To not answer work colleague’s question?

Sorry completely disagree, being under 30 is no excuse for being a racist.
I've had very elderly white people tell me I speak good English and I cheerfully say ' that's good because I've lived here 40 years' ( confusing for the elder as that's my age) them i can understand as there no malice intended but this situation in a work place is awful.

Perfect answer OP.
His question was rude.
None of his business what your background is.

People are just so rude and assuming. I together with my DH family were staying at a holiday entsl Mill in Bath. 3rd day in a women came into the garden and asked my SIL if it was her car parked in the area for the Mill she said yes and was promptly told to move it so this women could park there as she needed to do the gardening. My SIL came to me and explained what had happened. When I spoke to the gardener she said she assumed we were the cleaners. My SIL is Indonesian in fact an Indonesian Princess. I was furious that she had been stereotyped. I phoned the owned and the gardener left. Where do these prople live - in caves. My SIL runs a multi million $ company in US. I would defo make a record of any comments he makes in future and report his behaviour as it is totally unacceptable.

Sounds like a good comeback. If someone said that to me I’d feel insulted not that there’s anything wrong with being a cleaner but just to make the assumption when you come from a certain background is just plain rude.

Some people just don’t know how to behave in public 🥴

You gave a perfect answer, don't give this rude xenophobic idiot another thought.

You did not come across as rude, op

He did

If he asks again give it to him op, really do

oh yuck! At least he’s shown you who he is from the very start and you don’t have to waste any time on him.
im sure others will realise what he is soon enough too.
sorry you had to deal with that.
hopefully one day hell make a comment like that to someone else and they deck him

These are examples of what are referred to as racist microaggressions

You weren’t being rude, he was! And racist.

That, is racism. You’re not being rude. Your colleague is being racist.

20 odd years ago, in my first job, I was asked which cricket team I would support if India and England were playing. I am British born, ethnically Indian. I said that I wasn’t interested in cricket, so neither. ‘But if you were…’. Questions and comments like these are not banter. They are judgemental and nobody should be trying to size my loyalties up. I was also asked if I could bring in home made samosa and if I was having an arranged marriage. I didn’t know how to make them, I was just out of uni and I had a boyfriend, but that’s not the point.

Let’s not be ageist. OP didn’t mention his age. It was nosy at best, racist at worst whatever their age.

Yeah, I think that british people so often don't seem to understnad the difference between polite and friendly attempts to get to know someone and offensive stereotypes which I'm sorry to say, I think is just laziness.
And yet you didn't take care to phrase this in such a way that isn't also actively stereotyping.

Yeah, I think that british people so often don't seem to understnad the difference between polite and friendly attempts to get to know someone and offensive stereotypes which I'm sorry to say, I think is just laziness. It's a bit like when men say, "oh, you can't say anythign to women these days so I just don't talk to the women in the office in case they take offense when I'm just trying to gto be friendly". Sorry, I think it's bollocks. We all know the difference between casual chit chat and inappropriate comments on a woman's clothing. There are 100000 things you can talk about with a woman if you're not sure that commenting on her appearance eis appropriate.

It's the same with meeting new people. In this case, a question about her professional background, left open-ended, would be completely fine, "How long have you been at the company? Where were you before" is perfectly normal. AN assumption that she must have been a cleaner because of her nationality is not. It's hard to see why this isn't obvious.

Similarly, I have an accesnt, someone asking me where I"m from is not offensive. A black person with an english accent might also not be offended, as long as when she says, "manchester" the response is, "nice. HOw long have you lived in London for?" rather than, "but where are you from originally?" Or a more neutral version might be, "did you grow up in [whatever town you're in at that moment]?"

It's not rocket science.

I don't

I think a hard stare would have sufficed

Did no-one else pull him up on his questioning?

Oh it’s a universal hesitation for me, I don’t ask anyone about their backgrounds until I know them quite well, British or otherwise. It isn’t a bad thing on balance: I’d rather be careful than accidentally make someone feel uncomfortable. Some Russian and African friends yesterday were laughing about how English people are too careful/hold back and it got me thinking, as I’m more careful than my parents would have been, but then society’s moved on and is better in many ways.

People do love to pigeon-hole those they encounter. And there was likely a fair bit of anti-Irish sentiment in the mix as well. Not at all pleasant for you to be treated like that @Intimacies 😕

I live in London too and still get this shit, usually from English people who work but don't live here. As it's a good indicator of of not wanting to be friends with them and I want to shut it down ASAP, I usually tell them I'm from a different country that people don't know much about e.g. Belgium. Not much to say about beer or chocolate 😂

Your reply was perfect and classy.

I don’t think that it’s necessarily inappropriate to ask about a colleague’s past work experience, in fact it can be really helpful to know if a new colleague previously worked for a rival, or a client, or if they have a particular skill that will benefit their new employer. But, unless your current job has anything at all to do with hygiene services (at a wild guess I’d say no..) asking someone if they started off in a minimum wage manual job, because that’s what everyone from that country does, is staggeringly rude and prejudiced.

Is your current role a graduate entry one?

You weren't rude they were

What a very strange observation and to voice it is even more strange. They aren't going to make themselves very popular are they?

This colleague wasn't just expressing an interest in OP's background. They made an offensive remark about immigrants from OP's country normally working as cleaners or delivery drivers and then had the cheek to ask OP if she had ever been a cleaner.

Your reply was NOT rude.

He then said: “Oh wow, that is interesting! Your English is very good. I know a lot of ppl from ‘country’ and the women always work in cleaning and the men in delivery. Have you started out as a cleaner too?
Eww eww eww... what a simpleton. If I was this guy's manager and had overheard, I'd have taken him aside and asked him to not refer to people using stereotypes as that's against our office culture, which is inclusive, respectful and embraces different cultures.

Your new colleague was completely out of order. This should have been picked up by the manager sitting at your table.