Tuesday, March 15, 2011

CAN YOU TELL?

Ian and I had dinner tonight at a Japanese restaurant.  As we went to the front to pay for our meal, I asked the young Asian lady taking our money if she had any family back in Japan.  She looked surprised then said "I'm chinese."  
"Oh" I replied "I'm sorry.  I just can't .... er... um... I just thought being a Japanese restaurant...yeah, that earthquake was horrible."

I was proud of myself for not blurting out that I just can't tell asians apart.  I came this close.   She was probably thinking "stupid white woman can't even tell a Japanese person from a Chinese person."  She'd be right.

While in Korea, I asked a Korean gentleman if white people all looked the same to him.  He admitted that yes we did.

Seriously?  We have different coloured hair and eyes!

Can you guess which girl is from where?


5 comments:

  1. statisitcs show that people have trouble distinguising people of other races, doesnt matter waht you are, black people cant tell asians and white people apart easily, and vice versa
    dont worry your not alone

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  2. China, Korea, japan - in that order.

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  3. People working at Japanese restaurants are usually Phillipino - apparently (according to a friend who worked a sushi bar) Phillipinos are the best at making sushi. If not Phillipino then Korean - Koreans often work at Japanese restaurants - just fyi :)
    Actually recently I asked a Korean guy (who I didn't know was Korean) how much the yakitori was and he responded "I'm Korean"
    then I said "BUT...you understand Japanese...."
    At which point he got rather embarrassed and quiet and didn't say anything further.

    ReplyDelete