# being able to tell where people are from



## Musical Chairs

I have a feeling this has been talked about before, but I did a Google search and I didn't find anything.

Especially among Asian countries, someone from one country can tell if an other Asian person is "one of their kind" or from somewhere else. For example, some people look "very Japanese" or "very Korean" or "very Chinese" to me and I can't explain how I know where they're from just by looking at them when they haven't said a word. It's really strange. I think with Japanese people, I can tell because they walk a certain way, have the same hair, dress a certain way, and their faces look a certain way too. I can't always tell where someone is from, but there's just a distinct look for certain countries that I can't explain.

I wondered if it happens all over the world. Can Italian people tell someone is Greek just by looking at them? Can people from Puerto Rico tell if someone is from Mexico? Can African tribes tell each other apart? What makes people who look similar to some people, different to others? Do you think this affects any (sub)conscious judgments people make?

Edit: In the US, I can't tell between a person from Mississippi and a person from New York.


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## Sindri

I think that you can always tell at least if that person is a foreigner or not after being sometime in a country.


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## Musical Chairs

Not in the US, if they haven't spoken a word. I think it's because there are so many different kinds of people in the US.


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## ireney

Moderator's note: Keep it as less personal as possible. Give us some cultural insight please.


I have still to meet any Greek that will claim he or she can do so. In fact it is considered bad manners to make such an assumption but I think we should put that down to cultural differences. The Italian - Greek pair is a bit funny since we say that we and the Italians are "una fatsa una ratsa" (sp?) (one face one race/people). The same can be said about Greeks and pretty much any country in the Balkans (Turkey included of course) so things are getting a bit complicated in the region.
We're not all that good with being able to tell where people from countries further away from Greece are either.
I for instance can't tell who is from where just by looking at them. Sure, if one is too dark or too "light" it's possible that he or she is not from Greece. Since however I know of Greeks with skin and hair texture of both ends of the spectrum as it were I can't judge by that. And since  I've never been able to pinpoint a certain "ethnic" characteristic of Greeks and, in fact, I don't believe there is one the answer is no, personally I can't tell where one is from nor will I ever try to.


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## cuchuflete

I can understand how people can make generally accurate assumptions about nationals of countries with homogeneous populations.  They will be right much of the time, because of shared physical attributes and
mannerisms.

This doesn't work at all in the U.S., because of the broad mix of population by place and tribe of origin, if not of the current residents, then of their ancestors.  Shared mannerisms may be acquired over a generation or two,
but physical appearances are so diverse that a guess is likely to be wrong.

What does the 'average' or 'typical' U.S. or Canadian citizen look like?  Whatever you may say, it will be incorrect for tens of millions of Canadians and Americans.  There are regional clusters of people with similar
national/ethnic/tribal backgrounds, but even in those places you will find too many exceptions to make generalizations useful.


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## tvdxer

It's more or less impossible to distinguish between an American, Canadian, and European, because most Americans and Canadians are a mix of European ancestries, and the three dress quite similarly.  

However, there does seem to be a certain "look" associated with people of Italian ancestry, which is sometimes very strong.  This might be mistaken for Hispanic, Greek, or even Russian, however.  A similar thing exists with Scandinavian ethnicities, which are the most common (or at least very common) around here. 

Of course, with immigrants it's much easier.  I can tell if somebody is likely Indian/Pakistani, or if they're from Eastern Asia or Africa, etc.


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## Musical Chairs

I don't think Asian people try to tell each other apart all the time, but they can. Sometimes they will make a conscious effort to guess, and afterwards ask you to see if they were right. I have no doubt that people make judgments sometimes, even if they'd never admit it.

Here in the US (and in Asia too, I think), many Asian people don't like it if you bunch them all together and call them "Chinese." I have actually met a few Caucasian (white) people who could tell apart different Asian nationalities, but most of them can't and refer to all Asians as "Chinese."

For me, it's harder to tell Caucasian people apart but I think there's a distinct Russian or Eastern European look, especially in areas like Azerbaijan. I couldn't tell a British person and a French person apart, though.


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## Amityville

I can often tell English from French - the English are generally pinker, plumper, and the women's hair is less tidy. There are two recognisably French body-shapes, a thin and a stocky version but hard to describe (to myself, I call them 'shallow-profile' and 'Greek god' (even the women) and French women of a certain age have tendency to short reddish hair and younger French women to have all hair off the face. Any closer contact than that and personality/language starts to interfere with the generalisations !


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## mirx

I can tell a latinamerican, but I wouldn't know exactly where they were from.

As cuchuflete said, its much easier to identify them once you´ve seen how they behave or dress. In this way I can usually tell an American, Spanish, and French.

But to tell someone's origin just for their looks is too risky a thing, in this culturally globalized world anyone can be from anywhere, more so in América where all the countries where settled by immigrants and from different ethnicities.

We are not a breed but a mix of breeds, so we have a little of English, a little of German, Italian, Spanish, natives, and much more. Of course some of us to a larger extent than others.


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## panjabigator

I am pretty good with determining South Asian descent.  Some regions of India have distinct physical features which I use to generalize someones origin.  I am not always right but more times than not I am on the money.  Also, if I learn the name, I can almost always pinpoint location, religion, language, and caste.  But I presume this thread is limited only to physical appearance.


