"What are you" Questions... [Archive]

seryb

11-07-2002, 11:36 PM

I usually only get "What are you?" after the person (usually Chinese or Vietnamese) starts speaking to me in their language, and I tell them I can't understand them.

I don't mind getting a fork or chopsticks. I can deal with both. My girlfriend on the other hand, she's Filipina and she isn't too big into chopsticks since she doesn't use them at home. She always feels dumb about asking for a fork when none have been provided. She makes me ask for her. I guess she would rather I look dumb instead.

Omega

11-08-2002, 11:37 AM

yea i get asked that but its mostly
them: "What are you?"
me: "asian"
them: "yeah i know but what kind are you: vietnamese, chinese, korean? I KNOW! YOU'RE JAPANESE"
me: "NO DAMNIT! im LAOS"
them: "WHAT THE HELL IS THAT????"
me: "GGGGGGRRRRR *pow pow pow pow * (bust out some muay thai shit)

haha not really but it gets annoying since people ask those questions

and over here they dont serve chopsticks to anyone in the restaurants

ChinaLama

11-08-2002, 11:42 AM

i'd be funny if someone asked you, "what are you?" And you go, "you can't TELL that i'm human? you think i look like a monkey or something? or you think i'm from krypton? what are you? somekindofidiot?"

seryb

11-08-2002, 11:51 AM

Originally posted by Omega@Nov 8 2002, 11:37 AM
me: "NO DAMNIT! im LAOS"
them: "WHAT THE HELL IS THAT????"
me: "GGGGGGRRRRR *pow pow pow pow * (bust out some muay thai shit)

Cool, another Lao person. Saibaidee, buc koi noi! Haha...just kidding. :lol:

You are a guy, right?

kimpossible

11-08-2002, 11:54 AM

Check out the hapa forum. Only we get people guessing or assuming what we are as well as being asked.

hormiga

11-08-2002, 01:45 PM

Originally posted by Gold Man@Nov 8 2002, 07:30 AM
Do you get asked "What are you" or after a long stare, "where do you come from" (while in Asia) ?? I get this all the time! The worst thing is going intoa Chinese restaurant and having the waiter/waitress bring you a fork.
How I wished a fork was brought to me everytime I sit down to eat in a Chinee restaurant.

applehead

11-08-2002, 02:51 PM

Originally posted by Gold Man@Nov 7 2002, 11:30 PM
Do you get asked "What are you" or after a long stare, "where do you come from" (while in Asia) ?? I get this all the time! The worst thing is going intoa Chinese restaurant and having the waiter/waitress bring you a fork.
i don't get "what are you?" as much as "where are you from?"

that's kinda confusing because i don't really know if they're asking me where i'm from originally or.. where i live. or whatnot.

i feel insulted when people ask me what i am.
there's other ways to ask.. like.. what's your ethnicity?

angel nympho

11-08-2002, 02:52 PM

Originally posted by applehead@Nov 8 2002, 10:51 PM
Originally posted by Gold Man@Nov 7 2002, 11:30 PM
Do you get asked "What are you" or after a long stare, "where do you come from" (while in Asia) ?? I get this all the time! The worst thing is going intoa Chinese restaurant and having the waiter/waitress bring you a fork.
i don't get "what are you?" as much as "where are you from?"

that's kinda confusing because i don't really know if they're asking me where i'm from originally or.. where i live. or whatnot.

i feel insulted when people ask me what i am.
there's other ways to ask.. like.. what's your ethnicity?
Why does it insult you when somebody asks your ethnicity? A lot of times people ask and get asked that question. I actually get asked that by more Asians than by white people.

ChinaLama

11-08-2002, 02:55 PM

ifsomeone asked me what i am, i'd feel insulted too. Cuz "what" is how you talk about animals or objects, "who" is how you talk about people? I guess if someone said "what country do you come fr?" i'd feel less insulted. and i do come fr another country. :)

angel nympho

11-08-2002, 03:00 PM

Originally posted by ChinaLama@Nov 8 2002, 10:55 PM
ifsomeone asked me what i am, i'd feel insulted too. Cuz "what" is how you talk about animals or objects, "who" is how you talk about people? I guess if someone said "what country do you come fr?" i'd feel less insulted. and i do come fr another country. :)
OH oh oh. I get it. i thought he meant he was insulted when soembody said "what's your ethnicity." Okay, I get it now.

