Am I from Russia? Or Ethiopia?

Hello.

A very interesting thing happened to me today. And I just want to share this incredible moment. I know it sounds a bit exaggerating but I still think it is incredible. I'm going to tell you later. And, today I'm going to teach some non-Asians about something.

First, some quick facts about me: I am originally from Jakarta, Indonesia and I live currently in Saarbruecken, Germany. I have slanted eyes, my skin is not white but not yellow but not brown too. I don't know. it's a combination of these 3 colors. I have black hair and it's not fake. My eyes' colors are also black. I'm not too tall, actually short for a man.

And then comes the problem. Almost all Europeans or Africans or whatsoever who had a conversation with me asked "Hey, are you from China?". Even sometimes in the zoo where I do my internship program or in the supermarket or in the bus, some persons pass me and say "Ni Hao!".

First let me get it straight, I don't like it. It might sound weird but it's a kind of my South East Asian pride. One man asked me if he pronounced his 'ni hao' correctly, and I just answered to him in German "Well, I guess you said that correctly. I don't know I'm not Chinese. I'm sorry but you just insulted me by saying that too". Okay that sounded rude and I just smiled at him and walked away. It's a pretty sensitive thing for me.

Few months ago, a little girl stood in front of me and then faced me. She put her hands on her eyes and tried to pull it so that her eyes looked slanted. And she sang "Meine mutter ist Chineser... Mein Vater ist Japaner..." (my mother is a chinese... my father is a japanese...) and I responded by saying "Halt die Klappe." (Shut up.) Unfortunately she's just 10 or something so I cannot say bad words.

The thing is Asia contains many countries with different cultures and different languages. Asian country is not only China. Did you know by the way that Israel and Turkey are also Asian countries? Okay forget that, let's talk about Asia Pasific.

I know it might be hard for people not coming from Asia Pasific to know the difference between Indonesian and Chinese and Thai and Vietnamese etc etc. But please do not generalize things! That is also the same like Canada and US. Canadians don't like it of course if people think they're from US vice versa. And of course a German won't like it if I suddenly pass him/her and say "Goedendag!". So stop calling me Chinese or Japanese because I'm not and I don't like it.

I also think some Indochinese look similar. But I don't come to an Indochinese and greet him "Sawadeekap!" (Thai). I won't do that because he/she's probably Lao or Cambodian. And I also believe South Asian look similar but I never greet a South Asian "Namaste!" (Hindi). He/she doesn't have to be Indian, he can be Pakistani or Sri Lankan and he might speak Urdu or Tamil not Hindi.

The point is: Stop generalizing things. That's it.


So the interesting part. I don't know but I've heard this question directed to me 2 or 3 times. The question is: "Are you from Russia?". This question always makes my day because finally I meet someone who can think out of the box.

I was asked if I came from Russia today. I met a staff of Neunkircher Zoo. We see each other quite a lot but we never really get to know each other because we were always too busy. We just always said 'hi' or stuffs like that. And today this conversation happened

he: Hey. What's up?
me: I'm great. Thanks. You?
he: I'm great too. Hey how long do you still have to come here?
me: Well my internship ends on September 30th. So I still have 5 weeks left here.
he: What kind of internship do you do actually?
me: Well, I'm in the marketing and PR division here. So I do stuffs like making a survey, organizing events, etc.
he: Why do you have to do an internship by the way?
me: Well it's for my college.
he: Ah you're a college student! What do you study?
me: I study tourism.
he: Wow tourism. I guess you should be able to speak many foreign languages right?
me: Exactly.
he: And what do you speak? German. English? French?
me: Yeah exactly. I have to use those 3 languages in the college
he: And you speak Russian as mother tongue, don't you? You're from Russia right?
me: (confused) Well no. I don't speak Russian at all. (laugh)
he: Ah I thought you're from Russia. Because your accent sounds like Russian accent and you look like those Asian Russian who live in Siberia. Seriously.


That was not the first time. An old lady also asked me once if I was from Russia. I was in the bus to my house and I phoned my friend, Gerry and of course we spoke Indonesian to each other. And after our conversation ended, the old lady who sat next to me asked me "Kommen Sie aus Russland?" (Do you come from Russia?)

I kinda like it actually because it is a unique experience. And yes probably Indonesian accent sounds a bit like Russian accent because of our 'R'. Indonesian and Russian have the same pronunciation of 'R' I guess.

But something funnier happened to me. This is actually very hilarious. So there was a drunk man in the bus. He is about 30. And he was drunk and he suddenly asked me "Hallo. Kommst du aus Aethiopien?" (Hello. Are you from Ethiopia?). I just cannot forget this moment. Well, he probably didn't realize it because he was drunk. And that made my day! It was a unique experience because almost all people think I'm Chinese or Japanese and finally there's a guy (well a tipsy guy) thought I was an Ethiopian! Well, I always want darker skin, and probably this means my skin is dark enough to look like African.

So I just answered to him "No, Sir, I'm not from Ethiopia. I'm from Zimbabwe." And he just nodded and said "Ach so...".