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## DearPrudence

Amityville said:


> I can often tell English from French - the English are generally pinker, plumper, and the women's hair is less tidy.


Well I find it not to hard too recognise an English female teenager. Unlike you I would say they all have the same type of clothes & hairstyle: very very straight (I even saw one girl iron it!). And they are even more recognisable in winter as even if it's -10°C, they will wear a mini-skirt & hairy boots (hairy boots in summer as well ) (that was just to bring up that thread)
There is also something recognizable about English young men but I couldn't explain exactly what  And for older men, the colour of skin (very pink/reddish for too much unprotected exposition to the sun during a holiday on the beach ) & tatoos are quite a giveaway 
Anyway, don't worry, I'm leaving at once, being afraid of falling into clichés


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## Outsider

It's often easy to tell an eastern European from a southern European. And not just because they tend to have lighter skin tone, hair and eyes. They sometimes have markedly different facial features, too.

I doubt that I would be able to tell a Spaniard or an Italian from a Portuguese just based on looks, but I won't say anything about Greeks, because I have noticed that some Turks have a distinctly different look, and Greece is right next door to them.

However, I think that most of the time it's not just about physical appearance. There is also, as you note, the way that people dress, behave, etc.

And even the perceived physical differences may be part illusion. We only notice the foreigners who do look different from us; no one keeps a record of the ones who don't!


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## ireney

Outsider said:


> I doubt that I would be able to tell a Spaniard or an Italian from a Portuguese just based on looks, but I won't say anything about Greeks, because I have noticed that some Turks have a distinctly different look, and Greece is right next door to them.





> And even the perceived physical differences may be part illusion. We only notice the foreigners who do look different from us; no one keeps a record of the ones who don't!



I think the second part of your post that I quote answers the first but I just had to add that if you see a tall blonde blue eyed Turk (I have one in my memory's eye for years so you can add drop-dead gorgeous to the above description  ) how would you, or anyone to be exact categorise him? My face is rather round and has high cheek-bones. My skin refuses point blank to tan. Am I not Greek then? 

And even if a country has a quite homogeneous population (at least when it comes to looks), isn't it unfair for those who don't "fit" the general looks to be thought as belonging to another nation? How can you tell someone is X and that it isn't their ancestors who maybe were X or even _some_ of their ancestors?

Edit: just making clear that I actully agree with the second quote I posted


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## jonquiliser

Outsider said:


> And even the perceived physical differences may be part illusion. We only notice the foreigners who do look different from us; no one keeps a record of the ones who don't!



This is very true.


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## Amityville

DearPrudence said:


> Anyway, don't worry, I'm leaving at once, being afraid of falling into clichés


 
Yes, we're treading on a minefield ! I'd like to qualify what I said earlier because I actually see comparatively few English people nowadays and for some time I haven't. Those that I do see tend not to be young or poor - they are either tourists or immigrants who aren't representative whereas I see the full spectrum of French people. It must be the same for anyone living outside their native country for any length of time. Maybe they start to stereotype their own compatriots. When at home, everything and everyone's just normal.
I've thankfully not experienced the chavette/ladette phenomenon at first hand but know a Frenchman who has - he was horrified.
We agree on the English pinkness, I see. How do you recognise your compatriots abroad, DearPru ?


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## DearPrudence

Amityville said:


> How do you recognise your compatriots abroad, DearPru ?


Reading your answer got me thinking:
I'm not bad at recognizing English people, German people, Spanish people, just on a picture, in a restaurant, ... Hmm, maybe less Italian & Portuguese. But I've realised that as I see it, French people are very different from one another & I have the impression I couldn't recognize one apart from the clothes (indeed there are still a lot of old men wearing berets & baguettes). I have the impression we are a mixture of different things/people I mean & therefore it's hard for me to distinguish common features to French people. 
I think I'm off-topic but the book "How to be British" made me laugh but also I was really impressed by the critical distance the authors had & I keep thinking that I couldn't do such a thing on French people because I just don't know what are supposed to be our characteristics (apart from the wine, cheese & complaining all the time )


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## avok

DearPrudence said:


> But I've realised that as I see it, French people are very different from one another & I have the impression I couldn't recognize one apart from the clothes (indeed there are still a lot of old men wearing berets & baguettes). I have the impression we are a mixture of different things/people I mean & therefore it's hard for me to distinguish common features to French people.


 
For me, French people (along with russians and middle easterns)  are the easiest to recognize... let me give you a clue, "I" recognize French people when I look at their mouths  yes, their mouths.. many french people, not all of course, tend to have same kind of mouths, think of gerard depardieu, patricia kaas, audrey tautou , they have similar mouths, if you look at them "attentivement", you shall see too


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## Musical Chairs

I heard the sounds of their language make their mouths look a certain way by configuring the muscles or something, with all the "u" and nasal "n," "ou," and "r" sounds. Whether it's true, I don't know!


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## Outsider

I've often had that impression, too! After all, facial expressions can produce wrinkles after some years. But it may just be an impression...


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## min300

Well,for me it is easy to know if a person is from my own country and I don't need to talk to them to notice this. I think it's because of their manner, the way they look and laugh.

I think you can recognize people's nationality if you are familiar with the people of that country and their culture. This is why we usually make correct deductions about people of our neighbor countries.
And I agree that clothing has also an important role in recognizing the people of some countries. 
anyway, best wishes for all friends from all countries.


