People who lie about where they're from

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:Why do people lie about the city they grew up in? I live in a major city with a very high transplant percentage and it's amazing to me how many people will beat around the bush to say they're from "here" when the truth is they grew up in Duluth, Minnesota or Astoria, Oregon or whatever. Is it because they want to seem more cosmopolitan? What is the pathology at play?

OP, I was born in Boston and moved almost immediately to Colorado until I was in middle school, followed by 10 years in Wisconsin, and then 15 years in DC. I now live in CA. Where do you think I should tell people I'm from, realistically? I tell people in CA that I moved there from DC, which is true. Arguably, I'm a lot more from DC than I am from Boston or CO. I have no affinity with or allegiance to the state of Wisconsin at all. Why should I claim those places because I was a child there?

If this is a serious question, then the answer is quite obvious. "I grew up in (city name) Colorado and (city name) Wisconsin" since that's where you spent your formative years. Going to college in DC and then spending some early working years there is largely irrelevant since you spent your time there after you had reached adulthood and were "fully formed", so to speak. Whenever asks "where are you from" theyre asking where you grew up- it's really not even a complicated answer, in your case.

Where am I from, OP? What response could I give (that won't bore people to tears) that "truthfully" answers your question?

My parents were living in Beirut but temporarily relocated to Paris for a few months when I was born for access to better medical care, but returned to Beirut where we lived until I was four. I did K-Grade 2 in Harare, Grades 3-5 in Hanoi, Grade 6 in DC, Grades 7-9 in Bogota, and Grades 10-12 in Tunis.

I spent my "formative years" in multiple countries across four continents. I went to French schools in Harare and Hanoi, public school in DC, a Swiss school in Bogota (where I learned German and Spanish) and an American school in Tunis. FWIW I have a US and EU passport (French and American parents).

What would be so bad about saying something like "I grew up all over- predominantly Hanoi, Bogota, and Tunis"? And if they want more details they can ask? Even so, it seems strange to act like this is the reality for most people, when you seem to be well aware this is an outlier. But even in an extreme case like yours, naming the three places you lived the longest wouldn't take more than 5 seconds. Why are you acting like this a crazy situation that you're truly incapable of handling?

K through second grade was pretty formative for me. So I wouldn’t leave out Harare. And I learned Arabic in Beirut, a language I now use in my professional life, so I think I would have to include Beirut as part of my “formative” experience. I did live there for 4 years, longer than the other places.

Nice! Add that in then, would add less than a second. Whatever you feel the highlights are.

But am I *from* any of those places?

Well... yeah! And yeah- it is you again- same, dude back again!! Just love talking about your background, huh? Bet you're one of those guys who dreams of starting a podcast, huh?

[Anonymous]

It’s such a dicey question to be asking anyway, OP. Can come across as really racist. My sister was adopted as an infant from Korea and grew up in our white family. Please stop asking where she’s from (or why her English is perfect, or why her name “sounds white” (she was found abandoned; no Korean birth name), or ..).

Ask something else.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I visited Spain twice and I claimed I was born there. Even speak with an accent sometimes. Does that count? FYP 🥒

Bwahahaha. That crazy lady really would fit right in on DCUM, as this thread proves!

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:A more interesting question than asking someone where they are from, is "what do you think about x or y currently in the news?" or "which book have you read recently that you'd recommend"

I lived in a lot of different places. I have an English accent and spent 20 of my 50+ years in London. I'm not "from" London but that's how people would like my existence to be framed, and I'm happy to oblige. If I've also lived in NYC for 20 years, am I not also from NYC??

No, you're not. You're "from" the place you grew up, as I suspect you well know. Why do people love to play dumb on this issue? So very strange.

France/Lebanon/Zimbabwe/Vietnam/DC/Colombia/Tunisia poster here. Can you tell me where I'm "from" please? Using your assertion that someone is from where they grew up.

Not OP but didn’t you literally just do that? 😂

Would you say I’m from Tunis because I lived there for a while in high school?

Why are you acting like that's absurd statement?

