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Have you been confused for a different nationality?


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Are you mistaken for someone from another country?ie  

191 members have voted

  1. 1. Have you been mistaken for someone from another country

    • Yes, regularly
      57
    • Occassionally
      94
    • Never
      40

This poll is closed to new votes


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It has happened to me quite a bit.

 

I've been confused for being from northern Ireland, Wales, France, Italy, Germany, Switzerland, italy, Poland, Bulgaria from where I remember people have said. 

 

Both the Wales and Germany ones where at music events talking to people

 

"And you came all the way from Wales/germany to see Michael frantic/kraftwerk?"

 

Others have just called me a "non-national" and "continental".

 

Others haven't specified a country but tried to coax one out of me.

 

Others are curious as to where I am from and surprised I am from the part of Ireland I am. Sometimes the west, sometimes the south.

 

I think this relates to my speech problem

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There's been countless times people thought I was american  because my dad was born there.

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Yes, people have thought I was British or something else, because I have trouble pronouncing some sounds, which makes my voice sound somewhat British.

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Because I have red hair the assumption is my descendant heritage is Scottish or Irish. Neither is true. 

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Not since I moved back home but when I lived in England I got mistaken for American, Irish, Dutch and German and probably others. It didn't bother me, especially being mistaken for  American as that one is understandable.

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People asked me if I was dutch because of my dialect. That was on vacation in Bavaria haha.

 

Yeah and people haves asked me if I was chinese a couple of times? And some other people just thought I was foreign one way or another and got surprised when I told them no. I mean, I'm small bits dutch and italian but that's it (without any cultural attachements, I only found out when I was 20). No asian whatsoever. I think it's funny. I guess it's because of my dark hair and eyes, and when I smile most of my eyes disappear haha. None of my siblings ever got that question though, even though we look strongly alike. 

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Galactic Turtle

A lot of people ask me if I'm Ethiopian. And I'm just like "idk they didn't keep those types of records during the triangle trade." :P 

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Ruru+Saphhy=Garnet

Omg, yes!

Many times I have been told that I look Somali or some other African nationality!  

Don't get me wrong, I'm not offended by this! I'm proud of being a descendant from the continent of Africa!

But....it can be awkward at times!:o

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I've occasionally been asked if my last name's Greek, when it's not (it's Lithuanian). Presumably because it ends in 'eikis'. I've got kind of a generic American, or 'Generican' accent, so it's hard for people to place what state I'm from, but that's more because I moved a lot when I was little (7 different places by 10 years old), so it's not like I was exposed to a particular accent for more than a year or two.

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Often! I’m frequently assumed to be Russian - as in fresh off the boat immigrant or just a tourist. Both at home and abroad. I’m American. According to a basic DNA test when doing some genealogy, I do have some ancestors from Russia but it’s very far back. I’ve never been to Russia. I only know a few words of Russian. I was born and raised in the US. Yet sometimes sales people in shops in my home country will approach me, hesitate, then ask if I speak English. At work, I’ve had several Russian patients who tried speaking Russian to me and were shocked to learn I’m not Russian. Lots of people ask where I’m from and when I say “here” or “New Jersey” or “America,” depending on where I am at the time, the next comment is always “No, originally!” ... The answer still stands. In France, I was speaking French with a cashier who suddenly switched to Russian, much to my confusion. When I couldn’t answer his question and gave him a blank look, he laughed and apologized for his assumption but assured me it was a compliment. To me, it’s a huge compliment! There’s nothing more flattering to me than assuming I’m anything but American.

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Yes, it happens to me quite a lot. I'm French, but I have have been mistaken for German, Dutch, and even Icelandic! I think it must be because I have something of a Germanic appearance. In terms of ethnicity I consider myself a mongrel; I do have English, Irish, German, Hungarian and Prussian ancestry in my family tree. 

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Yes my ancestry is mostly Circassian (South Russia/Caucasus) with a mix of French Canadian & Nepalese:

No one ever guess near my real ancestry - instead I get mistaken all the time for South American: Argentine, Colombian, Chilean, Uruguyan, Brasilian

followed by: Spaniard, Albanian, Sicilian and one time for Maori (the guy who asked was from New Zealand and seemed convinced I must have some 'Maori' ancestry)

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occasionally people have thought I was Scottish, especially down south or when overseas

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RoseGoesToYale

I've been keeping a tab: Canadian ten times, Greek five times, French four times, German three, British three, Polish three (which my ancestry is), Russian twice, Czech once, and Swiss once. The Greek and Polish probably come from my name, but I don't even know what it means to look like you're from a certain country...

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People have mistaken me for being from different parts of the US because of my accent and the way I talk, but I don't think I've ever had someone doubt that I'm American.

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I'm American and white, but I've had one person think I was Middle Eastern and another thought I was Japanese. I think I was mistaken for Mexican once or twice too. Oddly I don't think I've ever been mistaken as being from any European countries eventhough I'm white.

