But Where Are You FROM?

Last week was midterm week (already), so we took a short blog break. However, as week 10 now comes to a close, I’m back. This week, we discussed intercultural communication. There was one video that I found particularly interesting, so I thought I would share some of my thoughts.

The video was about stereotypes and what it’s like when they come up in conversations. I’ll recap the

video, but I’ll also link it here. Basically, a White man starts up a conversation with an Asian woman and is quick to go through an array of questions. First, he asks her where she's from, since her "English is perfect." Her witty reply is that she's from San Diego. That answer doesn't satisfy him, so he decides to re-ask the question by breaking it down and emphasizing the "from". She answers by saying, "Orange County." It continues on from there, with the answer still not being what the man is looking for. The woman finally states that her great-grandma was from Seoul, meaning that she's Korean. To that, the man is not surprised, as he "knew it." The rest of the video consists of the man doing stereotypical Asian bowing, talking about Asian food, etc. Towards the end of the video, the woman turns it around by asking him where he's from. She then proceeds to act out scenarios that are associated with England- utterly confusing him and leading him to state that she's weird.

I found myself laughing because I felt like I was watching interactions from my life. Just like in the video, people have come up to me and asked where I'm from and I've been asked about Asian food. One time a person even came up to me in a store to tell me that he was learning how to speak Chinese. I had to just politely laugh and say that that was neat, but also inform him that I neither spoke Chinese nor am I Chinese.

Whenever I'm in one of those situations, I don’t necessarily feel offended. It’s more a feeling of awkwardness or embarrassment. I know that nine times out of ten, the person talking to me is not trying to be rude. (The one time out of ten is when I've gotten catcalled by people saying hello to me in Chinese, as they pass me on the street. Those times are not cool.) Some people are genuinely curious in learning about or wanting to share their interest in other cultures. It just becomes awkward for me because I don't feel that I'm the best person to represent another culture. It's not that I don't want to be connected to Asian culture, it's just that it's not what I've grown up with. I guess I mostly feel awkward because it makes me think about how there are so many other things that people would not know about me, just by looking at me- things that I feel relate more to who I am.

By learning about intercultural communication, I think lessons can be taken away no matter what culture you are and if your culture is a dominant or minority group. My hope is that I don't get trapped in stereotypes that people see me with. I hope that I can remind myself that most people are just curious, not bad-intentioned. And I hope that I can become more educated about other cultures. Watching the video made me realize that hey, I'm not the only one who has these experiences, so that was nice to see.