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## Etcetera

I'm not sure if I can tell a Petersburger from a Muscovite merely by their appearance. But their manners and speech can more or less easily "betray" them.
It's pretty easily to recognise a person from Southern Russia (Northern Caucausus, that is), but not in all cases.
As for guessing about the origins of a foreigner, I would rather depend on their accent than on their looks. Unless they're dressed in their national clothes.


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## nichec

I can tell who's from Ireland!!!!! (once there were a group of Irish coming to Paris to cheer for their team, they were all drunk and singing before the game even started, and then they all stood on the hole where the air of the metro came out, so the wind could blow up their Irish skirtsI doubt if they were wearing any underwear inside.......)

I can tell who's French and who's English and who's Italian after years living in Paris and travelling around Europe. Please don't ask me how, I don't know how to explain it, but this is something I couldn't do before living in Europe.

I can also tell who's from Japan, who's from Korea, who's from China, and who's Taiwanese too. To me, the Japanese tend to have very neat makeup and small eyes, the Korean tend to look tough with very very black hair, the Chinese dress in a certain way, and the Taiwanese tend to be child-like.....

Every French and English and Italian and American I know all have problem guessing where I'm from though (I was once in a Starbucks in Paris, the stuff kept asking where I'm from, I gave them five chances to guess and they all failed)


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## Pedro y La Torre

nichec said:


> I can tell who's from Ireland!!!!! (once there were a group of Irish coming to Paris to cheer for their team, they were all drunk and singing before the game even started, and then they all stood on the hole where the air of the metro came out, so the wind could blow up their Irish skirtsI doubt if they were wearing any underwear inside.......)



Well it appears you are talking about Scottish kilts so I doubt the people you saw were Irish


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## palomnik

A generation ago, it was usually easy to tell Americans apart from Europeans, mainly because Europeans took much better care of their clothing and in general paid more attention to their appearance than Americans did.  Nowadays, it's not so easy; the American habits have caught on largely in Europe.

There are other ways to tell Americans apart too; in general, Americans have an almost obsessive need to smile when dealing with strangers, a habit that most Europeans do not share.  

Regarding comments about the shape of mouths, New Yorkers in particular have an unusual variety of ways of twisting their mouths to show emotion, the like of which I've never seen anywhere else; they also show more tooth when they smile than other Americans do.


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## Chipolata

My boyfriend is a mexican and he looks latino. However, when we were in Turkey people talked to him in Turkish; in Italia he was "italian", in Southern France, French and in Spain, spaniard. So, I don't think you can really tell unless the person starts talking.


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## dromer

Well, I'm from Belgium (the Flemish part, where Dutch is spoken and not French wich is spoken in the southern part of my country ; a little background information for those who might not know this ) and I recognize very often the Dutchman/woman. Not because of their accent, that would be to easy  but they have typical 'Dutchman/woman' faces. I don't know what exactly makes me decide wether it's a Dutchman or not...but their is something with their noses or eyes


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## Maeskizzle

When I´m into my home town and run into someone (between the ages of 18 and 50) that I don´t know, I can often tell if they are from my home town, from a neighboring town or from the Twin Cities.  It´s especially obvious among the men, the way they dress, look, act.  If they are at all "cosmopolitan", even just a hint, they generally aren´t from my town.  Because most guys who were born in my town and do have a hint of cosmopolitaness, already left.  A cosmopolitan type could also be from the neighboring town (which is an even smaller town), sometimes that confuses me, but its quite interesting how we can pick up so many cultural cues.  Context really helps too...like the time of year it is, who´s likely to be traveling through...


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## federicoft

Musical Chairs said:


> Can Italian people tell someone is Greek just by looking at them?



Well, it is quite hard given that a Southern Italian is often more alike to a Greek than to a Northern Italian (or even than to a Central Italian), while many Northern Italians are more alike to French than to Southeners.
Having said that, I'm quite confident I can tell in most cases whether someone  is Italian or not just by looking at him for a couple of seconds, even if Italians are probably one of the most diverse people in the world. Many Italians can look perfectly Swedish or Finnish, and many others might be easly mistaken for a Tunisian or an Egyptian. Nevertheless, they all have a certain "je ne sais quoi" in common which I can't exactly describe.


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## Malaya

And how do you recognize Russians (certainly, if you do)? (Personal curiosity).


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## federicoft

Malaya said:


> And how do you recognize Russians (certainly, if you do)? (Personal curiosity).



Again, it's not so easy.
Maybe you can recognize him as a slavic if he has typical eastern/northern slavic aspects (fair skin and eyes, pointed nose, sharp features, etc).


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## Outsider

Pointed nose, sharp features? Doesn't look very Slavic to me!...  

I often identify Eastern Europeans from their broad faces and/or narrow eyes. The narrow eyes are interesting, because they make them look "half Asian". Not all Slavic people have this look, needless to say, but one clear example was the late Boris Yeltsin. (Here he is having a good time. Couldn't resist posting this too. )

However, northern Europeans can also have narrow, "Asian" eyes. One exampe is Björk, who is Icelandic (and so technically more "western" than any of us ).


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## Malaya

Outsider said:


> Pointed nose, sharp features? Doesn't look very Slavic to me!...
> 
> I often identify Eastern Europeans from their broad faces and/or narrow eyes. The narrow eyes are interesting, because they make them look "half Asian".


