Does anyone else get asked if they’re foreign?

[Areyouforeign]

I’m english/Irish for generations.

Even if one great great grandparents were ‘foreign’ they’d be enough other English/Irish for me not to always be asked ‘where are you from?’.

Especially when people are drunk I’m guaranteed to be asked and then people like to have a conversation ‘I think she looks greek...’ ‘must be some Spanish in you somewhere’ ‘are you sure you don’t have a black grandparent?’ ‘She’s definitely Maltese’

Other family members get this, including aunts and uncles therefore it can’t be because someone had an affair.

I’m white with very slightly olively skin, dark curly hair and I get bored sunbathing.

Does anyone else get this all the time? I’m getting really bored of it and people think I’m ashamed of my ‘real’ heritage

Yeha I do. I’m Spanish/Irish heritage but uk born so I also get a lot of ‘you must have Spanish in you’ ‘you have a Mediterranean look’ mostly just smile and nod.
On the flip side I also get your don’t look Irish’ assuming everyone in Ireland is white as snow and has red hair, they’re probably right, but as most other folk know, Irish people come in lots of shapes and sizes, and they also marry Mediterranean people and create little brown babies!!!!!

I do. English/Scottish with a sprinkle of Irish

It’s the sprinkle that’s doing it isn’t it?

I sign my ethnicity as white British, do you op?

Usually Danish for some reason . I'm not sure what a typical Danish person looks like but I'd say bog standard northern European, same as me.

All the time

But then, im foreign

Yes, I had Irish grandparents on one side, and my mother had the 'Black Irish' appearance. So I am ever-so-slightly exotic looking. So people ask if I am foreign, especially when they find out I speak other languages. Someone even once said 'touch of the tarbrush' about me. A Chinese woman asked if I was part Chinese!

My DD gets that. She rolls her blue eyes, but some older people have a built in ancestry.123.com internal radar, as she is not 100% white and I'm amazed the number of older women who sniff that out here in Ireland. We vary a lot in colouring here now and there are so many people from all over the world now, but I guess people cannot bear to have their curiosity left unmet

All the time,I get asked if I'm from India,Itally,Greece,Egypt.

I'm a bit of a mixed bag that's an understatement I have very strong Gypsy routes going back a very very long way on my Dad's side and some German and then I have some Gypsy on my Mum's side along with Irish,French and Welsh.

Sadly I have experienced racism,a few times because of the Gypsy routes other times because people presume I have Indian in me.

I'm proud of my routes and I love the way I look and as far as I'm concerned the racists can fuck off

I don't mind people thinking I'm from somewhere else but I am perplexed when people argue with me and tell me I most be from one of those countries,if they're drunk when they insist that I don't know where I'm from they get this face if they're sober they get this face

@TheDarkPassenger

I have had when I’ve said I’d like to pick white British.

@poppym12 I’d quite like it if I always got the same country as they’re always so polarised. I’ve had every Mediterranean country, a few Latin America and Middle Eastern and more recently Eastern Europe. With the occasional half/quarter African.

The only pro is that sometimes I don’t get treated as a tourist if I keep my mouth closed.

Over here, having English ancestry is the explanation for being dark!

This thread is bonkers.

Basically white europeans saying they have experienced racism because of their exotic appearance which they attribute to being 1/4 Irish.

Ok, I'm going to get my coat and go now. Some things are just too strange.

I am occasionally asked 'where are you from?' Which really means 'where were you born?' My answer of London on both occasions has given confusion to a few people. Apparently I look Taiwanese and should own it proudly . I would if I were!

So strange that so many of us have experienced people telling us where we’re from! (Or not from!)

My partner is Romany descent and it’s very obvious. What’s odd is our baby was born blonde and white af. Such a mix of genes!

Definitely not saying I’ve been racially abused in any way! I don’t think anyone’s even mentioned racism?

GameofPhones

^Killer name, love it 😍

I get helpfully informed I'm foreign, have a foreign "twang," etc.

I think it is the same impulse that compels some people to inform shortarses that they are short.

It's immensely helpful and informative.

Yes, we look Italian in this family or Greek. I don’t know why, we are English with German ancestors.

I don't think it's racist, I find it passingly amusing. I'm white British, my first name is more common in Greece and I look like I could come from Southern Europe. When I went to the US people kept speaking to me in Spanish. In the country where I live now, my accent is so clearly not from round here that people skip the 'are you foreign' bit and go straight to 'where are you from?'.

Yanbu! I was born in Germany as we were a RAF family, moved to England when I was 1/2 . Moved many times to different RAF camps and d eventually coming home to northern England due to illness so many people thought I was foreign because I had a mixed accent. I'm an adult now and still get asked then they say oh you are German you can totally tell with that accent! Erm no I'm British darling

I get this, anything from Eastern European to Spanish (in summer as I tan easily).

@SalmonOfKnowledge

I think you’re getting the wrong end of the stick.

I’m not moaning that I’m suffering from racism - and due to my experience I never ask anyone of their heritage/ethnicity/‘where are you really from’.

It’s just annoying when I get comments:

‘Your gran must of played away’
‘Was you never taught Italian/Spanish/Romanian’
‘Don’t worry I won’t tell anyone else where you’re from’
‘You’re a bad Muslim for not going to the mosque’
‘But you really don’t look english’
‘But you’ve got a really english name’
whispers’but you look foreign’
‘I bet you don’t know your dad’
‘You look just like my friend from a/b/c/d/e’

And then when I tell people I’m 5/8 Irish (because people want to know detail) I get a lot of Irish stereotypes. It’s just getting tiring at having the same conversation numerous times a month which could be closed down if I was able to share ‘my true heritage’. But I do understand I’m extremely fortunate to not having to suffer racism and I’m sorry if I’ve caused any offence.

I get this too, always have. I used to find it incredibly annoying.
I'm quite obviously white, even though I do have slightly olive skin. I think it's the dark hair and eyes, people assume Spanish or Italian.
I get asked even more when I'm abroad.

I have zero 'foreign' blood - I've traced my family tree back hundreds of years and no trace of being anything other than English.

I get this a lot, although it’s not surprising, very dark curly hair, dark olive skin, very brown eyes.
Aside from my colouring my dad & I along with the rest of his family do look different too, it’s hard to explain but it’s also our facial features (dd’s history teacher took special care to speak to her before they covered the holocaust because she’d seen me & thought I was Jewish)
I have had nasty comments over the years ( got called a Pk a lot / often told to go back to my own country, that type of thing)
As a family we have a very strong look & I would love to know where it comes from

I'm olive skinned with dark eyes and dark hair, also have an Arabic name (just by chance). My paternal DGF was Irish but otherwise I'm English through and through.

I often get asked if I have Arabic descent... to the point that when I was a student working in a hotel, a couple I was serving complimented me on my English and asked how often I go home to see my family

The Spanish Armada sunk off the west coast of Ireland back in the 15th or 15th century and the survivors settled in Ireland and some of their Irish decendents do have a bit of a Spanish look about them.