Mrs. Manners asks who you be.

Boomer, to each his own. Dag asked the woman currently living in our future apartment where she was from. She said, "London". She was obviously of eastern ancestry. She knew what Dag was asking, but chose to answer as she did <shrug>.

I wonder if there's a thread of common response. I'd guess that those of us who are more distanced from our 'elsewhere' roots are more apt to want to talk about it than those who are from elsewhere directly. I also think those from countries like pakistan, iraq, etc, are less likely to identify themselves aloud as such.

I don't think it's rude i mean if people are Italian or whatever and you ask them what they are well only if they are ashamed of being what they are would they find it offensive.

However if some one was asking me if I was jewish in the context of like why didn't you give a bigger tip (i am jewish and I do tip ) then maybe I'd be offended. It's context.

If it's a genuine question nope not rude.

Lot of my co-workers in Holland were from all over the place (or otherwise their parents were), never saw anyone get upset about the question of this- or thatness being raised.

Yeah, I guess at most if someone unknown would ask, point blank, "where did you come from?" - that could be inappropriate because, you know, most of 'em were born there. But asking, "where is your family from" or "are you xxx?", shouldnt be a problem.

whenever i'm asked this question, i always tell people i'm pretty sure i'm a human being

Wellllllllll yeah, we are all humans but....

....luckily this guy didn't seem disturbed that I thought he might be Portugese.

He really does look Portugese!

I'm such a mutt that nobody bothers to ask me.

When I first moved to Oregon from Texas everyone thought I ws Australian. Go figure! My voice, my accent, I suppose, pegged me as "other" but nobody knew what the other might be other than "Australian".

When I moved to Chicago from Oklahoma everyone thought I lived in teepee and rode a horse to school. I feel silly to admit it now but I was all like "Yeah, I did. So?".

<snork>

I guess I would rather be "other" than "same".

Some of it's a matter of geography. In some parts of the USA -- the Northeast, for example -- most people are very conscious and proud of their ancestry, even when they're umpteenth generation this or that. In other parts, new immigrants seem to assimilate very quickly and their children don't think of themselves as Irish- or French- or Swedish- or whatever- Americans. You ask a Midwesterner where his forbears came from and he's likely to say, "Vermont" or "Virginia."

Boomer really DID live in a teepee and ride a horse to school.

We all do that here in Oklahoma.

It's a fact.

(nodding head)














[size=7](Sheesh, boomer, what were you thinking? Keep up the myth, or they'll all want to move here! Didn't you get the memo?)[/size]

This precise thing was going through my head today. We went to the mall and had lunch there, really good people-watching. There were three sisters who were waiting for someone, interesting-looking (in the sense of "I'd like to paint that person"/ beautiful -- my latent portraitist comes out at various times), I was trying to figure out "what" they were. At first I thought they might be half black and half Asian, as they looked Asian but had darker skin than is usual, then thought maybe Laotian or Cambodian. Was very curious, and was half-wondering what would happen if I walked up to them and asked. From various signals they were giving (somewhat self-conscious, very Americanized in style and posture etc.), I thought it would annoy them.

People have always asked me what I am, I enjoy it. I'm an archetype -- olive skin, brown eyes, long dark hair, prominent nose -- that a lot of cultures claim. What I like is when people from the culture insist I am from their culture. (This has happened with Italian, Iranian, Cuban, and on and on... even Black Irish, which I didn't expect, though I actually am part Irish.)

I get asked that very same question alot.

I actually enjoy being asked. Because of my skin tone and hair, alot of people just assume I am spanish, and start speaking to me in spanish.
That sort of leaves me feel a little strange, and very uncomfortable.

I have even had a few older spanish women try to give me a lecture about me needing to speak my native tongue...
wich, they assume is spanish.

I get asked a lot where I am from, and don't mind at all.
a) I have an accent and b) I'm rather tall, so people I meet get curious.
From there, mostly a nice conversation develops about how much German
blood runs through their veins, and all the trips they took, and how
much beer they drank at the Oktoberfest.

I like it!

I have always been very interested in accents/dialects, whenever I hear one, especially a prominent accent, the desire to ask where the person is from is overwhelming. Actually, I want to guess...."You are from the Boston area, right?" or Georgia, or South Georgia etc...

I'm the same with different races or cultures, not sure what it is...maybe it's because they are different, and in a small way it's exciting to meet someone that is somewhat exotic. But in both cases, voice or appearance...I'm usually hesitant to ask or bring it up, some act as though they are offended, or they will become aloof.

I have a Scotch/Irish name, and sometimes a person will ask my ancestry when they hear it. I've never been offended, and honestly I'm pleased to proclaim my heritage.

You mean to say you're German??!!

I forgot the accent part, that happens too, my reaction to that is more varied. I have a slight accent because I'm deaf -- my voice changes, sometimes it's pretty much perfect with just a hard-to-place accent, which combined with my ambigous appearance makes people think it's a foreign accent; sometimes my voice slips and isn't very clear (especially when I've been signing -- and not talking -- more than usual). So if I'm feeling self-conscious about it I'm more likely to say, "American" with a bit of attitude if it seems like the question was accent/voice-related. (Like an underlying [if unspoken] question of, "are you foreign or is something wrong with your voice?") Not particularly nice of me, but I hate that I can't TELL, and I know that my voice is sometimes messed up, and the only way I can tell is from people's reactions.

That seems to be a variable, whether it is something that someone would conceivably be embarrassed about -- but that's a hard variable to isolate.

By birth, I am German, nimh - by passport, American.

I was just being jolly, Jane..

I'm always interested in where people are from or what their heritage is. I think the great majority of people like to talk about themselves.

Living where I do, I've never had the opportunity to meet any Asians, I've walked past a few here and there...at Six Flags and such, but never spoken to any on a personal level.

About 12 years ago, I got a call to work on a house that a Korean woman was building in my area. I was pretty excited about it, until I finally met her and her sister...the sister had been here for several years, and was helping the other to get settled.

They were very beautiful women, and I don't mean in the Mtv, L.A., Madison Ave sense of beauty, they were both very bright and intelligent, and they had this way of carrying themselves, in a sort of...royal way...regal I suppose...hard to explain, and they were the calmest women I have ever met. But any time anything was brought up about their culture, by anyone...they dismissed it quickly, much like an escaped Nazi might do, so I never asked any questions.

That was a true disappointment.

Nobody even bothers to ask me about my background. I'm so obviously Irish...fair skin, red-blonde hair, green-blue eyes.

People ask me every so often and then regret it. I have a rather extensive background which includes Polish (which these days is part of the Ukraine), Scottish, English (as in England), Belgian (go back about 4 generations and we find one infiltrating our gene pool), some unknowns (there were some adoptions in there), and the list goes on. For the comical moments people ask if I am Irish. I do not look at all Irish except for the bits of red running through my beard and the coppery tints running along in the hairs on top of my head (what's left of them). Then again what does Irish look like? What does a Frenchman look like? An Iraqi? Not a good idea to leap to a conclusion based on appearance alone.


If someone asks me straight out where I am from I just say 'over there' and point in a general direction. It's my way of saying it doesn't really matter since we are all people and that's the bottom line unless a culture lesson is being asked for.