 
Let me disagree totally with Slavic narrow eyes. To my mind it’s not a Slavic feature, but Asian. I would say that a Russian has some Asian blood in his veins if he has narrow eyes. Though it’s not a rare thing, considering the fact that Russians and Asians met a lot throughout their history.
And then, Slavs differ too much between themselves to be able to speak about Slavic features. Bulgarians, for instance, are also Slaves, but seem to have a darker skin.


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## Patagonia116

Hello everybody,
I think things have changed a lot after globalization...
Before it, it was quiet easy to recognize where people where from. After it... much more difficult.

Think for example about the Netherlands... The "original" Dutch, is different from the German, or from the Norwegian.
However, nowadays, you can find an Asiatic, or a black man and perhaps you'll be surprise when he tell you that he is Dutch.

The same happens in loads of countries.

Cheers!
Pat.


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## badgrammar

I find it frankly impossible in Paris to tell where anyone is from!  Sometimes after you speak a few words with them, their accent or something they say gives it away.  But for me it is too hard to know for sure without some sort of clue.  I come into contact with people from Romania, Poland, Spain, Italy, North Africa, sub-Saharan Africa, Taiwanese, China, Korea, Iran, Armenia, Turkey, India....  plus a large and rather diverse Jewish population (I have never been able to "recognize" Jewish people, either).

I think it was easier back in my home town, I mean, it was easier to identify "us" and "others", because the population was fairly homogenous, caucasions, hispanics and African-Americans, with a nice dose of foreign students from the University.  Easy to figure out.  

Maybe it's harder in Paris because of the diversity, or maybe it's because I didn't grow up here.


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## jmx

Something not mentioned this far in the thread, I think, is _bulk identification_. For example, it could be difficult to tell the origin of one particular foreigner travelling through Spain, and even take him for a spaniard. But if instead of just one, there were 10 people from the same country travelling together, it would be much easier to tell them apart.


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## tom_in_bahia

Well, to me, there is a distinct look to some European Americans, perhaps there is some sort of common mixture of ethnic types that results in a specific set of possibilities. I also know that in my family there are several indigenous blood lines (depending on the side of the family) that may also create a "look".

I remember that when I was in Europe, depending on the country and what clothes I was wearing that day, I got different reactions from locals without opening my mouth. One day, when I was in Prague in a park and a Czech decided I must have been French and started asking me some questions about where the ball he had thrown to his dog had gone. I more or less understood (my French is rusty), but it was still comical to have to try to speak French in the Czech Republic. Once, I was travelling in Portugal and got pegged for a Spaniard, even after opening my mouth and speaking Brazilian Portuguese.

In Brazil, people more or less leave me alone unless I have to say a word with too many Rs in it (I can't control my American rhoticism sometimes). Brazil is multiethnic and I've already seen taller, whiter men with lighter-colored hair than me. I realized I get more stares when I wear specific clothes that I bought in the US. In Salvador, they automatically assume I'm a "gringo". (And I'll play games, so if they speak in broken English to me I'll insist I don't speak English and rattle off in Portuguese how I'm from Brazil just to mess around with their stereotypes and conceptions). In smaller, less touristy cities, no body seems to pay attention unless they catch my accent.


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## HUMBERT0

Musical Chairs said:


> I have a feeling this has been talked about before, but I did a Google search and I didn't find anything.
> 
> Especially among Asian countries, someone from one country can tell if an other Asian person is "one of their kind" or from somewhere else. For example, some people look "very Japanese" or "very Korean" or "very Chinese" to me and I can't explain how I know where they're from just by looking at them when they haven't said a word. It's really strange. I think with Japanese people, I can tell because they walk a certain way, have the same hair, dress a certain way, and their faces look a certain way too. I can't always tell where someone is from, but there's just a distinct look for certain countries that I can't explain.
> 
> I wondered if it happens all over the world. Can Italian people tell someone is Greek just by looking at them? Can people from Puerto Rico tell if someone is from Mexico? Can African tribes tell each other apart? What makes people who look similar to some people, different to others? Do you think this affects any (sub)conscious judgments people make?
> 
> Edit: In the US, I can't tell between a person from Mississippi and a person from New York.


 I can tell some Asians apart specially Japanese from Chinese and Korean, also Vietnamese and Philipino look ethnically very different.

 In my country Mexico, I can only tell the difference between northern Native American and those from the southern part of the country. And in general terms in the rest of the population, if a person is from the south or north... People from the south tend to be shorter, darker, and in some regions like the Yucatán they have round heads, "cabeza de yucateco". People in the north tend to be whiter and taller and look less like southern Native Americans. For example I'm racially mixed, Spanish ancestry and some Native American ancestry of western México, and to me Native Americans from the region where some of my ancestors come from look very different to the ones of Chihuahua in the north and Chiapas and Yucatan in the South.

 As for Europeans well there is a certain look to Mediterranean Europeans, and another to northern Europeans and another to East Europeans. And yes with some people is easy to guess they are Spanish, or Portuguese, French, Italian, English or Russian.


