Where are all the South Asians in NoVa?

[Anonymous]

Why the eye roll? East Asian and South Asian are totally different things. Is that really so hard to understand?

[Anonymous]

Agree on Vienna / Falls Church and to a lesser extent parts of McLean. Freedom Hill ES feeding (mostly) into Kilmer and Marshall has a pretty significant pct. of south Asian families.

[Anonymous]

I don't know the difference between East/South Asian in casual conversation but if you said Indian vs. Thai etc, that would make more sense to me.

Try the Herndon/Floris area--close enough to loudoun for there to be some Indian spillover.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Agree on Vienna / Falls Church and to a lesser extent parts of McLean. Freedom Hill ES feeding (mostly) into Kilmer and Marshall has a pretty significant pct. of south Asian families.

I think this is also the case in the areas near Fairhill ES near Merrifield, if you're asking about areas closer to DC than western Fairfax.

[Anonymous]

South Asia: the sub-Himalayan countries like Afghanistan, Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka.

Southeast Asia: the countries south of China and East of India, like Cambodia, Laos, Burma (Myanmar), Thailand, Vietnam, Malaysia, Indonesia, Philippines, Singapore

East Asia: the eastern part of Asia, China, Japan, N and S Korea, Mongolia, Taiwan

Central Asia: the former USSR "Stan" countries

The boundaries between these are sort of fluid since they're just geographical regions, but there tends to be some amount of cultural/religious similarities between countries in one broad region.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:In DC's AAP class there are 30 kids. 6 are white. The rest are Asian.

Sorry I can't break this down further between East Asian, South Asian, North Asian, West Asian - since this seems to be important to some people.

Well yeah, there are only nearly 50 different countries and over 1,000 different languages and dialects in the world's largest continent. Some people do like to break those down into more defining regions.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:why use such vague terms, do you mean Indians? Is that what you're looking for?

How exactly is South Asian a vague term? Indian, Pakistani, Bangladeshi, Sri Lankan - there are plenty of groups that consider themselves to be South Asian. Maybe the OP would be happy to find a community with any or all of them.

I think that's exactly the question...is there a specific group the OP is looking for because there could be pockets of different groups in different areas. Do Vietnamese, Thai, Cambodian, and others count?

No, those are SE Asian. S Asian = India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lankan, Burma. It's just nicer to use South Asian for a couple reasons - 1.) You don't want to leave out the 1/10 people who have a similar culture but aren't from India, because they're fewer in number anyways and do have many similarities; 2.) There are, as you're probably aware, long standing tensions, especially between India and Pakistan. Using S Asian instead of Indian kind of says - hey, I know some of us speak similar languages, eat the same food, like the same music - I'm not buying into all this drama on the other side of the world, so I don't care if you're from India or Pakistan or where ever else.

I'm not looking for a specific group, other than S Asian. And, really, the majority of any S Asians here are Indian. I'm not aware of any huge DC enclaves of Sri Lankans, like Annandale:Koreans.

[Anonymous]

What about Fairfax (e.g., the Robinson/Woodson areas closer to the beltway)?

[Anonymous]

Herndon has a few communities as does Reston, Vienna, and Falls Church. Ashburn of course for Loudoun.

The area by Robinson/Woodson has a community of Latino and Hispanic minorities.

[Anonymous]

Even if your kid is in AAP, it doesn't guaarantee they won't be a minority. Just be comfortable with your own heritage and skin. Our school's AAP center is majority white, then korean/chinese, then south asian, black and latino. I know it is hard to not bring one's own baggage to the table. However, kids today are pretty diverse and awesome. Nothing like my generation!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:why use such vague terms, do you mean Indians? Is that what you're looking for?

How exactly is South Asian a vague term? Indian, Pakistani, Bangladeshi, Sri Lankan - there are plenty of groups that consider themselves to be South Asian. Maybe the OP would be happy to find a community with any or all of them.

I think that's exactly the question...is there a specific group the OP is looking for because there could be pockets of different groups in different areas. Do Vietnamese, Thai, Cambodian, and others count?

No, those are SE Asian. S Asian = India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lankan, Burma. It's just nicer to use South Asian for a couple reasons - 1.) You don't want to leave out the 1/10 people who have a similar culture but aren't from India, because they're fewer in number anyways and do have many similarities; 2.) There are, as you're probably aware, long standing tensions, especially between India and Pakistan. Using S Asian instead of Indian kind of says - hey, I know some of us speak similar languages, eat the same food, like the same music - I'm not buying into all this drama on the other side of the world, so I don't care if you're from India or Pakistan or where ever else.

I'm not looking for a specific group, other than S Asian. And, really, the majority of any S Asians here are Indian. I'm not aware of any huge DC enclaves of Sri Lankans, like Annandale:Koreans.

We have had two Sri Lankan nannies in the past 7 years - one lives in Falls Church CIty and one lived in Arlington, but now lives in Annandale. Many of their friends live in Arlington/Falls Church area as well. I agree there is not one area where many Sri Lankans live around here, but our former nanny said there are many Sri Lankans on Staten Island (who knew??).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Why the eye roll? East Asian and South Asian are totally different things. Is that really so hard to understand?

Precisely. Just like North American distinctions. There are Americans, and then Canadians (as in Northern North Americans), and then Mexicans (as in Southern North Americans). Those are totally different things.

[Anonymous]

seems a dispute re: Burma. So are they south asian or east asian? See what a slippery slope we get on with this stuff?
I guess you'd want to avoid the Tibetans, Nepalese, Bhutan people as well.

[Anonymous]

According to 2010 Census figures, Northern Va. population as a whole is 3.5% Indian. Loudoun has the highest Indian concentration at 6.3%, followed by Fairfax at 4.1% and Arlington at 2.0%

Within Fairfax County, the big areas seem to be in the western portion of the county, with Herdon at 8.5%, Fair Oaks area at 6.5% and Oakton at 4.3%. Vienna is 2.3% and City of Fairfax is 2.7%.

This is population, not school enrollment.

Hope this helps.

[Anonymous]

Fair Oaks area is where we are. This is true, about the percentage of South Asians. We are mostly apartments and condos and
townhomes. But check out Eagle View Elementary, Lanier, and Fairfax High. This is our pyramid.