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Old 10-21-2016, 12:35 PM   #18
CivicBlues
linguistic ninja
 
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Join Date: Aug 2001
Location: Vancouver, BC
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I look pretty much generic Asian and I get that all the time whatever country I'm in.

If I'm in China - "You're Chinese!"
If I'm in Thailand - "You're Thai!"
Indonesia - "You're Indonesian!"
Hell even in Mexico I sometimes get mistaken for being Mexican

...even though I dress nothing like the locals and speak English perfectly. They can't seem to get over superficial skin colour.

Asians (ones that never travel anyway) don't seem to get the concept of a multicultural society. It blows their mind when you tell them that countries like Canada is full of people who are not just white.

Throughout my year in Asia, I was so sick of their responses: "yah but you look like Asian", I just gave up and told people I'm from Singapore (explains my high English proficiency, first world income). That usually shuts them up. But then they might insist you can speak Mandarin if you're talking to Chinese. Saying you're Filipino may work too.
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