Reply to Is there a non-offensive way to ask where someone’s ancestors are from?

Forum Index » Off-Topic

Reply to "Is there a non-offensive way to ask where someone’s ancestors are from?"

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]If they’re in 4th grade and good friends your DD will be telling you soon enough. 
My DD has a knack for knowing everything about her friends. It will probably Come up where the grandparents live, where they vacation. when parents moved here, Saturday language classes, etc.

I have always thought this was a negative thing, but a coworker who is Chinese asked another coworker “what are you”to another (who it turns out was Thai descent). She said she was interested and how else would she have found out. [/quote]

That’s a lot of assumptions about travelling “back home”, Saturday school, etc. Not all immigrants do that. I came here at the age of 12 and speak with a slight accent. If you asked my DD where her grandparents live, she’d say “Virginia”, she doesn’t do “Saturday school” for my native language, I haven’t been back to where I’m from in over 20 years, etc. and notice how I didn’t use the word “home” to describe the country where I am from - I’ve lived here in the US for more than 2/3 of my life so this is home. My kids know the country I am from, but I am fairly certain that they wouldn’t think to bring it up unless asked very pointedly. [/quote]

This is the exact answer you get from a Chinese person.

But Hispanic you get Peru, Ecuador, Argentina... then you talk about food. 
Indian... they will say Pakistan or Sri Lanka or whatever.

So if the person appears to be Chinese don't ask...super sensitive. [/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics