Have you ever had people think you’re a foreigner?

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zenaspie
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09 Apr 2020, 9:42 pm

I went to a bus station and this bus driver tried to explain me something about a public transportation strike that was happening at the moment and I didn’t understand it and I didn’t ask questions about it either so he thought I was a foreign girl and just didn’t understand our language. I played along and it was funny lmfao. He was speaking English to me (we’re Greek)
I had this happen in shops too where I didn’t speak much when they asked me what food I’d like and due to the fact that I’m from an area where tourism is flowing like crazy, they thought I wasn’t native and proceeded to talk to me in English. They were surprised and stared weirdly when I replied in our mother tongue.



Edna3362
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09 Apr 2020, 10:09 pm

Spent most of my mid to late childhood with people who all assumed that I was raised abroad. Mainly because of speaking English too often, differing preferences and somewhat how I 'carry' myself apparently.

And partially spent varying times of my present with people assuming that I came from simply elsewhere than wherever I've been my whole life. Mainly because of my apparent cluelessness, odd speech and accent, different preferences...


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Dear_one
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10 Apr 2020, 11:09 am

No, but they often think I've been to university.



dragonsanddemons
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10 Apr 2020, 12:48 pm

To the best of my knowledge, people have not thought I was foreign. Instead, I seem to come off as having an intellectual disability (which I don't).


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Wolfram87
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10 Apr 2020, 12:51 pm

I had a bunch of American exchange students think I was Scottish whilst talking to me and a bunch of other native Swedes.


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10 Apr 2020, 11:36 pm

I was asked if I was Scottish at the age of 10 when my family was visiting my grandma. Almost a year later, I was telling a boy on my bus that a couple of boys in my regular class were making fun of my speech because I had a deep voice. He asked me, "Are you German?" I was also taunted all through elementary school while waiting for the bus home with all the kids singing to the tune of 'Ring Around the Rosie', 'Shelby is a Cockney'.


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renaeden
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11 Apr 2020, 1:31 am

I have been questioned as to whether or not I'm English over the phone, but in real life I sound as Aussie as they come.



envirozentinel
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11 Apr 2020, 2:14 am

Quite a few people have thought I'm from England or elsewhere, or an immigrant, yet I'm at least fifth-generation South African.


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11 Apr 2020, 2:19 am

I have been asked where I am from.


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11 Apr 2020, 5:48 am

I have often been asked where I'm from

I think that its more to do with my accent than ASD. Its a mixture of northern and southern dialects - I was born and raised in the far North of the UK and have lived in the South near London for the past 42 years. Interestingly, when I was a child people thought that I came from somewhere else as I didnt speak with a strong local dialect. This was frowned on at home and I was corrected when I slipped into this - then and now I find some of the local colloquialisms strange and funny. My vowels remain flat.


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Autistic_fireman
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11 Apr 2020, 7:08 am

I've had a lot of people ask me where I am from. Sometimes they think I have some kind of accent. People often seem surprised when I tell them I'm 8th generation Australian.

I think it's probably because you seem different somehow but they can't put their finger on it. I think this is mostly the result of molding ourselves and our behaviors intellectually, rather than organically through 'monkey-see monkey-do'.


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DemophobicKlingon
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11 Apr 2020, 7:10 am

It's been rare for me.

There is the fact that I take time to piece my words together.

At my first job, a customer asked for help. It took me a little while to get my words out with my selective mutism, then she said

"Oh, you don't speak English?" and walked away. :/


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CarlM
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11 Apr 2020, 7:23 am

I was working in korea once and the one the the koreans asked me what my native country was since he found me more difficult to understand than other americans. And I don't think it was just my NYese that he was noticing :lol:.


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11 Apr 2020, 10:02 am

The only time someone thought I was a foreigner was when someone mistakenly thought I was a British exchange student after a school play in which I put on a British accent for my character.


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11 Apr 2020, 10:11 am

Everyone in the world is a foreigner, because everyone lives in a foreign country. It's a matter of perspective.

Every person and every place is "ethnic" too.


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11 Apr 2020, 11:50 am

I have had many local people thinking that I was English. It could be because I speak slower and I think my voice does not go up and down in note as much as other peoples do? But I am not quite sure. Somehow local people assume I am English because I sound a little different to how they sound. I don't know...

An elderly lady who could not hear much would ask "Where are yo from?" Every time I would say my village name she would say "I don't know you" and put the phone down on me. Yet if I said I was from the next village along she would say "Oh I will get Mark..." (My friend who I had been phoning). I told her many times where I lived and she still would repeat the proceedure if I tried to phone.

Phoning.... I prefer not to phone as I have to think quick. I like to talk and think at my thinking pace. I am a deep thinker. :)