Looks, nationalities, languages and accents

All my life I've had to explain 'where I come from' and after 30 years (OK 25 cos the first 5 don't count! ha) I am kind of sick of it.

Back in Australia in the early 1980s there weren't many of us "Asians" around and I have gotten some pretty rude, ignorant racist comments which I have tried to wipe from my memory but can't.

Everywhere I go around the world people assume I'm Japanese. Same goes for Japan too ;)

Last night I had a massage and I had to explain the whole thing again about where I came from and I told the girl my parents are from Taiwan and then she said that I don't have a Taiwanese accent. Well duh!! Given I've never even lived nor gone to school there, and wasn't born there. She said I sounded like i was from Korea.

When I was buying my camera the guy serving me knew I wasn't a local and I asked him to guess where I was from. He said (in order): Singapore, Korea, USA. Wow.. pretty diverse range of countries!! Haha. I was a meanie and didn't end up telling him. Well not that I was mean but it's just too long to explain and sometimes I just cannot be bothered!

Throughout my life I have been told I look Chinese, Taiwanese, Singaporean, Malaysian, Thai, Japanese, Korean, Vietnamese.

Now, the same thing has happened to hubby. When I first met him I thought he looked Italian and he has since been mistaken for Italian here in a clothing shop we went into. He has also been told he looks like other European nationalities including French (he has an English background, but a small percentage of Indian blood, and was born in Australia).

He's been told that he doesn't have an Australian accent but an English/European accent when speaking English too. Weird!!

I only recently had a thought to myself that what the locals think of me when I go into a shop and start chatting to them about their items, is the same thoughts I had when I worked in a shop back in Sydney and would notice any different accents. I suppose, I guess it's just curiosity! I loved hearing European accents and loved chatting to the hot European guys! hahaha - kidding!!