The " where are you really from " thread!!

[optimista 5,840]

Where are you really from is a question I have asked and sometimes got pissy answers to. It would have been so much more long winded and probably mis interpreted if I had gone the other route, i.e. wow you intrigue me. I cannot identify your ethnicity, where do they make them like that ? And what is coming out of your instrument is so original, what are your musical influences ? Where do they play like that ? Or wow, you have beautiful facial features (a bloke I was not coming onto, just fascinated by his physique), what is your ancestry ?

 

[Frantic 72]

5 hours ago, MikeMelga said:

TBH this doesn't personally bother me. Bothers me everytime they naively ask me if "you people still do the daily siesta" when in Germany

 

 

A pair of people since I am in Germany mentioned/asked this referred to Italy...half seriously half for joke, you know.

Actually I work lot less since I am in Germany. 

[john g. 37,687]

18 minutes ago, travelerworker said:

If you, are since you can speak, being asked where are you "really" from. If you see, since you are a kid, that your white friends are not asked that.

If you see, since you remember, that the person asking keeps pushing until you mention some African country...

well you would, soon or later, feel insulted.

 

I have told this story a few times on here and no guarantees for my memory of which cities in which order👍

In a disco in Buenos Aires many moons wgo, probably looking out of place with my scruffy look!

A local lad spoke to me in Spanish and I answered in Spanish... something along the lines of"

" Where are you from?"

" London."

" Ah, New York."

" No, London."

" Ah, Los Angeles."

"No, London, England."

" Ah, Boston."

" No, Great Britain."

" Ah, Miami."

" No, the United Kingdom."

" Ah, Chicago."

" No, Europe."

 I forget how it ended but I think I asked a girl for a dance to get away from him.😂

 

I get your point, travelworker!!

 

[Acton 1,538]

Born in England, Scottish father, Welsh mother. I say "I'm from Britain".

 

[john g. 37,687]

1 minute ago, Acton said:

Born in England, Scottish father, Welsh mother. I say "I'm from Britain".

 

Born in Yorkshire, Cockney dad from Bow, Yorks mum, Glaswegian granddad, Welsh grandmother.

I often get asked by Germans if I'm Dutch. I usually reply " Schlimmer, Englaender."

😂

[tor 16,892]

Pejorative and inquisitive are 2 diametrically opposed ideas. 

 

 

[john g. 37,687]

4 minutes ago, tor said:

Pejorative and inquisitive are 2 diametrically opposed ideas. 

 

 

My point all along!

( I knew SOMEONE would finally understand)😂😂😂😂❤️❤️❤️👍👍👍👍

 

Where are you really from?

https://www.google.de/search?q=comedy+sketch+where+are+you+from&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&hl=en-de&client=safari#fpstate=ive&vld=cid:b666e92a,vid:T6XQ0wnUJIs

[Chelski 1,440]

If someone asked me the question I'd get quite embarrassed

 

I was born in Northern Ireland and am British.

 

But I can trace our family history back to the expulsion of Huguenots and settling in Ireland.

 

Who would admit to being French?

[snowingagain 5,202]

I would guess you mean some of your family.   Probably a male line.  Lots of other relatives lurking.  You do not have to go back far in Europe for this.  Australia is simpler. 

 

[Chelski 1,440]

18 minutes ago, snowingagain said:

I would guess you mean some of your family.   Probably a male line.  Lots of other relative lurking.

 

I worked in travel when I was younger and always used to check the phone books for my surname in the UK. Nothing.

 

I went to Nantes once (beautiful city and people) and checked the phone book for my surname.

 

There were 12 of us. A few accents over the vowels but it was us.

 

Next day I rubbed my armpits with raw garlic and swaggered around town with a beret at a jaunty angle, wearing a Breton shirt, on a bicycle with a baguette sticking out of my back pocket. Nobody knew me.

[jeba 4,348]

6 hours ago, Tap said:

I don’t sound German, but with pale skin, the chances are I’m from another northern European country.  She, on the other hand, is being asked because of her skin colour, and that is different. 

Of course, it´s different because it´s much less likely that she´s from a Northern country. But why is that a problem?

 

6 hours ago, john g. said:

It is the intention that counts- if simply out of curiosity - what is there to worry about? But if meant in a derogative way, that is different.

This!

[Chelski 1,440]

1 hour ago, snowingagain said:

You do not have to go back far in Europe for this.

 

 

Absolutely. If we all go back to 1400 we're all related to every human being who lived at that moment in time. Still.

 

Howya doing sister I never had?

[john g. 37,687]

1 hour ago, jeba said:

Of course, it´s different because it´s much less likely that she´s from a Northern country. But why is that a problem?

 

This!

I don't know about Cyprus but on Crete - as soon as you open your mouth in English or Greek, the Greek asks " where are you from?"

No malice intended. It is curiosity and basically almost a" Floskel".

And when I lived in Indonesia as I walked down the street, many times a day every day , perfect strangers  would ask/ shout out " dari mana?"

( Where are you from?)

 

( Often followed by " where's your wife?)😂

Andere Laendwr, andere Sitten...

[john g. 37,687]

7 minutes ago, Chelski said:

 

Absolutely. If we all go back to 1400 we're all related to every human being who lived at that moment in time. Still.

 

Howya doing sister I never had?

Don't scientists also say some of us have also drunk the same water as Napollron did? I read that somewhere once!

[snowingagain 5,202]

38 minutes ago, Chelski said:

Next day I rubbed my armpits with raw garlic and swaggered around town with a beret at a jaunty angle, wearing a Breton shirt, on a bicycle with a baguette sticking out of my back pocket. Nobody knew me.

Think I met one of your ancestors.   When I was young, guys on bikes with those lovely stripey shirts and berets used to appear at our door to flog onions.  I kid you not.  A real thing.

[john g. 37,687]

16 minutes ago, snowingagain said:

Think I met one of your ancestors.   When I was young, guys on bikes with those lovely stripey shirts and berets used to appear at our door to flog onions.  I kid you not.  A real thing.

Your first sentence is one of the funniest I have ever read!❤️❤️❤️

Thank you -I'm in stitches!!

 

I now believe this thread should have a new name: " where did your ancestors really come from?"😂

[Eric7 538]

Apparently my great, great grandparents emigrated from Italy to Ireland. My great grandparents then moved to Yorkshire where my grandfather was born. My father moved to Lancashire where I was born. I moved to Germany where my son was born. Where is my son really from?

[john g. 37,687]

3 minutes ago, Eric7 said:

Apparently my great, great grandparents emigrated from Italy to Ireland. My great grandparents then moved to Yorkshire where my grandfather was born. My father moved to Lancashire where I was born. I moved to Germany where my son was born. Where is my son really from?

Your son is from hokey pokey😂❤️

[Dembo 496]

10 minutes ago, Eric7 said:

Apparently my great, great grandparents emigrated from Italy to Ireland. My great grandparents then moved to Yorkshire where my grandfather was born. My father moved to Lancashire where I was born. I moved to Germany where my son was born. Where is my son really from?

 

You have 16 great, great grandparents. Did they all move together?

[Eric7 538]

7 minutes ago, john g. said:

Your son is from hokey pokey😂❤️

 

There's really no proper answer is there? It seems wrong if he says he's from Germany, but that's probably the most accurate answer.