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As a white guy, I've occasionally run into the sort of person that quizzes you about ancestry. Usually they'll take a guess like "are you Italian" and when they
by IIAOPSW 8y ago
As a white guy, I've occasionally run into the sort of person that quizzes you about ancestry. Usually they'll take a guess like "are you Italian" and when they don't get it right away they fall back on "well what are you?". I can't recall if I've gotten this with the exact words "but where are you REALLY from?". I think I may have. For some reason this is part of some people's conversational diet. It fills the void in the same way as "so what do you do?"
I too have heard my Asian friends complain about it. I legit don't know if Asian American's actually have this nuisance worse or if they are just more aware of it. I don't even know where to find data to prove it one way or the other.
- jerf 8y agoI remember seeing in one of those "The Things That Will Really Surprise Visitors About $COUNTRY" type articles for the US that in most of the world, "where are you from?", either in the sense of location or what family you come from, is one of the standard conversations openers or early topics, whereas the US is actually unusual in that you'll very often here "what do you do?" (i.e., what is your job) in that conversational position.