suresquared

11-08-2002, 03:04 PM

Originally posted by angel nympho@Nov 8 2002, 02:52 PM
I actually get asked that by more Asians than by white people.
I've experienced this phenomenon as well. On a couple occasions, I've been asked if I was Japanese by Japanese students in San Francisco. When I visited Vietnam a couple years alot of people thought I was Japanese too. I guess it was the DV camera. If anything I look more flip or vietnamese than anything else. But I do not mind if people ask me what's my ethnicity.

though it's usually those few ignorant "white" people that ask me if I know "kah-ra-te" and if i do could i show them some moves ( in a heavily accented voice) that really annoys me. conversely, i say could you teach me a few genocide moves like the one you did on the native tribes of america or how about enslaving africans...

so i suppose "what are you" is such a bad question when the potential questions that come after can get shamefully worse.

Hiroshi2

11-08-2002, 04:28 PM

I only get asked that question when people see my mom, who has been mistaken for Indian (Native American) even though she looks just as Asian as any other Asian IMO.

BTW, does anyone else thinks it's a little weird to eat Asian food with forks and knives. Eating it with chopsticks only seems natural to me. It always looks so backwards IMO.

Adaon

11-09-2002, 01:28 AM

Originally posted by Hiroshi2@Nov 8 2002, 04:28 PM
BTW, does anyone else thinks it's a little weird to eat Asian food with forks and knives. Eating it with chopsticks only seems natural to me. It always looks so backwards IMO.
Now that ya mention it, yeah it does at times......but when all else fails ditch the stuff and just use ur hands... :lol:

"What are you?"
"Human...."
"Yeah yeah, what race?:
"human........."
"What nationality?"
"American........."
"WHere'd your parents come from"
"America........."
"WHere'd their parents come from?"
"Same place their siblings came from........"

YuheiCarreau

11-09-2002, 09:41 AM

Originally posted by ChinaLama@Nov 8 2002, 04:55 PM
ifsomeone asked me what i am, i'd feel insulted too. Cuz "what" is how you talk about animals or objects, "who" is how you talk about people? I guess if someone said "what country do you come fr?" i'd feel less insulted. and i do come fr another country. :)
A lot of people dislike the "what country are you from" approach though, because it implies that Asian Americans are always foreign no matter how many generations they've been in the US. I have never in my life heard someone ask that question of a White person (who didn't have a foreign accent) in the US. To be fair, however, there are a lot more Asian Americans than White or Black who identify as their Asian ethnicity even if they were born in the US and only have US citizenship (the term 'overseas Chinese' comes to mind).

I myself even have trouble with identifying as Asian American; if only because my (Japanese) father has never taken US citizenship - he lived in the US for 16 years on a temporary work visa until the government threatened to kick him out if he didn't get a greencard - and my American citizenship comes from my mother, who is White. I have dual citizenship, and just because I'm an American of Japanese descent doesn't necessarily make me Japanese American; nationality, like race, can get pretty confusing when you really look closely at it.

deez nuts

11-09-2002, 10:41 AM

I tell that cat:

I'm locked cocked and ready to rock.
Jacked, stacked so watch your back! =]

Napoleon Chynamite

11-09-2002, 02:11 PM

Angel:

Perhaps the reason why you may have more Asians coming up to you and asking you what you are 'may' be because they are aware that there are many many different groups and Asians of all different ethnicities, whereas many whites will often just pigeonhole you as 'Asian' with the 'they are all the same' mentality. Many whites may not be really curious as to what 'ethnicity' or 'type' of Asian you are because some of them are not even aware that there is a difference. Obviously there is also the tendency for Asians to compare and contrast each other, but that's a different story ^^

But of course, there could be other reasons :P

Green_Jade

11-09-2002, 03:43 PM

I'd get the "where are you from? question.....not really meaning where my home town is but, rather what's your ethninicity

I LOVE LOVE messing with people when they ask that... For examle over the summer
first day at work

Australian dude interning for a week: "where are you from?
me: "Long Island...."
Australian: "NO, I mean Where are you from?
me: *getting annoyed,..thinking..I know where I live, thank you very much....
but before I could say something...
CEO dude: "She's from Long Island" Than he said soemthing else, ... basically hinting to the new guy that, stop bugging her like that.. I guess no one asks him that cause it's obvious where he's from with his acccent...

