Friday, May 11, 2007

mistakenly mistook

I don't know whether it's ignorance, compliment, insult, mistake, unknowledgable, inexperienced, or what-have-you, but I have been mistook so many times when it comes to my nationality or my roots.

I was thought:
A Padang by a Javanese (and she was pretty damn sure of it)
A Javanese by some Javanese
A Pinoy by a group of Pinoys
A Thai by a German
A Columbian by two different Columbians on two different occurences
A Columbian by a Spaniard
A Latino by two different Germans on two different occurences
A Japanese by a German
An Arab descendant by a Canadian
An Arab descendant by an Australian
An Indian by a Paki

The culmination of this all is yesterday, when the new Brazilian instructor's class I joined was wrapping up, then I gave him a high-five goodbye, and said "Thanks" in Portuguese, he looked at me puzzled and was stuttering, "Are you Brazilian?"

He didn't know that he just gave me the best question-but-I-took-it-as-a-compliment ever.

I kinda calculated that it was because of my beachy aura. Eyes and ears open, guys. BEACHY. Not bitchy.

And no, it doesn't have anything to do with any waxing-related thoughts.

4 comments:

Geget said...

wah.. harus tuh buddy2 dgn instructor.. siapa tau ada vacancy.. heuuehue..

Bie said...

I did buddy2 with him. After the class I helped him arranged his iTunes playlist, and gave him some trick-of-the-trades about computer.

You know, ones we talked about in that restaurant in that mall with that über-cool (literally) ice rink.

Anonymous said...

ah yes, the perks of having a so-called 'exotic' face. i was mistaken as a brazilian once too...

... and too much people guessed me as a filipina along orchard road.

hngghh.

Bie said...

I think, miund, we are easily mistaken for a Pinoy because we do look very similar. Gesture and vocal wise.

I often thought a Pinoy is Indonesian as well, judging on how they talk. Their voices and intonations are just eerily similar to ours.