Up until I started working, I didn’t really encounter that question. When I did start working, people started asking me that question.
Them: Where are you from?
Me: Canada.
Them: Where are your grandparents from?
Me: Canada.
Them: Ok, where are your great grandparents from?
Me: Canada.
It’s irritating sometimes. I just want to exist, do my job and go home, like anyone else. Once is ok, twice is odd, three times is weird, and the fourth time is a pattern.
The only accent that I might have would probably be from Newfoundland, Canada, as I grew up with a lot of people from there. I also talk too fast sometimes.
Have you had similar experiences, and if so, how did you handle it? Can fast speech patterns cause this? Why do random people care so much?
Sounds like the correct answer to the question is Newfoundland, if it isn’t the accent it is probably some regional colloquialisms.
When someone asks me where I am from I normally say the city / province. I would never answer Canada while I was in Canada having the conversation.
Exactly, that’s just a weird non social answer
Also some Newfies I’ve met have an odd mix of Irish/Scottish/Canadian accent that really threw me the first time I heard it.
I’m not from Canada (but within 1/2 day drive or less my whole life), but I think if the first answer I got was Canada, the next question I might ask would be what part/province?
Asking where you are from is pretty normal conversation, especially if you have a noticeable accent. Asking where your parents/grandparents/etc are from is less common. Are you by chance not-white? Sometimes these sorts of questions have a race element to them
Yeah, asking where someone’s from is completely normal but asking where their parents/family is from automatically sets off some racism red flags
Asking where someone’s from is already racist. As white, no one ask me where I am from, or only in late conversation for specific reason. My non-white wife get this question every single time she met a new person.
I think I look pretty white, tbh
You say you look “pretty” white, that’s like how “not really” isn’t a “no”.
Well you either look or sound funny/different. I’d say since you get asked about grandparents etc it’s not sound, so you don’t look local Canadian.
ok, but are you? what’s your ethnicity? Just wondering.
I don’t make a big deal about it.It’s just a small talk question like any other. I just answer that i’m half canadian, half tunisian. I was born in Canada but at 2 years old i lived in tunisia till 18 and went back to Canada
I’ve watched a lot of Canadian TV and worked with a lot of Canadians and the Newfy accent is pretty distinct, even in Canada. If you’ve just got a touch of it you might sound vaguely Irish or Scottish. That would explain why people are asking where you’re from.
I was actually in a similar situation where I wasn’t too good with my native tongue so people would constantly ask where I’m from. It’s not malicious, people just assume you’re not from here if your accent is different.
I did grow up speaking it, I’m just better with my 2nd language.
Are you still in Canada. If you’re in America it’s probably because people are looking for something to hate you for.
Way to generalize, dumbass.
Thanks.
“Why do you ask?”
…
“Why do you feel entitled to an answer?”
…
They’ll figure it out.
Random people care because they were taught to care. Scared people see anyone who looks different as a threat. It starts there.
Thank you, I might try that if it comes up again
Good luck, truly. I can only imagine how awkward it feels.
I have a long time friend who complains about this kind of behavior. Friend is a Creek Indian living in the Muskogee Creek Nation in Oklahoma. That’s about as native-born and indigenous as you can get.
Unfortunately, her skin is somewhat less than lily-white, and that just seems to bring out the dumbasses.
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I would say Canada because I’m multiple generations deep and it feels the most accurate.
The follow up question could have been “where in Canada”, but it decidedly wasn’t
I think they want to know why they ask at all?
Because it is a standard getting to know you question in offices?
It’s more uncommon not to be asked that question at some point.
I spent a lot of time working with vendors, it was a standard small talk question while waiting for meetings to start excreta…
I get asked this a lot, because my accent is dissimilar from the area I live now. I think if people were more familiar with the area I’m from, they’d ask where my parents are from because my accent and terms are a weird mix of the two places.
What kind of job?
People ask me where I’m from a lot because they can’t place my accent, but I don’t think it’s different at work than elsewhere.
I worked a phone line for awhile and people asked where I was from sometimes, but not the whole grandparents spiel.
Oh my goodness. I am pretty much garden variety white, fair skin, blue eyes, dark hair, but mom’s dad was half native American or Mexican (such a brutal upbringing he never talked about them so she didn’t know for sure beyond “Oklahoma”), she looked more native in features, I got some of that and what I got asked down here when young is “what are you?”
It may be your accent but maybe it’s your looks. I think just responding, “Canada, what about you?” is correct.
As to why people care, I don’t rightly know. Maybe they think you might like to talk about it, or like to put people in boxes or don’t know you and are trying awkwardly to make small talk.
I have a classic NZ voice as well as a tan and get asked this often because I’m in the most Caucasian place outside of Europe (I’ll let you guess). Half the time they don’t even assume where I’m from because they don’t have enough education about the world to hold any stereotypes about me (which makes them draw a blank about countries), which ironically gives me the freedom to respond however I want.
A lack of education on a certain accent and/or look might also trigger honest curiosity in people, as opposed to racism. But I guess the way people ask you background questions reveal their agenda.
Yes and no. They have a highly exclusive mindset, insisting people with their roots here going generations back are priority number one and newcomers like me are priority number two, but no, they’re not outright racist or hostile or anything, just by far not welcoming. Though that itself isn’t the best thing in the world. Last year was a huge year for natural disasters and they only worried about me after I had survived, not while I was trying to survive, perhaps because to them I’m a stock human who “asked for the life”.
because I’m in the most Caucasian place outside of Europe (I’ll let you guess)
🤔
Israel?
No, thankfully. I thought the boundaries of Europe extended further East than Israel.
They’re in Europe though.
This is often a proxy for a different question.
And that question is “why isn’t your skin the same colour as mine?”
Well, if he’s from Canada (as I am, no hate!), the answer is “We get like 4 hours of sunlight per day here.” I wear shades to block the glare of my own reflection in the snow.
I’ll explain his joke for him.
The comments he’s replying to suggest that racism is the answer, but the poster who made this joke has more relevant information than those who assume racism immediately: OP is white as fuck. Since OP is white as fuck, and the comments were suggesting that due to racism those horrid whites just want to “other” the “other white guy” by pointing out that his “skin color is different,” but seeing as they’re both white, the “skin color difference” is implied to come from going outside and getting a tan. And thus the crux of the joke, Newfoundland gets less sun so the people there are more pale than say, white people in Miami.
Or she! I don’t know.
It’s also a form of othering. You are different and they are establishing why
I never know how to answer this. I grew up till middle school in Canada and the rest of my school in India. I rarely get dentist with many Indian traditions, but I also didn’t spend enough time in Canada to be a “real” Canadian.
I just flip a coin in my head and answer each time. And then get the follow-up asking where my parents are from. Just ask my race, you coward.
What IS a real Canadian, though? I know some immigrants who love this country much more than some of the people who were born here.
Many of us are also only here from our ancestors immigrating. How far down the line does one have to be to be a real Canadian? You can’t judge that by DNA, either.
