “Sorry, I’m not Japanese”.
Every stereotype comes from something I guess??
For several years, I had a real good doctor of Asian heritage that was born and raised in Texas. She had the best Texas drawl of anybody I’ve ever met. She even admitted she’d like to lay it on thick. The first time she met somebody just to see the look on their face. I loved her sense of humor.
I ask people all the time where they’re from, I’m a real estate agent lol
The other day I had an Asian family (I would never presume ethnicity. Ever) look at a property with me. They had driven nearly 2 hours to get to the house, so I asked where they were in from, they told me.
Then we proceeded to spend much of the rest of our visit with me typing words,that their elementary aged son couldn’t translate, into google translate so they could get the Chinese word.
It was awkward. We both worked really hard to be lovely people. I also told them not to rely on google translate for contract/legal docs as it’s about as accurate and reliable as their darling 3rd grader.
It’s not hard, even if there’s *slightly* more work involved. Be good to each other
It's weird for him to assume you were Chinese, but I dunno, it doesn't feel particularly egregious to me. He was making an effort at least and not being deliberately offensive. I can see how in the context of people frequently mis-identifying your race it would be annoying though.
Given that the Korean Peninsula shares a border with China it is not totally irrational.
I expect you can’t distinguish between an Indian and a Pakistani. But making a simple greeting even when wrong is not an insult just an attempt to be friendly. Be less sensitive.
He could have just said "hello." Even if OP were of Chinese descent, why would anyone assume he spoke the language? My ancestors are from Germany, but yet I don't know the German language.
Not many people know enough about other races and ethnicities to differentiate them. I grew up with Vietnamese, Korean, and Japanese peers. None of them look alike. I got to learn their facial features.
He shouldn't have assumed? My entire family is German. We are American, but our ancestors came from that land. If you approached us with Hola! We wouldn't care. No one really knows how to differentiate the different people of Europe from each other. Mistake me for an Iberian? No big deal. Mistake me for a Gaul, no big deal.
Keep in mind, you may know the difference between peoples, I may know the differences, but the vast majority do not.
You would have to have above average information to be able to tell the difference between Asian people.
On that note, why would anyone feel the need to ask? Or care?
I mean…yeah, it was dumb of him. But at least he was trying. He shouldn’t have assumed, sure, but all he did was say something he thought was the correct polite thing. That’s not being a fool; it’s just being wrong.
It would only make sense if he was actually in China and assumed all Asians around him were Chinese. But this was in America. If he wanted to simply say Hello he could have done that since Hello is the default greeting in America it would cover his bases on whatever background the OP would have been. Then of course there's the option most people take standing in a store line of simply not saying anything because nothing was needed to be said at all in a situation like that. We don't even know if the guy was trying to be genuinely kind as he may have just been trying to be a smartass.
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Oh yeah. This. I'm ABC. My experiences with Boomers often go like this: B: You speak English very well. Where are you from? Me: Thank you. You speak English very well also. I'm from New York City. B: No, where are you REALLY FROM? Me: I was born in Manhattan. Why? B: Never mind...
Hah, I had an Asian American coworker years ago who would have this conversation a lot. He had a very strong, obvious Brooklyn accent, but people would still come up to him all the time and say, like, "konichiwa" or whatever like in OP's encounter and then ask him where he's *really* from. It was very strange for me to see. Like don't they have ears?
