If you're Asian, surely you speak X!

[Miss Fatale]

SidVicious's recent post reminded me of this story:

I'm white. My friend, "Michelle," was born in Korea, but adopted by a white couple as a baby. She was raised in South Dakota. English is her first language, she has no accent, she's a citizen, her name is an "American" one like the pseudonym I'm using here, etc etc. She speaks some Korean and spent a year there teaching English, but that's it.

One afternoon, we were having lunch at an Indian restaurant in a college town in Oregon. This town isn't huge, but it's not small, and Michelle was far from the only Asian person in town (nor are Asian people uncommon in Oregon as a whole).

An older white man approached our table and started speaking to Michelle. But neither of us had any idea what he was saying. We think Japanese? If it was Korean, it was too advanced. He tried again when he saw Michelle's confused face.

Finally, he said, "You don't know what I'm saying? Hmph!" and stormed out.

Michelle and I looked at each other. "What just happened?" she asked.

I do appreciate that the man wanted to practice whatever language he was speaking, but to not even introduce himself or verify that Michelle knew the language??

[fireheart]

One of my friends is Thai and was adopted as a baby. She's grown up in Australia all her life and speaks very little Thai (beyond her name and a couple of phrases).
She has mentioned occaisonally having customers walk into her workplace and start speaking to her in any number of SE Asian languages, leaving her like this .
Then they start speaking Thai and she's even more

[Amina516]

They do the same thing to hubby who looks and IS puerto rican, but doesnt speak spanish. He adopts this stupid smile til theyre done then he tells them to repeat it in english. Its kinda funny.

I've also SEEN spanish people try to convince my friend (in spanish) who is half black and half white and who looks like she may be some sort of spanish, that she's not really black and white and should be ashamed that she doesn't know how to speak spanish. It makes me giggle, but it happens so much that it pisses her off and boy, I think that what english words were understood were enough to make some people just scurry away.

[NotAlBundy]

I've also SEEN spanish people try to convince my friend (in spanish) who is half black and half white and who looks like she may be some sort of spanish, that she's not really black and white and should be ashamed that she doesn't know how to speak spanish. It makes me giggle, but it happens so much that it pisses her off and boy, I think that what english words were understood were enough to make some people just scurry away.

I had an employee who was Pakistani, and ALL the time, Hispanic customers would try to speak to him in Spanish. He definitely looked Middle Eastern, not Hispanic at all. He would just smile and nod, and then say, "I don't speak Spanish, but my boss does" and then point at me, the whitest person in the store.

[Fudgethatkay]

Hahaha. That happens a lot.

My friend is Japanese born/raised, but looks Korean or half hispanic. So people use Korean and Spanish on him ALLLL THE TIME. He tends to ignore it if he is having a bad day, but otherwise just smiles and says "Sorry, I'm from Japan".

[Shalom]

I had an employee who was Pakistani, and ALL the time, Hispanic customers would try to speak to him in Spanish. He definitely looked Middle Eastern, not Hispanic at all. He would just smile and nod, and then say, "I don't speak Spanish, but my boss does" and then point at me, the whitest person in the store.

One of the pharmacies I work at has one employee who speaks Spanish, but he's the last one people would expect.

He's a Hasidic Jew. Hey, he was born in Buenos Aires, what should he speak, Romanian?

They do the same thing to hubby who looks and IS puerto rican, but doesnt speak spanish. He adopts this stupid smile til theyre done then he tells them to repeat it in english. Its kinda funny.

I used to work with a pharmacy tech who had the most Hispanic name you could possibly imagine. People would come up and talk at her in Spanish, and then get all upset when she told them she only spoke English . . . and Tagalog.

Seems the Philippines used to be Spanish territory, once upon a time, before the USA snagged it in 1898, and they still use Spanish names even though they no longer speak the language.

[fireheart]

One of the pharmacies I work at has one employee who speaks Spanish, but he's the last one people would expect.

He's a Hasidic Jew. Hey, he was born in Buenos Aires, what should he speak, Romanian?

Technically that would be Hebrew. Or Yiddish.

Also, I had to re-look up Hasidic Jews, as I was under the impression that you couldn't "convert" to Hasidic Judaism. (there ya go, I learned something new. )

[raudf]

In my area, the Japanese restaurants are all owned by Chinese and the Chinese restaurants seem to be tossed up between Korean and Chinese. This is fun when you decide to eat in, because people will try to speak the language of the of the restaurant.

Example, my family was sitting in the Japanese restaurant that is owned by a Chinese family from around the Hong Kong area. Guy walks in, doesn't bother to look up from his phone and orders in Japanese. The hostess/waitress just looks at him for a moment, waiting for him to look up. When he does, she simply says, "In English or Engrish. Whichever. Your preference. I don't speak Japanese."

[Sapphire Silk]

In my area, the Japanese restaurants are all owned by Chinese and the Chinese restaurants seem to be tossed up between Korean and Chinese. This is fun when you decide to eat in, because people will try to speak the language of the of the restaurant.

I've got that in my area as well. A Japanese restaurant I like to go to is owned by Koreans. Sometimes I can get Korean food from them as well as Japanese food.

[dawnfire]

I get that sometimes. I'm half Chinese and Australian. I speak no Chinese and have no accent but people will try to talk Chinese to me. The funny thing is my partner who is Caucasian speaks and understands more Chinese than I do