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## blu.flame

Scientists actually did a study with toddlers in which they showed them pictures of different monkeys in the same pose, which to a normal adult human being would appear to be the same monkey. Amazingly, the toddlers used in the study could identify the different monkeys and showed little interest when shown a picture of the same monkey on multiple occasions compared to being shown a picture of a different monkey which amused them increasingly.

When we are born one of the abilities that we pick up naturally is the ability to recognize members of "our tribe" and to differentiate between each other. As we grow up, we lose this ability in order to be able to learn more advanced and useful skills.

Also, just to mention, I can usually identify most Brits, Americans, usually Australasians,  Spanish, Ecuadorean, Argentinian, Italian, Romanian, Germans, Dutch,and French people without talking to them.


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## e.ma

I can always tell an English person when arriving to our beaches, because nobody else around Europe could show such a bluish white skin.
Also, you can tell some Europeans apart easily when you see them drinking at night pubs.


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## clairanne

Hi

There was a very interesting programme on British TV (BBC) recently where they spoke of the origins of people in Great Britain. It was called the face of Britain and suggested you can still tell from the shapes of peoples faces whether they are Celts, Anglo saxon etc. They took dna tests to find out people's origins. I am not sure that it was fully accurate  -might be worth looking out for a re-run if you are interested in this subject.

Most people ask me if I am Irish when they meet me so there must be a link somewhere. I was born to an East Sussex/Kentish father(I can trace them back to 1650's in the area) and an East Sussex/Irish mother, whose Irish father died in 1932 when she was 1 year old, neither my mother or I have been in anyway influenced by Irish mannerisms or speech so it has to be genetic.


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## Stripped

Malaya said:


> And how do you recognize Russians (certainly, if you do)? (Personal curiosity).



It's a good question. I am normally quite good at recognizing fellow Russian speakers. How? I don't have the faintest idea. Facial features, perhaps, are most telling (I do believe in the theory that different spoken languages affect facial muscles in different ways. The example with francophones is perfect). The way people behave. The look in their eyes. It's almost like another sense (6th? 7th?) -- "russiandar", not dissimilar to the proverbial "gaydar"


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## Trisia

Cool question, MC!

I'm very good at recognizing Romanians all over Europe. Perhaps it is that I was born in Romania and we share that specific air, countenance, clothing style... yes, it is a bit like a 6th sense. There are some that I can't discern, and you can usually tell they've spent a long time in a foreign country.


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## gogoneddus

Whenever I go abroad I am quite often good at telling if someone is a Brit or not- harder to say if they are Welsh, English, Scottish etc., until you hear them...
I think people can tell people aren't their "own", but can't always accurately place that other person in the right place.
For example, whenever I go to Spain, I am always asked if I am Danish... yet I don't even know of any family links there at all. I am Welsh 100%, even though the family tree does show French blood years back!! 

It's interesting to know what people link with certain peoples, to distinguish eachother!


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## yukilicious

Outsider said:


> Pointed nose, sharp features? Doesn't look very
> 
> However, northern Europeans can also have narrow, "Asian" eyes. One exampe is *Björk* , who is Icelandic (and so technically more "western" than any of us ).



hey I thought she had Japanese blood in her lineage?


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## Sepia

federicoft said:


> Again, it's not so easy.
> Maybe you can recognize him as a slavic if he has typical eastern/northern slavic aspects (fair skin and eyes, pointed nose, sharp features, etc).



I could think of lots of people who look like that who are not Russian.

But if I see someone with short hair (if young: very short hair), the kind of leather jaket that has the same length as a business suit's jacket I'd say 99% sure he is russian. 

And if we have close to 0°C or below, wet, dirty or showy streets, and a woman is wearing a short skirt an hi-heels - 110% sure she is Russian.

(I was always better at languages than math, by the way.)


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## TraductoraPobleSec

I am very good at recognising where people come from, maybe because I worked as a tourist guide for some time, have lived in many places and traveled widely and also because I live in a very multicultural city with lots of tourists as well. Apart from physical features, clothes and taste in dressing tell me right away where a person comes from.

Americans love caps and sweatshirts. And then, American girls usually leave their hair long (in Europe we're more prone to sophisticated hair cuts!).

Germans love walking around in sandals and socks.

Italians always wear fancy sun glasses, rain or shine, and carry Invicta backpacks.

Etc.

I think most of us here can also tell whether a person is a Catalan or from other parts of Spain, since we Catalans tend to dress more casual. A Menorcan friend of mine always says that when she's visiting there (she lives in the mainland) she can tell right away who are the snobbish tourists from Barcelona from those from Madrid. We Catalans tend to dress more casual. A friend of mine from the Canary Islands told me she can tell Catalans from our taste in glasses (we seem to prefer the plastic, colorful rimmed ones to the classic models).


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## alexacohen

My dear Tradu,
No one, ever, has been able to tell where I come from. 
I've been British to Americans, Irish to British, American to French, Catalonian to Galician, Galician in Madrid, Andalousian in Galicia, Madrileña in Catalonia, Argentinian in Israel...
And finally, and incredibly, British to British. (That one didn't last long: when the old British ladies, so glad they were to find a British girl, asked me what part of England did I come from, I was so taken aback that answered in Spanish... pero, pero, pero... ¡¡¡si soy española!!!)