It’s not totally absurd. I lived there for a while as a teenager. I don’t have Tunisian passport or permanent resident visa. Saying I’m Tunisian would be incorrect from a citizenship point of view and it wouldn’t fully answer OP’s question. I would be lying, according to OP.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I visited Spain twice and I claimed I was born there. Even speak with an accent sometimes. Does that count? FYP 🥒

Bwahahaha. That crazy lady really would fit right in on DCUM, as this thread proves!

Hilaria Baldwin.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:A more interesting question than asking someone where they are from, is "what do you think about x or y currently in the news?" or "which book have you read recently that you'd recommend"

I lived in a lot of different places. I have an English accent and spent 20 of my 50+ years in London. I'm not "from" London but that's how people would like my existence to be framed, and I'm happy to oblige. If I've also lived in NYC for 20 years, am I not also from NYC??

No, you're not. You're "from" the place you grew up, as I suspect you well know. Why do people love to play dumb on this issue? So very strange.

France/Lebanon/Zimbabwe/Vietnam/DC/Colombia/Tunisia poster here. Can you tell me where I'm "from" please? Using your assertion that someone is from where they grew up.

Not OP but didn’t you literally just do that? 😂

Would you say I’m from Tunis because I lived there for a while in high school?

Why are you acting like that's absurd statement?

It’s not totally absurd. I lived there for a while as a teenager. I don’t have Tunisian passport or permanent resident visa. Saying I’m Tunisian would be incorrect from a citizenship point of view and it wouldn’t fully answer OP’s question. I would be lying, according to OP.

Why have you asked this question multiple times despite it being answered? Just dont have anyone else to talk to?

[Anonymous]

Asking where someone is from is quite a provincial question.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:A more interesting question than asking someone where they are from, is "what do you think about x or y currently in the news?" or "which book have you read recently that you'd recommend"

I lived in a lot of different places. I have an English accent and spent 20 of my 50+ years in London. I'm not "from" London but that's how people would like my existence to be framed, and I'm happy to oblige. If I've also lived in NYC for 20 years, am I not also from NYC??

No, you're not. You're "from" the place you grew up, as I suspect you well know. Why do people love to play dumb on this issue? So very strange.

France/Lebanon/Zimbabwe/Vietnam/DC/Colombia/Tunisia poster here. Can you tell me where I'm "from" please? Using your assertion that someone is from where they grew up.

Not OP but didn’t you literally just do that? 😂

Would you say I’m from Tunis because I lived there for a while in high school?

Why are you acting like that's absurd statement?

It’s not totally absurd. I lived there for a while as a teenager. I don’t have Tunisian passport or permanent resident visa. Saying I’m Tunisian would be incorrect from a citizenship point of view and it wouldn’t fully answer OP’s question. I would be lying, according to OP.

Was is during your formative years? Formative is deifned to be some abstract age range known only to OP and the definition varies according to context.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:A more interesting question than asking someone where they are from, is "what do you think about x or y currently in the news?" or "which book have you read recently that you'd recommend"

I lived in a lot of different places. I have an English accent and spent 20 of my 50+ years in London. I'm not "from" London but that's how people would like my existence to be framed, and I'm happy to oblige. If I've also lived in NYC for 20 years, am I not also from NYC??

No, you're not. You're "from" the place you grew up, as I suspect you well know. Why do people love to play dumb on this issue? So very strange.

France/Lebanon/Zimbabwe/Vietnam/DC/Colombia/Tunisia poster here. Can you tell me where I'm "from" please? Using your assertion that someone is from where they grew up.

Not OP but didn’t you literally just do that? 😂

Would you say I’m from Tunis because I lived there for a while in high school?

Why are you acting like that's absurd statement?

It’s not totally absurd. I lived there for a while as a teenager. I don’t have Tunisian passport or permanent resident visa. Saying I’m Tunisian would be incorrect from a citizenship point of view and it wouldn’t fully answer OP’s question. I would be lying, according to OP.