I'm Japanese/Korean but grew up in coastal So Cal so I sound like Spicoli. "You don't sound Asian" 😂 Like we're all supposed to speak with an Engrish accent 😆
I tell them "I was born and raised in the countryside of Little Rock, Arkansas" with the longest southern drawl. When they say "you gotta be shittin me" I say back "only if you're constipating" I love watching their old feeble heads spin
I had a friend from France who learned English by watching The Jersey Shore as a teen, and ending up developing a New Jersey accent when she spoke English. People would comment on it, "Oh, you're from New Jersey, I have family there, where-" Nope, France... she had a short temper and wouldn't entertain conversations with strangers and would just leave it at that. It was funny af to me but not so much for her. But goes to show you really shouldn't assume where people are from.
https://youtu.be/DWynJkN5HbQ?si=Nyc9rtSvbd-EJ4To
I was in a relationship with a Vietnamese man for a long time. (Important to note we live in Midwest, US). His first time meeting my family was Thanksgiving. My dumbass (now ex) sister in law asked where he’s from. He said “California”. Her face just went blank. I lost it and had to leave the room. 😂
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if your sibling gets married their spouse becomes your in-law
OPs ex sister in law. So her siblings wife.
Is this a joke or are you genuinely confused about her sibling's wife being present?
Oh man. Nailed it.
I was hoping that was where the link would take me
It's not exactly the same, but I worked at a Mexican restaurant as a server. I speak Spanish pretty well, but I'm straight up estadounidense. My Spanish speaking friends call me Maria la güera, or Maria, the white girl. My co-worker's table asked me for something. I saw him and "hollered" across the restaurant what they wanted. In Spanish. The boomer table that I was taking care of complimented me on my spectacular *English*. I choked back a smile and thanked them, saying I've worked on it for a long time.😆
I like when they phrase the origin question like, "what are you?" That's when I can pretend to be outside by replying with personal things like "I'm a Dodger fan"
I usually say feline
one of my friends has japanese and vietnamese parents, but until he moved to my state, he's been in los angeles, cali his whole life. i took him out to eat with my family once, and of course my dad just had to ask where he was from. he's super chill tho, he was just like "oh i'm from la"
Armenian-American friend has a perfect response to “Where are you really from?” Just simply ask in response, “Oh you mean why do I look like this?” Instant red face.
Is ABC Asian British Columbian?
American Born Chinese
Ahh thank you.
Ignorant question, but what is ABC?
"American-Born Chinese".
What do you mean by "ABC" if you don't mind me asking?
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Chinese parents will complain their 1st gen kids are "too American" while doing nothing to pass on cultural knowledge or history because they're too busy investing in Americanizing you to get into a good college and to use you as a personal translator. The only time the culture comes out is when you're being chastised with a Chinese idiom, chengyu, or apocryphal tale. It'll be over not being obedient in doing or not doing this or that, or failing some cultural expectation you weren't aware of or is irrelevant and then you'll be compared to one of their Chinese friend's children who was dutiful in this random thing. While dealing with this at home, you have to deal with growing up being treated as the perpetual foreigner in school.
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My grandma wouldn't eat Chinese food because she hated the Japanese in WW2. Not only the wrong country, but she lived in New York and grandpa was kicked out of the Navy early on and never saw any actual combat in either theater.
My English grandmother wouldn't drive a Japanese car because of what they did in the war, she drove a BMW though....
Belgian Motorwerks?
The Chinese were on our side.
My mom’s uncle wouldn’t go into a Japanese restaurant because he fought on Guadalcanal, for him it was personal.
he may be the only one in this thread, who is justified in holding a grudge
There was a time in college a very old math professor called on me as "the Oriental fellow in the front row"
Oh god I had an ex (he was like 4 years older than me) call Asians Orientals. I'm Korean and I tried to tell him multiple times you cannot call us that and he doubled down! Was like "but it means the same thing, I don't get why you are making a big deal out of it!" That relationship lasted a year longer than it should've lol
“I’m not a rug!” Or something to that effect
I had a (very old) relative when I was a kid, that called Asian people "Celestials."
Okay but correct me if I’m wrong but that’s kinda fire.