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## TraductoraPobleSec

alexacohen said:


> My dear Tradu,
> No one, ever, has been able to tell where I come from.
> I've been British to Americans, Irish to British, American to French, Catalonian to Galician, Galician in Madrid, Andalousian in Galicia, Madrileña in Catalonia, Argentinian in Israel...
> And finally, and incredibly, British to British. (That one didn't last long: when the old British ladies, so glad they were to find a British girl, asked me what part of England did I come from, I was so taken aback that answered in Spanish... pero, pero, pero... ¡¡¡si soy española!!!)


 
Well, that's a bit my case, too: Israelis ask me whether I am from Israel when they first see me and so do the other guys from the Middle East (Lebanese or Jordanian, actually). I've also been asked whether I am Greek, from Cyprus or, many, many times, Italian.

But what about clothig, Alexa? I can tell where people come from by what they wear! One of my dearest friends, who is African, can tell French blacks from British or American blacks! My theory is that clothing says it all!


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## Binapesi

I can determine a Turk wherever I see him/her 

I can tell which part of Turkiye he/she is from.
Those who are from The Black Sea area have long noses, red cheeks and their speech is all different. The ones who are from The East Turkey have dark skin and an Arabic accent that 'r' letters are given out stressed.

Little, pretty Asian people  .. I really like them and always see in Istanbul. Especially Japonese and Chinese.
The thing that distinguishes a Chinese from a Japonese .. I think Chenese have more narrowed eyes and more prominent cheeks. They speak faster than Japonese do (maybe I'm just making it up, I dunno  .. but I generally can tell which one is Chinese) ..

When I see an European, I can just tell he/she is European, no other description.


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## MilanGirl

Really good question because i have always wondered whether it was just me 

I am afghan but raised in Norway and lived in Iran, Russia, Germany, Denmark and Pakistan. But its not just them i can tell apart.
I actually know which continent or which part of the world a person is from by just looking at him/her, although its a bit hard with people coming from USA and ENGLAND unless you look like Wayne Rooney.

For me its the walk & face...the facial features are extremely easy to tell apart in my (honest) opinion.

I can tell if someone is arab/from arabic countries from 50 miles distance ( ok i am exaggurating) but someone from a arab country will usually have a prominent(?) nose, beautiful eyes and dark hair/dark skin but not as dark skin as people from india/pakistan or other south asian countries.
People from Russia has a pale face, their eyes & nose just stands out.
I always know where someone is from before speaking with them or asking someone else if they know where this person is from...

glad im not alone though, i felt like some kind of "freak"


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## alexacohen

TraductoraPobleSec said:


> But what about clothig, Alexa? I can tell where people come from by what they wear! One of my dearest friends, who is African, can tell French blacks from British or American blacks! My theory is that clothing says it all!


 
I exchange whole outfits with my cousins.
American, Dutch, Australian, British, Belgian.
No way !


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## e.ma

MilanGirl said:


> For me its the walk & face...the facial features are extremely easy to tell apart in my (honest) opinion.
> 
> I can tell if someone is arab/from arabic countries from 50 miles distance ( ok i am exaggurating) but someone from a arab country will usually have a prominent(?) nose, beautiful eyes and dark hair/dark skin but not as dark skin as people from india/pakistan or other south asian countries.



This description fits most Spaniards and most Mediterranean people


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## MilanGirl

e.ma said:


> This description fits most Spaniards and most Mediterranean people


 Thats correct

But this outfit thing is totally new to me, i wouldnt be able to tell them apart by their outfits


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## mirx

MilanGirl said:


> Thats correct
> 
> But this outfit thing is totally new to me, i wouldnt be able to tell them apart by their outfits


 
I am sorry, by the "outfit thing" is actually more accurate than the facial features when telling where someone's from. In this globalized world full of immigration anyone can be from anywhere.

You can tell his *race* but not his *origins* (for some racists pigs there's no difference in these two terms). I mean, take for example the black Americans, or any American for the fact, you wouldn't be able to apply the "features principle" here, since a second-generation Asian/afro/irish/mexican/cambodyan-american may look exactly the same as an Asian, African, Mexican, Irish or Cambodyan friend back in there respective countries.

What tells apart this Asianamerican from actual Asians would be the way he speaks, dresses, gestures, and the way he behaves. The looks, in this case, have no say in the matter.


This can be said of every country with high rates of immigration.

Cheers.


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## MilanGirl

@Mirx..yeah exactly! so thats why i was kind of shocked when people said that they could tell by their clothes
but good post, mate. 

cheers back at ya


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## wildan1

DearPrudence said:


> as I see it, French people are very different from one another & I have the impression I couldn't recognize one apart from the clothes (indeed there are still a lot of old men wearing berets & baguettes). I have the impression we are a mixture of different things/people I mean & therefore it's hard for me to distinguish common features to French people.
> I keep thinking that I couldn't do such a thing on French people because I just don't know what are supposed to be our characteristics (apart from the wine, cheese & complaining all the time )


 
You are right that French people have many different physical characteristics (look at a "typical" Breton vs. a Marseillais; the Alsacien vs. the Basque). 

But there are gestures and styles that tip you off--frequently rubbing the hands together while talking (like they are washing them); a tendancy to "faire la moue" as someone already mentioned; a kind of chic way to travel (I am always amazed at how French travelers carry so little in airports); and of course... the famous "French shrug"!


