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What Nationalities have you been mistaken for?


Kejan

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I'm in China at the moment and if a Chinese person who can speak some English asks me where I'm from, I'll usually start off by saying Scotland. But I've lost count of the number of times they have looked confused so I have just saved the hassle and said England instead, which they always know. Some folk just refer to my home as England, and I don't bother correcting them. I'm a bad Scot.

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  • 2 weeks later...
On 3/14/2019 at 14:13, MixuFixit said:

Polish - Poles who ask me if I'm Polish.

Czech - Poles after I've said no to the above.

French - By a French person which I don't understand, I don't look remotely French.

That's about it.

Edit: Danish once too.

 

What exactly does a French person look like these days? 

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Twice in Germany I have been mistaken for being Dutch. 

In Spain I was almost mistaken for being French. I say almost. Attempting to buy tickets for a CF Elche match I decided to impress the locals by doing this in their own language. At which point, for reasons I cannot fathom, I began speaking in appalling French. 

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  • 3 weeks later...

Imagine mostly for folk abroad, but anyone ever got the Ireland/Scotland mix up regularly by people who even know you?

I don't announce that I am Scottish or go about in a kilt/SAOR ALBA etc type gear, but often strangers have mistaken me for being Irish ; but  its people I have worked/know with who are aware that I am Scottish have often said Ireland in place of Scotland. Nicola Sturgeon on the news a few months back was 'the President of Ireland' and was asked last week about when I'm going back home to Ireland in the summer,  'You from near to Dublin?' and another said just after the original Brexit vote - I guess you are lucking out having a Scottish passport and this won't affect you. 

I don't mind it TBH, and rather that than being mistaken for English.

 

Edited by Kejan
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9 hours ago, Kejan said:

Imagine mostly for folk abroad, but anyone ever got the Ireland/Scotland mix up regularly by people who even know you?

I don't announce that I am Scottish or go about in a kilt/SAOR ALBA etc type gear, but often strangers have mistaken me for being Irish ; but  its people I have worked/know with who are aware that I am Scottish have often said Ireland in place of Scotland. Nicola Sturgeon on the news a few months back was 'the President of Ireland' and was asked last week about when I'm going back home to Ireland in the summer,  'You from near to Dublin?' and another said just after the original Brexit vote - I guess you are lucking out having a Scottish passport and this won't affect you. 

I don't mind it TBH, and rather that than being mistaken for English.

 

I worked in the same company as a guy whom I spoke with at least once/twice a week - still don't know to this day if he was Irish or Scottish.  As time passed it became more awkward to ask him.  

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There's a guy I met once from near Oban I believe. No Irish ancestry, never been there and has no footballing bias to put it on, so to speak.

Talk for all the world like he was from Ireland. Was bizarre, he even acknowledges this to people that point it out.

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The wife and I were eating at a restaurant in Pennsylvania and I noticed one of the waiters  hovering nearby. Finally he came over and said, (in English)

 

"Sorry, I couldn't help overhearing you talking, where about in France are you from?"

We told him we were Scottish and he replied;

"Oh. I'm studying French at college. Whereabouts in France is Scotland?"

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Was listening to a podcast the other week when the regular Irish contributor mentioned the awful "top o' the marnin', begorrah, where's me Lucky Charms?" accents that a lot of Irish characters end up with in films/TV/video games, so the other (non-Irish) contributors all started doing their own terrible imitations. He waited for them to finish and pointed out that they were all doing dreadful Scottish accents.

Between that and the number of folk on here who've been mistaken for Irish...is it possible that Irish and Scots accents are pretty indistinguishable to outsiders? I never would have thought it, but maybe when you're too close to something...

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In 1993, whilst living in Germany and working in a hotel bar, a female American customer said to me “ For a German, your English is fantastic.”
We’ve been married since 1996. [emoji7]
However, every time we go to visit her family in Ohio, I am invariably asked if I am French.
One particularly dense Yank, upon being told I was from Scotland, then says “Is that part of France ?”
[emoji35]

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In 1993, whilst living in Germany and working in a hotel bar, a female American customer said to me “ For a German, your English is fantastic.”

We’ve been married since 1996. [emoji7]

However, every time we go to visit her family in Ohio, I am invariably asked if I am French.

One particularly dense Yank, upon being told I was from Scotland, then says “Is that part of France ?”

[emoji35]

Should have booted him/her in le pie.

 

Edited for "gender equality"

 

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