This isn’t the first time this has happened to me… in fact it happens A LOT. I’ve had random strangers in stores trying to guess my ethnicity (Chinese, Asian, Metis, Aboriginal, Hawaiian, French??). I’ve had good friends convinced that I must be Asian (I’ve also had good friends not see the Asian side in me at all). But I digress.
ANYWHO, I was substitute teaching in a grade 3 class and the class had just come in for the day. This was the very first time any of them had seen me (to my recollection) and right away one young girl approached me to ask me a very important question.
“are you…. Were you… were you born… were you born…”
At this point I’m assuming she is going to ask if I was born in Winnipeg and she is just struggling on the word Winnipeg
So she continues “were you born in China”
Wait, what.
This hasn’t happened to me in the school setting for a number of years now… in fact not since an excited Asian girl blurted out before I had time to say anything.
Anyways, I told her I wasn’t and asked her if I looked like I had been. She gave me a confused look and then told me I did look like I should have been born in China… I’m sure she wasn’t satisfied with my reply of not being born in China but I left it at that and it wasn’t brought up again.
My last name can also be a confusing concept for children to grasp. Click here for that story.
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