(no subject)

[tree_and_leaf]

The most amusing bit of camp, incidentally, apart from filking songs to make them about ticks (the woods were rather full of the little blighters) was that the person making speeches at the opening ceremony got rather confused, and instead of mentioning a guest from Scotland, announced that they had a staff member from Sweden. Given that I am the proud possessor of a Fjellräven hat, as well as being audibly not German, I suppose it's not surprising that most of the kids (and some of the adults) leapt to the conclusion that I was Swedish, despite the fact that I am nearer short than tall, dark haired, and if I conform to any racial stereotype it's the Celtic, rather than the Scandinavian.†

Towards the end of the camp, one of the girls in the cafe team said to me 'You are from Scotland, aren't you? not Sweden?' I admitted this, and said that I thought the whole thing was quite amusing; for one thing, it made a change from being announced as being English.

'Oh' she said, in doubtful tones, as if this was somehow far less plausible than Swedish, 'I wouldn't have associated you with England. You don't seem very English.'

'Um... how do you mean?'

'Hochnäsig' (stuck up).

Because I try not to behave like a rabid nationalist, I did my best to persuade her that there are some quite approachable English people, really, but I had to stop laughing first.*


† Though having said that, I have once been told I look Polish, twice been asked if I am Jewish, and on two separate and utterly surreal occasions, mistaken for being Japanese, though on the first there were extenuating circumstances.

* It was more amusing than it might have been, given that I spent most of my childhood being suspected of being stuck-up by my classmates, largely, I think, because I talked funny and spent most of my time with my nose in a book.

Comments

[wellinghall.livejournal.com]

It was more amusing than it might have been, given that I spent most of my childhood being suspected of being stuck-up by my classmates, largely, I think, because I talked funny and spent most of my time with my nose in a book.

Oh, that rings a bell!

[parrot-knight.livejournal.com]

Same here!

[wuglet.livejournal.com]

While reading I had this very German feeling of Fremdschämen... Yay for stereotypes! People can be stupid. But I have to admit that I think it's pretty funny as well. ;)

In Germany I have been mistaken for being Greek (last name) and Russian (no idea). In Oxford our scout thought I was Swedish because of my forename, and it took nearly half a year to convince her otherwise...

[fpb.livejournal.com]

Scouts can be pretty opinionated.

[tree_and_leaf]

No need for 'fremdschämen' - unless it's qua people rather than qua German!

[parrot-knight.livejournal.com]

My tales of my extended family (which is still heavily influenced by the culture of Co. Durham colliery village life) have led a couple of people over the years to ask if I am sure that I am not Jewish. On another occasion I was asked whether I was Jewish by two ultra-orthodox Jews on a train in New Jersey, which is perhaps some sort of compliment.

[el-staplador.livejournal.com]

I was asked if I was Jewish in a bookshop in Hay-on-Wye. I've also been taken for Maltese. That was in Sicily. I'm not sure why in either case.

[helflaed.livejournal.com]

Come to think of it, I do remember the other half being well and truly checked out by the owner of a very orthodox jewish deli in Gateshead. He had the most marvellous way of finding out without asking directly "So what's your interest in Kosher food?"

Now whilst there was a lot of intermarriage between jews and gentiles in the towns, it didn't happen out in deepest rural Silesia/Pfaltz, so pretty unlikely.

[darkthirty.livejournal.com]

Nationalities or races I've been mistaken for

Greek (hair), Jewish (face), Mexican (skin) (the dealers I walk past to get where I work still sometimes say their product lines in Spanish to me as I pass), Gypsy (Indian), Irish (name). However, most people rightly tag me eventually as stuck up.

[tree_and_leaf]

That's quite a collection!

Join the club

[fpb.livejournal.com]

Heh. I always thought that my Italian accent would be pretty recognizable, but I have, in my life, been taken for Hungarian and - get this - Scandinavian. Yessir, fat, short, curly-black-haired, olive skinned, brown-eyed me: Scandinavian. And the guy wasn't taking the piss, either. And when I am in Italy, I am often taken for a Florentine - and I have been in Florence less than three days in my entire life.

[(Anonymous)]

I have been told I look 'norman' (dark brown hair, blue eyes), and in rural France I'm often taken for French (until I open my mouth).I'm not chic enough to be taken for a city french woman, I don't think.