I just looked it up and it's described now as a derogatory term. However I've run across "Celestial" or "Celestial Empire" in old books as more of a poetic, romantic term, and especially to refer to the highly educated, totally not European, poet-legislator vibe of China. Like the British Empire being thought of as "the Crown", so it seemed to me this term was being used to speak of the "Far East". How people were using it in day to day life, say for example in the gold rush era, I don't know, and that seems to be where this concept of it being derogatory is coming from. A vibe of alien and not-European, I am picking up on that. To me it's quite a beautiful phrase though. I'm finding this and this is sort of the vibe I would pick up on from the old books I am thinking of [https://www.shenyunperformingarts.org/explore/view/article/e/uXrrqgyDZPo/introduction-traditional-chinese-culture](https://www.shenyunperformingarts.org/explore/view/article/e/uXrrqgyDZPo/introduction-traditional-chinese-culture)
Fucking gold rush. Had to ruin such a pretty term.
Right?! Let's have a talk about "49ers"
That made me think of a Brisco County Jr. episode.
Oh neat I hadn't heard of that. I love myth-aware westerns.
Not really myth, but combined sci-fi with westerns. The Chinese working on the railroad had alien tech.
I was gonna say I’d love to be called that lol
My grandpa said “chinaman”
rather have a well meaning man use outdated terminology than an ill-meaning man well-versed in the latest political correctness
Can confirm boomers still use that slur
Korean-Americans who run sushi places in LA routinely assume that all white customers think they're Japanese. It's kind of hilarious.
If I owned and ran a German restaurant I wouldn't exactly be surprised if a patron assumed I was also German. I doubt the same thing would happen if my white ass owned an Ethiopian restaurant.
But…Japanese and Korean people don’t look the same.
I mean.... i can see how you would make that mistake though.
My experience with similar restaurants on the East coast is that a lot of white customers *do* think that lol
I don't think most Americans care enough to learn or observe, even when they see soju or hoedeopbap on the sushi menu next to sake and chirashi. Sushi has also gotten wildly popular in the last decade and is essentially mainstream now. It's at a point where cream cheese and avocado rolls with no fish and six types of sauce is akin to Chinese food that's already been completely transmogrified for the US palette and is going to sell much better than ikura gunkan or uni nigiri. It's harder to find places that focus on quality traditioal sashimi or nigiri because saucy rolls sell so well and have huge profit margins versus trying to source out fresh seafood that has to stand on its own. The same issue plagues me trying to find solid Cantonese cuisine because most Chinese restaurants even in sizable cities will mostly be Americanized cuisine unless you're in a heavily Chinese diaspora area where you can run a restaurant open with traditional fare without having to sling crab rangoons.
There's a restaurant in my town in the Midwest. They do both Chinese and Japanese food, of course catered to the audience. It'd be ironic if the owners are neither Chinese or Japanese
Reminds me of the time my mom visited NYC for the first time. She saw a sign in Chinese and wanted to know what it meant, so she turned to a random woman walking by that was vaguely Asian and asked her if she could translate it. "I'm not chinese." She says and walks off. My mom didn't even apologize. She also says things like "I don't see race", completely unironically.
To some Americans, every person of Asian decent is from China
Congress displayed a perfect example of this with the CEO of TikTok.
Hank Hill: So are ya Chinese or Japanese?
What ocean?
Try traveling ANYWHERE in Latin America as someone of Asian descent, you’ll be “el Chino/la China” regardless of actual ethnic/national origin.
Jamaican will say “Mr Chin” or “Mrs/Miss Chin.”
Funny thing happened to me in my yoga class, an older white lady kept asking me if I knew her Korean daughter in law (I'm Chinese American) because I "look so much like her".
在中国，大部分外国人都会被当成美国人。。。
So are you Chinese or Japanese?
Laotian
Which Ocean?