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Nah, people either assume I'm German (because I live in Germany) or I'm American, if they hear me speak English, and both of those are correct so.. I guess some kids in my school used to say I was English, but that wasn't because I came across as English, it was just that they basically used English as shorthand for all English speaking countries. People have assumed though that I come from regions I've never lived in before, because I guess my accent is a bit off... (specifically, when I lived in Baden, before I told people where I had lived before, they assumed I had lived in Franconia, but I had actually lived in southern Bavaria fairly close to the Austrian border, and not the north of Bavaria.. though since I moved to the north of the country I haven't had that problem anymore, people either don't assume where I'm from and tell me, or assume I come from the south)

 

Though something funny that happened to a friend of mine, she's German, but get's taken for Russian sometimes. So there was a substitute physical education teacher (the normal teacher had left for about a half a year for health reason), who was Russian. He just assumed my friend was also Russian, cause I guess she looks a Russian(?), so he started talking to her in Russian, she of course didn't understand anything, because she doesn't speak Russian, which apparently surprised the sub.. XD   

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7 minutes ago, arekathevampyre said:

Yes . I was speaking a mix of languages and dialects when a teacher asked if I was a local lol 

I am !!! :D

this actually reminded me of a German lad that used to be in a TF2 team I played in, at the start he could barely speak English (and I have a pretty broad North East England accent.)

After he played with us for a short time his English improved but he had also picked up a lot of NE slang, which came back to haunt him in an English speaking test he had

 

 

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Mostly people seem to assume I'm Canadian, both travelling in the US and occasionally travelling in Canada. I don't mind, and it's certainly not offensive, but I'm not quite sure why. I know that the Michigan accent is fairly similar to that in much of Ontario, so maybe that's it?

 

More mysterious is that I've been assumed to be German a few times. Now, I do speak German (albeit as a second language), and I do have a fair amount of German-speaking heritage (mostly Austrian), but I've never actually set foot in a German-speaking country. Again, it doesn't bother me, but I really don't understand why it happens.

 

Generally speaking, when I'm travelling within the US, people seem more likely to assume that I'm from another country than another state, and I'm not sure why that is. I also used to get asked a lot when I was growing up where I was from, sometimes even specifically what country I was from, despite never having lived anywhere aside from the city I currently live in and a city twenty minutes away. I never have known why.

 

Weirdly, my brother is mostly assumed to be British, to the point where our driving instructor refused to believe he'd never been to the UK. I don't think we have different accents, so I'm not sure where that's coming from.

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arekathevampyre
32 minutes ago, Andrew001 said:

this actually reminded me of a German lad that used to be in a TF2 team I played in, at the start he could barely speak English (and I have a pretty broad North East England accent.)

After he played with us for a short time his English improved but he had also picked up a lot of NE slang, which came back to haunt him in an English speaking test he had

 

 

Hahaha that's both good and bad !! 

Slangs are pretty interesting !! :D

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Alejandrogynous

Sort of. There is a very large Russian population where I grew up and I often got mistaken for one of them. Lots of people speaking Russian to me and being confused when I couldn't reply. Admittedly, I do have a small percent of Russian ancestry but it's not much and my family isn't culturally Russian at all.

 

I also got mistaken for Japanese once, which blew my mind because my features are definitely European.

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Knight of Cydonia

I'm half-English/Irish and half-Japanese, and people are usually pretty confused when they try to guess my ethnicity. I've gotten Polynesian, French, and half-Chinese/half-German in the past.

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I'm been mistaken for all different kinds of nationalities, West and South European, Slavic, Middle Eastern ... Apparently, it doesn't show that I'm actually from Central Europe. I'm kind of proud of my chameleon qualities :P

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When I was late teens and early twenties, I was confussed a few times. Been confused as Canadian is the least funny story, because I say "eh" a lot.

 

In an old job I was once had this conversation from a Scottish customer:

Them: "Where are you from?"

Me: "Here, Glasgow."

Them: "But where are you really from?"

Me (now confussed): "Ehh Glasgow still."

Them: "Ok where is your family from?"

Me: "Glasgow too"

Them (casually): "Oh, you sound part German part something unknown."

 

WTF does part unknown mean? :lol:

 

Also had someone just say German too.

 

But the best one, had not been identified where they thought I was from. I had a Polish person say the following to me when I 1st met them:

"Ahh You're Scottish, Called Scott and come from Scotland. You Scott, Scottish and from Scotland. You're from Scotland and called Scott and your Scottish. You're Scottish, from Scotland called Scott. You from Scotland, you're Scottish and you're Scott. You're Scott from Scotland who is Scottish." Everyone laughs "But you don't sound Scottish!"

 

WTF? :lol:

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13 hours ago, Andrew001 said:

this actually reminded me of a German lad that used to be in a TF2 team I played in, at the start he could barely speak English (and I have a pretty broad North East England accent.)

After he played with us for a short time his English improved but he had also picked up a lot of NE slang, which came back to haunt him in an English speaking test he had

 

 

 

13 hours ago, arekathevampyre said:

Hahaha that's both good and bad !! 

Slangs are pretty interesting !! :D

Lol. Glaswgow or Scotland in general would make things difficult. This video made Scottish news cause of how funny (but accurate) it was from an outsider (only a small sample of Glaswegian slang)

 

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I've been mistaken for Spanish quite a few times, but only when I'm on holiday (usually by locals though so I guess my Spanish pronunciation isn't too bad).

 

Other than that, there was this one girl at school who was genuinely shocked to learn I wasn't Australian.

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2 hours ago, Scott1989 said:

"Ahh You're Scottish, Called Scott and come from Scotland. You Scott, Scottish and from Scotland. You're from Scotland and called Scott and your Scottish. You're Scottish, from Scotland called Scott. You from Scotland, you're Scottish and you're Scott. You're Scott from Scotland who is Scottish." Everyone laughs "But you don't sound Scottish!"

:lol:

 

Sometimes I get asked whether I'm from some nordic country or other.

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