I want to be able to talk like this.
I had to post this one too...
Where are your monsters?
Saturday, August 15, 2009
Monday, August 3, 2009
Because I'm Asian
Throughout my travels, I have encountered one thing repeatedly that I have never experienced before in the United States. I have never really experienced the kind of stereotyping that I have received here. I have a whole list of times where I experience some random person saying something that is somewhat derogatory. Some of the things that happened to me are;
-I was walking around town in the early afternoon with a friend, who is Chinese too, when a bunch of kids (looked like they were still high school) walked right at us and started shouting some random "ching-chong" gibberish because I wouldn't move out of "their way.
-I was waiting at a bus stop late at night and a group of tourist came up to me but I heard one of them say "Let's not ask him, he probably doesn't know English."
-My friends and I was approached by some girl in front of a pub and was asked if hello was "Konichiwa or nee hao ma." When we told her they both mean hello in two different languages, she ran back to her friends shouting "They speak perfect English!" She later returned and asked us if we were from China or Japan. We really tempted to say we're from Laos.
-I was actually asked if being called a Chink was ok. This was the most ridiculous of all my experiences.
There are a few more moments but there all pretty similar to those experience. I experience a lot of "Wow, your English is really good" moments. I find it really interesting that I'm experiencing these kind of moments now rather than in America. I suspect it's because Asians are a rare sight here in Brighton as compared to where I'm from.
These experiences now make me wonder one thing. Why are people here so misconceited about Asians here? Maybe I'm just on the bad end of the stick but more than one experience with this kind of stuff is making me believe that there is something wrong here. In my own personal opinion, I think it's because people are curious at the same time they are not as educated as they think they are about our cultures. So far, most people here only believe that there are only Chinese and Japanese and every other ethnicities fall into some sub-category of Chinese and Japanese. It makes me wonder why they haven't realized that there are more than just two ethnicities and there is in fact a large number of different ethnicities each with their own unique language and culture. Perhaps I can blame it on the lack of diversity which is very evident in some parts of town.
In the end, I still don't know why I am so heavily stereotyped but hopefully at the end of the trip I'll learn something about that.
-I was walking around town in the early afternoon with a friend, who is Chinese too, when a bunch of kids (looked like they were still high school) walked right at us and started shouting some random "ching-chong" gibberish because I wouldn't move out of "their way.
-I was waiting at a bus stop late at night and a group of tourist came up to me but I heard one of them say "Let's not ask him, he probably doesn't know English."
-My friends and I was approached by some girl in front of a pub and was asked if hello was "Konichiwa or nee hao ma." When we told her they both mean hello in two different languages, she ran back to her friends shouting "They speak perfect English!" She later returned and asked us if we were from China or Japan. We really tempted to say we're from Laos.
-I was actually asked if being called a Chink was ok. This was the most ridiculous of all my experiences.
There are a few more moments but there all pretty similar to those experience. I experience a lot of "Wow, your English is really good" moments. I find it really interesting that I'm experiencing these kind of moments now rather than in America. I suspect it's because Asians are a rare sight here in Brighton as compared to where I'm from.
These experiences now make me wonder one thing. Why are people here so misconceited about Asians here? Maybe I'm just on the bad end of the stick but more than one experience with this kind of stuff is making me believe that there is something wrong here. In my own personal opinion, I think it's because people are curious at the same time they are not as educated as they think they are about our cultures. So far, most people here only believe that there are only Chinese and Japanese and every other ethnicities fall into some sub-category of Chinese and Japanese. It makes me wonder why they haven't realized that there are more than just two ethnicities and there is in fact a large number of different ethnicities each with their own unique language and culture. Perhaps I can blame it on the lack of diversity which is very evident in some parts of town.
In the end, I still don't know why I am so heavily stereotyped but hopefully at the end of the trip I'll learn something about that.
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