My roommate gets that a lot too, she's half jewish and half hispanic, so she has a very exotic look to her... She lives in Queens, and peole always ask her where she is from... we go on rant sessions on that topic. hehe.

deez nuts

11-09-2002, 04:12 PM

Originally posted by artzygrrl@Nov 9 2002, 06:43 PM

My roommate gets that a lot too, she's half jewish and half hispanic, so she has a very exotic look to her... She lives in Queens, and peole always ask her where she is from... we go on rant sessions on that topic. hehe.
Your roommate must be hot!

ChinaLama

11-09-2002, 05:03 PM

Originally posted by Chasiubao_Boy@Nov 10 2002, 12:12 AM
Originally posted by artzygrrl@Nov 9 2002, 06:43 PM

My roommate gets that a lot too, she's half jewish and half hispanic, so she has a very exotic look to her... She lives in Queens, and peole always ask her where she is from... we go on rant sessions on that topic. hehe.
Your roommate must be hot!
she must also be hard to get. :(

aww man what am i doing, stereotyping J.A.Ps :( Jews are friendly people...really they are...

deez nuts

11-09-2002, 05:07 PM

Originally posted by ChinaLama@Nov 9 2002, 08:03 PM

she must also be hard to get. :(

aww man what am i doing, stereotyping J.A.Ps :( Jews are friendly people...really they are...
I love jewish girls.Mix that with some latin heat! Wooooozah!

I had the prettiest half jewish/half puerto rican ex-gf.....what a woman.

Green_Jade

11-09-2002, 07:16 PM

Originally posted by Chasiubao_Boy@Nov 9 2002, 08:07 PM
Originally posted by ChinaLama@Nov 9 2002, 08:03 PM

she must also be hard to get. :(

aww man what am i doing, stereotyping J.A.Ps :( Jews are friendly people...really they are...
I love jewish girls.Mix that with some latin heat! Wooooozah!

I had the prettiest half jewish/half puerto rican ex-gf.....what a woman.
hey, stop talking about my roommate like that.....
actually she's single...

kimchee63

11-11-2002, 10:46 AM

I get the "where you from" question a lot. Not from other Asians, because of my last name (Kim).

How I respond generally depends on the situation. If it's at a job interview, I'll tell them that I'm 2nd generation Korean American, and inwardly I make a mental note to check and see if this is really a company that I want to work for.

If THE QUESTION comes up in a social setting and I feeling pissy, I'll respond with "Tuscaloosa, Alabama" (my birthplace) and make them squirm.

On a couple of occasions people have commented on how I "speak good English" and I get a kick out of telling them they should say "You speak English well."

ChinaLama

11-11-2002, 10:57 AM

Originally posted by kimchee63@Nov 11 2002, 06:46 PM

On a couple of occasions people have commented on how I "speak good English" and I get a kick out of telling them they should say "You speak English well."
Then they may think you're even more FOB because they'll think, "oh, you're one of those foreign students who goes by the book and isn't in tune w/ idiomatic English." :(

SunWuKong

11-11-2002, 11:05 AM

Originally posted by kimchee63@Nov 11 2002, 01:46 PM
On a couple of occasions people have commented on how I "speak good English" and I get a kick out of telling them they should say "You speak English well."
i'm convinced that the best way to respond to these comments is to start speaking a non-english language. preferrably an asian one.

enygma

11-12-2002, 11:17 AM

i haven't gotten asked that by other asians, although one woman in korea thought i was chinese. go figure, i've been told i look very korean.
but still, i haven't gotten asked what i am in a long time. when i do, it's usually the little kids that i tutor who ask me that. but since they're little, i try to be nicer about it so they'll grow up and be enlightened adults instead of stupid ignorant jerks. i have to admit, though, sometimes the little kids crack me up.

me: "i won't be here next week because i'll be going home for thanksgiving."
kid: "to china?"

two girls are huddled whispering to each other at the end of a group of desks.
girl 1: "i'm not sure, what do you think?"
girl 2: "i don't know. she's not black, but i don't think she's chinese."
girl 1: "maybe she's white?"

and that was in reference to me! :lol:

SunWuKong

11-12-2002, 11:43 AM

my boss actually asked me "What's your background?" instead of "What are you?" or "Where are you from?". i was kind of surprised because i think that was the first time someone asked me about my ethnicity with that question.

by the way, i don't really get insulted with the "what are you questions".