I have also been told I look 'typically celtic', which I see less, to be honest.

[sacred-sarcasm.livejournal.com]

Sorry, that was me. (your fellow stalwart englishwoman)

[lareinenoire.livejournal.com]

I've been mistaken for Greek, Moroccan, Spanish, and varying flavours of the Middle East. The strangest time was in the airport in Houston, Texas, when the Transportation Safety Authority demanded to know if I was Lebanese. Very funny in retrospect; mildly terrifying at the time, seeing as they were holding onto my passport while they asked the question.

[caulkhead.livejournal.com]

I'm generally taken for Danish in North Germany and American in Southern - despite looking pretty non-descript English, I think. And once, for German, but that was in Russia.

[tree_and_leaf]

Eeek! That must have been scary. But then, contact with security always unnerves me...

[scionofgrace.livejournal.com]

Oh, that's just funny!

So they think the English are stuck up? Have they met Americans? (I say this as Yank)

I've been asked if I had Asian ancestry (must be the pale skin/dark hair combo), and my dad frequently gets mistaken for Jewish (dark curly hair, strong nose). On the other hand, a friend of mine, upon meeting me for the first time, correctly identified me as Mennonite. Granted, there really is something like a family resemblance among us!

[tree_and_leaf]

I think they would class the English as more snobbish than the Americans, though probably exepcting them to be arrogant in a different way.

On the other hand, a friend of mine, upon meeting me for the first time, correctly identified me as Mennonite. Granted, there really is something like a family resemblance among us!

In-group resemblances are interesting. There's a (German) East Prussian facial type, too, which persists two generations on, despite the fact that most of the refugees married people from the parts of Germany they ended up in.

[expectare.livejournal.com]

I've been mistaken for Japanese, too. Mainland Europeans need to get out more often, it seems?

[tree_and_leaf]

Nah, the people who mistook me for Japanese were all British, so I think it's a more widespread problem. It happens a lot to a male friend of mine, too, despitethe fact that he has curly hair and is well over six foot. He does, however, have quite small eyes, as do I - I don't know if that has anything to do with it, although we do both have normal European lids without whatever the technical term for that fold is....

[rivrea.livejournal.com]

Unless you have turned into a clone of Anita Ekberg's lately, I find this anecdote wildly amusing. And now I'm stuck with a mental image of you wearing mink and splashing through the Fontana di Trevi.

[tree_and_leaf]

Didn't I mention that I've dyed my hair and had major surgery? ;)

Sadly...

[wemyss.livejournal.com]

... I am taken as being Jewish only when I defend Israel in conversation. The increasingly common idea that only Jews do so is disheartening.

My hair tends to change colour a bit depending upon season and weather and sun. When it's a trifle to the reddish side, I am occasionally, if briefly, taken as being Irish. When it truly goes to blond, I am on occasion taken, or have been, for, at various times, and generally at a distance, as being an Austrian, a Hungarian (hmm; presumably Diarchy-era), a Pole, a German, a Dane, or indeed a Russian. German and Austrian have been the most common. It's the being a pink chap with blue-grey eyes and fair hair, of course, particularly as the whiskers are butter-yellow. And naturally one is often taken as being some other Commonwealth or Anglosphere sort, including being presumed American.

And then one opens one's mouth....

Re: Sadly...

[tree_and_leaf]

I suppose most people assume that fair-haired people aren't Jewish, though this is obviously dodgy... But generally the way people speak is more reliable (though I have a good friend, born in Nuremberg, who is regularly asked what part of North Germany she comes from. But then her mother is an East Prussian refugee, and the friend's looks and even her speech reflect this).

I have just realised that I don't actually have a steretypical image of a Pole, other than a general air of moustaches and lugubrious Marian piety.

[schreibergasse.livejournal.com]

I've been mistaken for Australian, New Zealander, and South African, though that's just the product of having an East Coast accent that morphs toward some mixture of Oxbridge and Cambridgeshire when I'm in England.

Anyway, what was this event?

[tree_and_leaf]

Scout county camp (for Baden Scouts and assorted guests, but in the Rhineland). It was great fun!

I'm mildly baffled as to how an accent could be mistaken for both South African and New Zealand, but there you go...