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## vince

I can tell whether a person is American/Canadian by the way they dress, the facial expressions, etiquette, and mannerisms they have, and by the way they talk. This works with any race of American. So I can distinguish between Americans/Canadians vs. Euopeans, Asians, and Africans. However I can't tell the difference between Americans and Canadians since they have the same culture.


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## Outsider

yukilicious said:


> hey I thought she had Japanese blood in her lineage?


Found this:



> Although many have commented on her East Asian/Inuit facial features (she was teased as a child with the taunt 'China girl'), Björk denies any such ancestry.
> 
> Wikipedia


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## Fennec89

Maybe it's hard to say exactly where people come from, you just notice that they aren't from the same place as you. Sometimes it's tricky to see if people are from Norway, Denmark or Sweden, but if they come further away, like Germany, I just to notice. But, as the immigration gets more regular, this will probably diseappear.


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## LaReinita

I can tell the difference between Koreans, Chinese, and Japanese. Koreans tend to be taller with fuller lips, Chinese tend to be paler with narrower eyes. And I don't know how I distinguish Japanese . . I just seem to know. In the US, it is very hard to tell where a person is from. I have Irish/Italian blood and I would say that 7 out of 10 people think that I am Puerto Rican, even the Puerto Ricans. Quite coincidentally I study spanish, but they assume that I'm Puerto Rican without ever hearing me speak. People start speaking to me in Spanish all the time. Luckily, I happen to know what they're saying!!!


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## KateNicole

Living in the United States, when I'm looking at someone of Latin American descent, I can usually tell if they were born in the US or born in Latin America (even if they've been living here for quite some time) before I even start talking to them.  It's really odd, but I know I'm not the only one.


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## Etcetera

min300 said:


> I think you can recognize people's nationality if you are familiar with the people of that country and their culture. This is why we usually make correct deductions about people of our neighbor countries.


I'm not sure I would distinguish a Belarusian from a Ukrainian, although both countries are Russia's neighbours (and neighbours of each other as well).


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## Maeskizzle

Yeah the clothing thing is key for me for identifying where people are from, as well as mannerisms.  I live right by a bunch of hotels and every now and then I see foreigners walking through my neighborhood.  I can generally tell the Europeans from the Americans by the way they dress.  To mention a few telling characteristics, Americans (people from the USA) generally dress a little more casually than Europeans.  Americans often where thick sweatshirts or tennis shoes, and flip-flop sandals when it's 50 degrees Farenheit.  Americans often carry water bottles, disposable or Nalgene or something of the sort.  They also often have something (a jacket or backpack) that is "Northface".  Oh and they are often carrying way more stuff than you see an average Chilean carrying.  Now that I´ve said this, it isn´t always the case.  I saw a couple American girls the other day in cute dresses not carrying anything, but as I passed them I could tell by their accent that they were from the States.  Like someone already said in a post, identifying the nationality is generally easier when foreigners are traveling in groups, because in a group of Americans, someone will always be carrying a water bottle.


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## Glitz

I can most defintley tell if someone is foreign straight away from the way that they dress or their mannerisms.
 Usually telling what ethnicity someone is, is quite easy. Its also quite easy for some people not to notice wether someone is mixed race or not, though it can be quite obvious to me. Though mixed race people are usually the ones that get guess- labled all the wrong ethnicities/nationalities as they can tend to have more universal looks.


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## eli-milqo

hello !
me I can say about the Arab world, I can distinguish from which region the people come from(not the state) , minutes ago I saw people who looked like from the Arabian peninsula for me and I was right, that goes the right way with me about 65-70 % .
and I can distinguish the people from Ukraine,Belarus and Russia but I don't know where are they from exactly , I mean from which state . and in the same countries I can see people whith caucasian looks not eastern slavic.
and fianally I can know the polish!
Thanks!!


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## avok

I can not tell if someone is Turkish when I see them abroad, despite myself being Turkish 
There are Bosnian, Albanian, Yugoslavian, Cretan, Tatar, Sudanese, Asiatic turks everywhere and it is hard to understand if they are from around here or not !!!


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## Lopes

I, too, allways recognize a Dutch person when I'm in a different country, and I'm not sure what is it that makes him/her look so Dutch. (Well sometimes I am, but then it's just too obvious)

 It also happens very often that when I have a feeling that someone "looks" a bit Dutch, but not totally, that person is Belgian or German.


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## avok

Outsider said:


> However, I think that most of the time it's not just about physical appearance. There is also, as you note, the way that people dress, behave, etc.


 
I totally agree with you on this, Outsider. Especially, the way people dress is one of the important keys on this issue. For instance, the French people tend to wear scarves all the time, even when it is warm outside  



avok said:


> "I" recognize French people when I look at their mouths  yes, their mouths.. many french people, not all of course, tend to have same kind of mouths,


 
Well, this quote is from me  But I still insist on that !! Patricia Kaas, Vanessa Paradis and Audrey Tautou are perfect examples...But I don't think this has got anything to do with the French language, many North Africans are native french speakers but they don't have this kind of mouth. 

There is something, yet I have not figured out, about *Americans*. When I watch an American movie, I can see that Americans can be of any colour (blond, dark-haired etc..) But I, once, lived in a city where there was an American air base and almost all of the caucasian Americans I'd seen were blond!!! I think, this is due to the large Northern European heritage in the States. 