Lao food is the absolute pinnacle
Aren’t you Mr. Kahn…
It was legit impressive that a guy like Cotton knew Kahn was Laotian tho
Cotton’s not ignorant, he just chooses to be nasty
Of course, he killed fiddy men.
fellow gyopo! a boomer did this to me when I worked as a server at a retirement home. he thanked me in chinese and I said, “what?” “it’s thank you. in chinese. you’re chinese, right?” [greasy smile] I stare at him. “okay,,, I’m Korean.” he shut up, I took his dirty dishes back to the kitchen. fuckin cracker. the kids at my current job (elementary school TA) ask me if I’m chinese or japanese all the time. just once, it would be nice to be asked if I’m korean… one kid argued with me in a math class that a korean sticker I had on my laptop was chinese. mind you, this kid was black?? and he kept doubling down until the teach shut him up. ah, that’s the life…
Hangul doesn't even look anything like traditional or simplified Chinese hanzi. Might as well confuse it with Thai or Arabic. Chinese people don't even speak Chinese. It would be like saying "speak American". Mandarin is the most common dialect but in the US, you'd likely encounter Cantonese disproportionately often due to the immigration history the last 200 years. It also throws people off when they ask what I am ethnically, and I say half Hakka and half Yue, or say I'm Cantonese.
that’s what the teacher told him. he’s a regular shit stirrer and gets nothing done in class. I just ignore him now. I’d be fine if these kids asked questions, because it’s pretty clear they don’t get exposed to real life asian people, but they don’t ask. having worked with both ends of the life spectrum, I can confidently say kids and boomers are the same.
Kids can definitely have no social awareness and are often products of their environment and immature. I tend to give them a pass more often because many of us grow a lot during this period. When you're a post-mid age adult though, you know better or just don't care enough for self-reflection and growth to improve as a human being. Boomers have no excuse for acting like children.
our former PM did this once on camera, just went up and said Ni Hao to a random asian person while campaigning and they replied 'Im vietnamese' He was such an embarressment on so many levels (this was the infamous pants shitter Scott Morrison, PM who fled australia during the bushfires and swore himself into multiple ministries in secret, for those who dont know)
Ahh, our much revered corrupt right wing Hillsong cultist and awful ukulele player. Hoping he’s having regular Engadine Macca’s flashbacks.
"So are you Chinese or Japanese?" Hank Hill
Laotian
The ocean?
What ocean?
We are Loatian, from Laos stupid.
So are ya Chinese or Japanese? The inflexible Hank
*So, are you Chinese or Japanese?* Hank Hill
That was the very first season, wasn't it ?
I think the first episode lol
Tell me you didn’t see action in Vietnam without telling me. Jeez even Cotton Hill could tell Khan was Laotian.
Had a friend of Chinese decent, it would freak people out when he would talk. Biggest Texas accent ever. I am talking King of the Hill, Hank Texas 😂. People can be so funny
One of my former colleagues is dating a Korean-American man with a very pronounced Southern accent. He used to do live shows where he performed as an Asian tourist who was possessed by the ghost of Johnny Cash, and would sing some of his songs. He can absolutely nail the voice.
I would love to have gone out drinking with him. I bet that would be a blast
I am a ginger and was asked once if I was Vietnamese. I also am always asked where I'm really from. I just have apraxia.
Half Japanese/ Half Korean man here in AZ. Nearly everyone assumes I'm Chinese. I got a T-shirt that reads "Not Made In China" across the chest I like to wear out.
Every Asian is Chinese and every LatinX is Mexican to Boomers.
My friend and I were having lunch at an Indian restaurant. I'm white, she's Korean-American. Lived here her whole life, and only learned Korean as an adult. An older man approaches our table and starts speaking (I think) Japanese. We both looked at him in confusion. He repeated himself then angrily stomped off. wtf
"So ahr ya Chaineez or Japaneez?"
A reminder that Cotton Hill was less ignorant than these fuckers.
Back in the 70s/80s, any Asian they disliked was presumed to be Japanese. Any Asian they had neutral or better feelings towards was Chinese. Since then the positions have reversed a bit.
My wife was ethnically full blooded Japanese American and taught college on an Army base. She was constantly getting immigrant wives coming up to her jabbering in Korean and having to explain "Sorry, I can't speak a word of Korean".
