The parent of another child at school, just stopped me and told me ‘you look good with makeup you should wear it often’. At 8 A.M, I didn’t know whether to say Thank-you or Piss off, mercifully years in China and Taiwan, trained me to just smile and walk away.
I stepped into an elevator. Inside was a grandmother and two young children. Immediately, the old lady put her arms around the two kids and drew them towards herself, protecting them from the large foreigner. The little girl, also shrinking from me, looked up at her grandmother and said: "阿嬷 外國人也會來到我們世界?
阿嬷 蟑螂也會來到我們世界 
Where do they think we are from? Honestly, now I know why they seem to look at me as if I were an alien - they literally think I come from some other universe.
Where do they think we are from? Honestly, now I know why they seem to look at me as if I were an alien - they literally think I come from some other universe.[/quote]
Human inherent fear of the unknown. Please bear with me while I use my current favorite “polar” bear example. Brown bears in an elevator who have never seen a polar bear up close are “naturally” wary because to them polar bears are an unknown and therefore something to be wary/fearful of, especially if they are young brown bears with a frail granma bear in close proximity to a large polar bear.
tommy’s psch 101
Eh? How do Jews act? 
Eh? How do Jews act? [/quote]
Oy vey!
Some do it well
Others, less so
You know you’ve been in Taiwan too long when…
You stop your neighbor on the sidewalk, inspect whats in their shopping bags, and tell them how fat they’re getting.
I got in an elevator and a guy said: “You don’t look American.”
Go figure.
[quote=“Charlie Phillips”]I got in an elevator and a guy said: “You don’t look American.”
Go figure.[/quote]
I got that last night, too. I was walking with my wife and she stopped in at some little store to buy some little basket thingy and I asked her if she needed money for the purchase. A woman standing nearby told me how wonderful my Chinese is 
and inquired as to my nationality… I told her that I’m an American of the USA variety :America: and she looked absolutely shocked … she remarked that I don’t look like an American. Odd. I was wearing cargo shorts, Teva sandals and a Jerry Garcia T-shirt. I wasn’t wearing socks, either! I should have asked her what she thought I looked like! :eh:
[quote=“Tigerman”][quote=“Charlie Phillips”]I got in an elevator and a guy said: “You don’t look American.”
Go figure.[/quote]
I got that last night, too. I was walking with my wife and she stopped in at some little store to buy some little basket thingy and I asked her if she needed money for the purchase. A woman standing nearby told me how wonderful my Chinese is and inquired as to my nationality… I told her that I’m an American of the USA variety :America: and she looked absolutely shocked … she remarked that I don’t look like an American. Odd. I was wearing cargo shorts, Teva sandals and a Jerry Garcia T-shirt. I wasn’t wearing socks, either! I should have asked her what she thought I looked like! :eh:[/quote]
I get that alot too. Except in my case, it’s more understandable because I’m Asian. Still, that doesn’t make me less American.
The thing I have discovered is that there seems to be a heavy stereotype of what an “American” should look like. I suppose that might be something along the lines of “tall, white-skinned, blond-haired person”. Or maybe it’s just a typical statement they make whenever they don’t know what else to say.
[quote=“Tigerman”][quote=“Charlie Phillips”]I got in an elevator and a guy said: “You don’t look American.”
Go figure.[/quote]
I got that last night, too. I was walking with my wife and she stopped in at some little store to buy some little basket thingy and I asked her if she needed money for the purchase. A woman standing nearby told me how wonderful my Chinese is and inquired as to my nationality… I told her that I’m an American of the USA variety :America: and she looked absolutely shocked … she remarked that I don’t look like an American. Odd. I was wearing cargo shorts, Teva sandals and a Jerry Garcia T-shirt. I wasn’t wearing socks, either! I should have asked her what she thought I looked like! :eh:[/quote]
The elevator bloke didn’t even have the courtesy to ask my nationality before he insulted me. He just out and said it: “you don’t look American”. And I’m not. But I wonder why he said it. I know black Americans, Asian Americans, Latino Americans, German-bred, Irish, Franco-Turkmenistan mix, Lebanese yanks, pure blond pilgrim descendant, Jamaican and every mix of every race American, but I somehow don’t fit into the possibilities of what it is to be American.
Is it my nose?
Maybe he thought you were acting like an Israeli Jew??? 
While getting my hair cut, a woman walked in and demanded to know what I eat to make my hair black. The look on my wife’s face was priceless.
Maybe he thought you were acting like an Israeli Jew??? [/quote]
I always thought my nose was more Roman.
Eh? How do Jews act? [/quote]
Oy gevalt!
Keeping kosher, for instance. He eats bacon. Or wearing a yarmulke or a Star of David, even. He doesn’t. There are dozens of things one may do that can clue others in to one’s religion.
My point is, he did and said absolutely nothing to clue the old guy in to his being Jewish, and by his looks, one would conclude he’s of Celtic ancestry (red hair, for example). Yet somehow the old guy singled him out and mentioned something about a “Jewish Christmas”.
No fanny pack. No socks with your sandals, pulled halfway up to your knees- you said it yourself. No silly 80’s style sun visor. Why on earth would she have cause to think you are an American? 
[quote=“Charlie Phillips”]The elevator bloke didn’t even have the courtesy to ask my nationality before he insulted me. He just out and said it: “you don’t look American”. And I’m not. But I wonder why he said it. I know black Americans, Asian Americans, Latino Americans, German-bred, Irish, Franco-Turkmenistan mix, Lebanese yanks, pure blond pilgrim descendant, Jamaican and every mix of every race American, but I somehow don’t fit into the possibilities of what it is to be American.
[/quote]
The average person in Taiwan has no real idea of what an American looks like. Usually they seem to think white = American. I’ve seen Tigerman, though, and why someone would think he specifically does not look American, I can’t fathom.
Um… I think socks with sandals is a (in some places) European thing. That’s why I mentioned it… I thought it odd for her to imagine that I was not an American, when the default mode, as oft complained, is that white people are Americans.
I’ve had a few Taiwanese people say that I don’t look American, and their reasoning has always been that I am not really white, in the sense that I don’t look like what they think a white person should. A few have said I look Indonesian; some have even said I look Japanese, though I got that more when I lived in South Korea. I am white - all English and Scottish background - but I have black hair, which seems to throw them.
But yeah, the first few times people in Taiwan and Korea guessed my nationality and asked if I was Indonesian or Japanese, my first thought was, “Are you insane?” Almost everybody has preconceptions of what other nationalities look like, though, so now I prefer to ask them why they think so.