Was is during your formative years? Formative is deifned to be some abstract age range known only to OP and the definition varies according to context.

Known only to OP and the gods!

[Anonymous]

I say YAY AREAAAA

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:A more interesting question than asking someone where they are from, is "what do you think about x or y currently in the news?" or "which book have you read recently that you'd recommend"

I lived in a lot of different places. I have an English accent and spent 20 of my 50+ years in London. I'm not "from" London but that's how people would like my existence to be framed, and I'm happy to oblige. If I've also lived in NYC for 20 years, am I not also from NYC??

No, you're not. You're "from" the place you grew up, as I suspect you well know. Why do people love to play dumb on this issue? So very strange.

France/Lebanon/Zimbabwe/Vietnam/DC/Colombia/Tunisia poster here. Can you tell me where I'm "from" please? Using your assertion that someone is from where they grew up.

I'd like to know this too, since I have a similar (but slightly shorter) collection of places as well as dual citizenship. Where am I from?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:A more interesting question than asking someone where they are from, is "what do you think about x or y currently in the news?" or "which book have you read recently that you'd recommend"

I lived in a lot of different places. I have an English accent and spent 20 of my 50+ years in London. I'm not "from" London but that's how people would like my existence to be framed, and I'm happy to oblige. If I've also lived in NYC for 20 years, am I not also from NYC??

No, you're not. You're "from" the place you grew up, as I suspect you well know. Why do people love to play dumb on this issue? So very strange.

France/Lebanon/Zimbabwe/Vietnam/DC/Colombia/Tunisia poster here. Can you tell me where I'm "from" please? Using your assertion that someone is from where they grew up.

Not OP but didn’t you literally just do that? 😂

Would you say I’m from Tunis because I lived there for a while in high school?

Why are you acting like that's absurd statement?

It’s not totally absurd. I lived there for a while as a teenager. I don’t have Tunisian passport or permanent resident visa. Saying I’m Tunisian would be incorrect from a citizenship point of view and it wouldn’t fully answer OP’s question. I would be lying, according to OP.

Was is during your formative years? Formative is deifned to be some abstract age range known only to OP and the definition varies according to context.

NP here. You tell me. Born in Country A (citizenship), moved to Country B at age 2. Moved back to Country A at age 10. Moved to Country C at 13.

Where am I from?

[Anonymous]

I have never experienced someone flat out lying. If someone says they are “from LA” but were actually raised in a suburb of LA I assume they are naming the close major city for clarity and because I don’t know the name of the small town outside LA they are from. I don’t think they are saying it to “look cool”, we aren’t 12.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:A more interesting question than asking someone where they are from, is "what do you think about x or y currently in the news?" or "which book have you read recently that you'd recommend"

I lived in a lot of different places. I have an English accent and spent 20 of my 50+ years in London. I'm not "from" London but that's how people would like my existence to be framed, and I'm happy to oblige. If I've also lived in NYC for 20 years, am I not also from NYC??

No, you're not. You're "from" the place you grew up, as I suspect you well know. Why do people love to play dumb on this issue? So very strange.

France/Lebanon/Zimbabwe/Vietnam/DC/Colombia/Tunisia poster here. Can you tell me where I'm "from" please? Using your assertion that someone is from where they grew up.

Not OP but didn’t you literally just do that? 😂

Would you say I’m from Tunis because I lived there for a while in high school?

Why are you acting like that's absurd statement?

It’s not totally absurd. I lived there for a while as a teenager. I don’t have Tunisian passport or permanent resident visa. Saying I’m Tunisian would be incorrect from a citizenship point of view and it wouldn’t fully answer OP’s question. I would be lying, according to OP.

Was is during your formative years? Formative is deifned to be some abstract age range known only to OP and the definition varies according to context.

NP here. You tell me. Born in Country A (citizenship), moved to Country B at age 2. Moved back to Country A at age 10. Moved to Country C at 13.

Where am I from?

Why not name all three? Is that hard?

[Anonymous]

OP, have you been kvetching about this for 14 YEARS?!

https://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/63137.page