Scene: Houston, wedding-anniversary dinner in a French restaurant a few years ago. The server looked faintly Asian but sounded faintly French. Me: Are you Viet

Scene: Houston, wedding-anniversary dinner in a French restaurant a few years ago. The server looked faintly Asian but sounded faintly French. Me: Are you Vietnamese by any chance? Her: No, I'm from Kazakhstan. Me: That's so interesting; I didn't know we had Kazakhs here in Houston. Her: Yes, there's about 5,000 of us. I was gobsmacked, as our Brit friends might say.