People ask me often and I usually respond "mutt" because I am one. I have red hair but my skin is not as pale as the archetypical redhead, so I think people say to themselves "Irish, no wait..." and then ask. I don't really mind it and it is often a good opener to an interesting discussion about places and people. But I'm pretty cautious about asking others. My husband, who is not American, can be sensitive at times when asked where he's from. His reaction depends a lot on who is asking and in what context. If he is approached by someone he doesn't know and asked outright, he will say he's from D.C. or Pennsylvania. He also has a look that can be claimed by many different cultures. Soz's story reminded me of how many times we've been in an ethnic restaurant -- Egyptian, Turkish, Greek, Italian -- where they've been absolutely positive that he was one of them.
djjd62 wrote:whenever i'm asked this question, i always tell people i'm pretty sure i'm a human being
I think the jury is still out on that one.
My "thatness" is that i'm really overweight--but no one ever mentions it (in public at least), so i suspect that just proves that most people are ordinarily courteous.
I too am the sound of round
( hmm.. that sucked.. )
Nobody seems to wonder what I am in the US, but back on that trip to italy where I wore my damn black travel pants suit (with, yes, two sets of pants, suit washable) for 29 days, I got taken to be, perhaps, italian, perhaps portuguese (?) before I opened my mouth, and then it was all over.
I usually wait for people to tell me what they want me to know re their family background...
I think there is something to be said for appearances. When i briefly lived in Ireland, and would stop in some place for a bite to eat in my work clothes, i would be taken for Irish. As i absorbed (slightly) the accent, and began to use the familiar locutions, most people assume i was originally from Dublin, in many neighborhoods of which the residents have an accent not terribly dissimilar to Americans or Canadians. It was often amusing to have an Irishman or -woman sit down next to me and complain of the loud American tourists. Once, as i sat eating my lunch in a pub on Eyre Square in Galway, a tour bus full of American and Australian tourists--men and women of the WW II generation--unloaded at the pub. They came in the front door, and all of the Irish in the place immediately headed out the back door--they're just too damned loud. I grabbed my sandwiches and followed the locals out the back door.
It depends.
I haven't been asked this in a long time, maybe people don't give a damn any more. I'm pretty obviously mostly Central European although there's some Spanish (Spain Spanish) and that can throw folks.
When I was a teenager, one of my jobs was as a receptionist at a furniture store. One of the sales people was a woman named V___ who was very beautiful and from Puerto Rico. And I recall two women came in and browsed with her for a while. V___ went into the back to get a sales slip or something and the two women asked me, "What is she? She's so well-spoken." (as if anyone not obviously lily white could not get how to speak English) They persisted and I kept ignoring them, pretending I needed to get the phone or copy something or whatever. Finally, unable to get them off my back any longer, I told them she's Andalusian (an area of Spain). They were so dumb they thought that was an exotic country. "Oooh." said one. "That's in Africa, right?" I pretended not to hear and answered yet another nonexistent phone call. I told V__ about it later and she thought it was funny, but at the time I found it incredibly rude.
PS Tagged, if people are implying you're cheap because of being Jewish, that's not them asking about your heritage, that's them expressing their prejudices. Which is, to an extent, what I think was happening with those two women and V___.
Not everybody took me as italian, of course, but I would get a kick out of it if someone on the street asked me directions in italiano or said "Buh!" to me about the wind...
Amusing, Set, about the Irish heading out the back door.. though kind of sad in its way that the tourists touring ways can keep them from connecting to the people in the countries they tour. I suppose some are hard of hearing, which I relate to, what, but many are loud without that reason.
Americans are just loud. If they see a friend on the other side of the bar, they holler at him. If they want a drink, they holler at the bartender. The Irish aren't like that, and they resent it. But it's a lot more complex than that. That was in the 1970s, when the Irish were not yet affluent. They resented the tourists, who nevertheless represented the most of their foreign exchange. There was a healthy dose of resentment blended into the disgust with people whom they found loud and rude.
All natives hate tourists once they reach critical mass.
Italians, now those are some loud people!
Your new avatar quacks me up . . .
Ba dump ump.
It was time for a new one, courtesy of rp.
Shucks. Nobody ever asks me where I'm from, boomer. They just laugh when I say y'all.
You ain't from aroun' here, air ye?
you too letty??
I say 'y'all' alot and even here in texas, people giggle at me..
or ask me to say it again..
