3 ms·

That's what my American friends say, but it's easy to tell, for example, Albanians and Greeks apart, or Englishpeople and Spaniards.

• evgen 6y ago
  It is similar for a lot of Asian populations as well. I think it is mostly just due to how much exposure you have had to the various populations where you can notice the small differences that tend to make a group distinct. Most Americans do not interact with enough European sub-groups to distinguish between them, while most Europeans I have run into tend to lump east Asians into a single group while I can easily distinguish between London tourists who are Chinese, Korean, and Japanese just from having spent a couple of decades on the west coast of the US. When you are surrounded by different groups you tend to pick up on the subtle clues.
  • StavrosK 6y ago
    Yes, exactly. I can usually distinguish between Japanese/Chinese/Korean just by realizing there are differences and noticing, but most other people just think "Asian" (or, even worse in my country, "Chinese").
    • thaumasiotes 6y ago
      > I can usually distinguish between Japanese/Chinese/Korean just by realizing there are differences and noticing, but most other people just think "Asian" (or, even worse in my country, "Chinese"). Compare the advice a Chinese teacher in Shanghai gave my class when someone asked about telling whether someone was Japanese or Chinese: "It's easy. Japanese people wear much nicer clothes."