Okay, but where are you really from?
Most people don’t have trouble answering the question ‘where are you from?’. Okay, I don’t have trouble answering the question either. It’s the people asking the question who have a problem with my answer. And thus I’m just as familiar with the question ‘where are you really from?’.
Recently on a flight I had one gentleman ask me if I was British. When I said I wasn’t, he asked if I was American. I would have excused him for not being able to distinguish between American and British accents had he not been American. He spent the next few minutes telling me it was a rarity to be competent at English while being from neither of those nations. He’s in for a big surprise if he ever goes to Australia or Canada.
I’m often puzzled at how a person who has known me for about 3 minutes thinks they have a better understanding of my background than I do. I think these people should skip asking me where I’m from and ask one of the following questions:
What passport do you have?
Where did you grow up?
Where are your parents from?
How did you acquire that accent?
You’ll note that I left out asking me where I feel I belong. People aren’t particularly interested in that information. While I’ve had my fair share of being exasperated with people who are not happy with my answer about where I’m from, I’ve also spent time being the exasperator.
A former co-worker of mine, who is half-French and half-Moroccan always insists on being called Moroccan. Upon discovering how opposed he was to being called French, I couldn’t help myself from calling him just that. In order to put an end to my teasing, he set out on a quest to prove his Africaness to me. Spotting me in the distance, he ran behind a bush and started making unintelligible noises which he claimed were African mating calls.
I get this one…
I possess 2 passports, have changed my name twice, my religion once, married twice, widowed once, have no ‘hometown’ that I can remember, both parents are from mixed backgrounds, one was an orphan
So when folk ask me where are you from… I just put on my best vacant look and smile like Forrest Gump..
🙂 do you find yourself giving people the answer they want to hear?
nope… like to leave them totally confused and walk off 🙂
I would love to see that gent on the airplane dropped off in Canada….specifically Newfoundland to see what he makes of their English! Lol….
I reckon most Canadians would shun me for saying I don’t have trouble with Newfie accents… but sometimes when Irish people speak English I think they are speaking a foreign language
Excuse me. I think I sound perfectly normal! 🙂
Hahaha I am so one of the mixed up people. I don’t consider being part of anywhere to be honest. being born somewhere, growing up somewhere and having the blood of somewhere where you never ever been. In such cocktails, I suggest we say we are a mix of everywhere so you they pick the one that they think suits us most since everyone judges you by your accent now haha.
thank god, that colleague only made noises, what if he’d hurry to ‘dress’ bushmen-like just to prove his point 😉
I really wouldn’t have put that past him!
I love this post.! I agree people have a hard time with this question if you do not give the appropriate stock answer. Even when I lived in Mexico, everyone wanted to make me out to be just an American. But there is no way I can ever not be also a Croatian girl – it’s in my blood, my genes, my DNA. After awhile of knowing me, most people are like “why yes you are a little different”. Why thank you 🙂 I could go on and on about this topic, but I will refrain. Thanks for writing this 🙂
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I am not sure why people have to put everyone is a category, I guess it is just easier form them to deal. Coming from a mixed marriage myself I get the same thing, I have been everything from Hispanic to Italian, I also always leave them wondering.
I was born in one place, brought up in another and schooled in a third. I speak at least five languages. Let’s not even go into my marriage. So I empathise with your situation. But the weirdest question marathon I fielded was on a long train journey from Kerala to Delhi, in which two men persistently demanded to know why, when both my husband and I were working, we were still renting a home!
Ah! Well! You must thank your stars that he was not the poison-arrow shooting type 🙂
I am afraid that you reminded me of a personal reminiscence that is going to parallel this in my next post 🙂
I don’t want to win a beauty contest in any English speaking country, being Indian by birth. They’ll mistake me for an Arab. I wouldn’t anyway. I’d look horrible in a bikini.
Personally I’m less concerned about people mistaking Indians and Arabs for each other than I am about people believing someone doesn’t deserve to win because they are not white.
Yeah, that too. Todd Starnes’ comment on Fox did seem to have a racial tone implicit in it.
In your last line you must have been referring to Xhosa. Its an African lang with clicks. I wrote, in the passing, about it here….
http://blarneeblog.wordpress.com/2013/04/07/botswana-baobabs-and-clicks/
Cute!
Great post and I completely agree with this: “I think these people should skip asking me where I’m from and ask one of the following questions: What passport do you have? Where did you grow up? Where are your parents from? How did you acquire that accent?” Those questions would be much easier to answer and would just make more sense to answer! And you’re right – generally the ‘where are you from’ is followed by some form of ‘where are you really from’ or ‘where do you consider yourself to be from’ etc…
Reblogged this on TCKDating and commented:
Hilarious post following my ‘Where are you from’ piece. My favorite part is the following: “Okay, I don’t have trouble answering the question either. It’s the people asking the question who have a problem with my answer.”
Reblogged this on Travelling Palm and commented:
My mom was born in India and my dad in Germany, I was born in Sri Lanka (see how I circumnavugated the subject 🙂 I especially love people complementing my mom on her German, since she’s had a German passport for 30 years 🙂
P.S. I loves you post so much, I didn’t even ask if it was ok with you to reblog, I’m so sorry! I will delete the post immediately, should you need me to, Please have mercy on this idiot newbie.
To be honest I was flattered that you reblogged my post. You are welcome to reblog any of my posts 🙂
Good on you ^-^ Will do!
I usually get “where’s the accent from?” – because of the residual R’s from my (Southern!) American accent, but my non-American vowels, most go for next-best and guess Canada. It’s exasperating – do you really want to know, or are you just making conversation?
If I start explaining:
They’ve usually glazed over before I get to “until I was 16″.
So my short version is, “I was born here, but grew up travelling. The accent’s from about 20 places.”
Mine is my speech. Apparently I am well spoken and there for must have had a good education,My lovely parents were definitely” working class” so no great help there, Secondary Modern schooling left a lot to be desired, after you leave school is where your education can begin. Travel broadens the mind and the people you meet through life have a significant bearing on your thoughts and your speech. You are what you are, not necessarily how you sound, just believe in yourself.
Amen. Passports, accents and birth countries shouldn’t matter.