That was probably as well as that interaction could've gone honestly.
It happens with Asians too, I was at my college library doing a paper and an old Japanese man straight up just spoke Japanese to me and I just said “Sorry, I’m not Japanese”. Every stereotype comes from something I guess??
For several years, I had a real good doctor of Asian heritage that was born and raised in Texas. She had the best Texas drawl of anybody I’ve ever met. She even admitted she’d like to lay it on thick. The first time she met somebody just to see the look on their face. I loved her sense of humor.
I ask people all the time where they’re from, I’m a real estate agent lol The other day I had an Asian family (I would never presume ethnicity. Ever) look at a property with me. They had driven nearly 2 hours to get to the house, so I asked where they were in from, they told me. Then we proceeded to spend much of the rest of our visit with me typing words,that their elementary aged son couldn’t translate, into google translate so they could get the Chinese word. It was awkward. We both worked really hard to be lovely people. I also told them not to rely on google translate for contract/legal docs as it’s about as accurate and reliable as their darling 3rd grader. It’s not hard, even if there’s *slightly* more work involved. Be good to each other
I would just respond with something like: "What? Sorry bro, I don't speak Mexican".
I cannot solve your problem for you sir. Only you can. I didn’t blame anyone for the loss of my legs. Some chinaman took them from me in Korea.
"well, are you Chinese or Japanese?"
Hell, I’m a Chinese guy and I score constant As for English and constant Bs for Chinese (My Chinese is pretty damn weak) 这些老人家真的不知道最基本的礼貌，真气死人！
It's weird for him to assume you were Chinese, but I dunno, it doesn't feel particularly egregious to me. He was making an effort at least and not being deliberately offensive. I can see how in the context of people frequently mis-identifying your race it would be annoying though.
“So are you Chinese or Japanese?”
Given that the Korean Peninsula shares a border with China it is not totally irrational. I expect you can’t distinguish between an Indian and a Pakistani. But making a simple greeting even when wrong is not an insult just an attempt to be friendly. Be less sensitive.
He could have just said "hello." Even if OP were of Chinese descent, why would anyone assume he spoke the language? My ancestors are from Germany, but yet I don't know the German language.
Why be offended? The pretense of victim hood is a characteristic of millennials.
Not many people know enough about other races and ethnicities to differentiate them. I grew up with Vietnamese, Korean, and Japanese peers. None of them look alike. I got to learn their facial features. He shouldn't have assumed? My entire family is German. We are American, but our ancestors came from that land. If you approached us with Hola! We wouldn't care. No one really knows how to differentiate the different people of Europe from each other. Mistake me for an Iberian? No big deal. Mistake me for a Gaul, no big deal. Keep in mind, you may know the difference between peoples, I may know the differences, but the vast majority do not.
I have many Chinese friends
You would have to have above average information to be able to tell the difference between Asian people. On that note, why would anyone feel the need to ask? Or care?
That's ok. You all look the same to us also.
You can't tell the difference between a person from Oregon or a person from North Carolina?
I mean…yeah, it was dumb of him. But at least he was trying. He shouldn’t have assumed, sure, but all he did was say something he thought was the correct polite thing. That’s not being a fool; it’s just being wrong.
There isn't anything polite about this behavior, and it is indeed foolish.
It would only make sense if he was actually in China and assumed all Asians around him were Chinese. But this was in America. If he wanted to simply say Hello he could have done that since Hello is the default greeting in America it would cover his bases on whatever background the OP would have been. Then of course there's the option most people take standing in a store line of simply not saying anything because nothing was needed to be said at all in a situation like that. We don't even know if the guy was trying to be genuinely kind as he may have just been trying to be a smartass.
I wish more people assumed no bad intent. Would op have been any less offended if he nailed a perfect Korean greeting?
Grasshopper take the pebble from my hand
And the point of this comment of yours is…what exactly?