Ever get mistaken for a foreigner in your own country?

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I did once. A Pakistani guy at a convenience store, I went in to pay for my gas, and buy an energy drink, and we started talking (tip, Pakistanis and Indians seem love to talk will almost always be your friend here in America, if you just talk to them for a few minutes, at least in my experience) and then he was like "Where are you from?" I was like "Oh, uh, Middletown, right next to Cromwell next to here" then he was like "No no, where were you born?" to which I replied "Oh, here." Then he said "What about your parents, where did they come from, what countries?" and I told him my dad is Polish and Italian, and my mom is British, but I just thought that he was asking their nationalities, because almost everyone in America is 3-4rd generation at the very least from somewhere else, but later I realized he was asking what country my parents literally came and traveled from.

When I've consulted various people about this, they said because my mannerisms are very different from other people 20 years old like me (I basically talk exactly how I'm typing right now) and I'm usually pretty respectful to adults, that could be why he thought I was a foreigner.

Still, really? I don't even seem American? What? Maybe not Wrong Planet but wrong country?

So I guess what I'm asking, have you ever been mistaken as a foreigner in a similar way as what happened there?

Some people think I am from Australia.

Not quite in answer to the question, but I was pulled into the thread by "foreigner in your own country".

I've felt increasing a foreigner in my own country as the years roll by and the things change, the people change and the culture and language changes. I don't feel as though I belong in it any more.

But no, never been mistaken for being from somewhere else.

I get asked that all the time.

Some tell me that I speak like a robot. Some tell me that I speak like a foreigner. A girl even said, "I can't pinpoint your accent, but do you have Indian blood?"

I was asked if German isn't my first language a couple of times.

I get asked what part of England I'm from.

Ha, yes. I'm Australian but because I'm pale and have a speech impediment that affects my annunciation I'm told I sound like an eastender.

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No I never have.

Yes, I speak good English without a drawl.

This has happened to me during my whole adult life, whether I'm in the U.S. or overseas. I've been mistaken for other nationalities and even ethnicities, based on behavior and appearance, I guess. Since I love to eat at Indian and Pakistani restaurants, I've also entered into conversations with people who almost seem like your new best friend. They often try to peg me and ask about family, saying that I don't seem typically American.

Then there's the age issue. I've stumped a lot of people on that over the years, and I'm a lot older than 20. Between that and their other perceptions, many people don't know how to take me.

Yeah, cause of the way I stop and think in the middle of a sentence. Must appear to them like I'm searching for a word in a language I'm unfamiliar with cause I've been asked.

I recently spent 3 weeks intensively with the same group of people. It was an international group, in an English speaking country. I am a native English speaker.

At the end of the 3 weeks, people were still coming up to me and asking what language I spoke - I know I'm quiet, but I had been speaking as much as I could but it seemed like they thought that English was not my first language.

Interestingly when I spent 3 months abroad, even though I spoke the language appallingly, people there seemed to think I was a native of that country.

I don't get it.

I wouldn't surprise me in the future, when my country is completely invaded and taken over by immigrants (which it will be, shortly), if I became the foreigner.

I'm neurotypical, and I have been mistaken for a foriegner before. Somebody in the bus stop asked if I were Polish. I said no. Don't know where he got that from, since Polish people don't look any different from the British. And I wasn't talking to anybody either, so he didn't mistake an accent for anything.

Hev pessed for Roshan city zen on meny okay shunz vith chust chenj in eksent. Ez goot, da?



Around the Los Angeles area, it's easy to pass for another nationality with very little effort. Unfortunately, it's just as easy to become "outted" by a real person of that nationality, as well.