Chipolata said:


> My boyfriend is a mexican and he looks latino. However, when we were in Turkey people talked to him in Turkish;


 
No surprise at all !! Many *Latinos *look like Turks but some Latinos do have distinctive features especially Mestizos, they have dark brown skins and Asian features ( the eyes etc..)



clairanne said:


> Hi
> There was a very interesting programme on British TV (BBC) recently where they spoke of the origins of people in Great Britain. It was called the face of Britain and suggested you can still tell from the shapes of peoples faces whether they are Celts, Anglo saxon etc. They took dna tests to find out people's origins


 
I can tell if someone's from the *British *Isles. There is especially a kind of face shape which looks so Irish, British to me. For example, the CNN news anchor woman Fionnuala Sweeney looks so Irish/English just like Kat Slater of the Eastenders. This kind of ... ,I don't know how to put it, "large face" or the "chubby face" is so common among the English/Irish people but I don't know if this is Celtic or Anglo. 

*Northern Europeans*: Some of them have this "flaxen hair" ( whitish blond hair) that's found nowhere else but in Scandinavia ( but in the States as well).

When I see some *Africans* I understand they are from the "East part" of the African continant because unlike many Africans or Afro-americans who have larger noses and thick lips, the africans from Somalia, Ethiopia etc.. have black skin but their facial features are like those of the Caucasian peoples.


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## wildan1

> But I, once, lived in a city where there was an American air base and almost all of the caucasian Americans I'd seen were blond!!! I think, this is due to the large Northern European heritage in the States.


 
Well, 77% of the US population overall is of European background (but many are not blonde!), but the military is a little less--about 75%. So on average, 1 out of 4 military is not Euro-American--s/he is black, latino, Asian, native American, etc. I don't know what the base you lived near was like, but that's the overall proportion.


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## JGreco

This is a subject dear to my heart because people in the U.S have a difficult time identifying me. I am dark skinned (only certain areas of my body tan basically my face and my arms yet I burn everywhere else) and I have been called everything out of the book but only depending on my weight. When I'm heavy set I'm Samoan, Hawaiian, Polynesian, Puerto Rican, Colombian, etc.... when I am in shape and depending on the time of the year (winter I loose all my dark skin) I am Italian, Greek, Turkish, Moroccan, Southern Spanish etc...etc... What confuses them even more is that along with my dark skin I have light eyes and reddish Brown hair I get some looks about the confusion of where I'm from. I have even been mistaken for an exchange student from Afghanistan recently. People don't realize that people of Brazilian background can have some crazy features that are all over the place.


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## Cherubino

As mentioned before, in the United States it's quite hard to pinpoint a person's exact origin based on their physical appearance, especially since the majority of white Americans are of mixed European descent. Abroad, I could probably distinguish most (white) American tourists from other tourists and the locals, even if the latter two are white. Again the dress and mien of the person in question provide major hints; I find that Americans _in general_ dress more casually than Europeans, although I am tredding on some very thin ice here because many American trends are beginning to be embraced by Europeans (particularly the youth).
As for non-Americans, well, it actually becomes somewhat easier for me to guess where they come from.  Somehow I can just tell the difference between a Chinese, Japanese and Korean, and I don't exactly know how or why, but perhaps this is merely because my family is Chinese? There's something about the eyes, the nose, the facial bone structure and even the hair, and especially style of dress and makeup. However, when I was in Beijing I was several times mistaken for a Korean and Japanese, and even in Vienna I was taken for a Japanese tourist. I have no idea why! It seems I can evaluate other people but not myself. 
As for Europeans, well,I find that my guesses as to where Europeans come from are more often correct than my guesses as to where my fellow countrymen's origins are. Usually I can tell an Irishman, an Englishman and a Scotsman apart; there's something about the facial bone structure and eyes, again, and the differences between an Englishman and a Frenchman are even greater. With Italians it can also be rather tricky, because some are so fair they could easily be mistaken for Germans or Swedes, and then there are those on the opposite end of the spectrum. But usually I can distinguish Italians from other tourists; the ones that I see are usually sporting fancy sunglasses whether it's raining or sunny, whether outdoors or indoors, as another poster has so well put it!


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## anonymous_me

hmm..i like this topic....Am African(but live in the US) and it might not be very/at all noticable to most but i can tell a South,North, East or West African from one another...based on mannerisms, accent,even facial features. Of course am not always right but there "tell tale" signs. Also, with caucasians, I can somewhat tell Americans from Europeans. Americans(like someone else mentioned earlier) tend to be alot more laid back in general than Europeans...AND ofcourse they way they dress and the mannerisms..


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## spacealligator

I am gonna link into the posting right behind this one, so as to keep it as a thread. I was born and grew up in Russia and have been living in the U.S. (Southern California) for the last 14 years. Neither of these countries boasts a majority African descent population, yet I can easily tell an African-American from a Caribbean Basin African from an African from Africa. In Africa, I can tell Ethiopians from other Sub-Saharan Africans. If I lived in Africa for a number of years, I would be able to tell many more nationalities apart. Somebody earlier in the thread, claimed that a 3-rd generation African-American could look just like his African cousin. That is simply not true; they can be immediately told apart. Even if they happened to look similar (although, the American would almost always be larger), their behavior and mannerisms would be completely different.

And as many other Europeans in this thread pointed out, with a little attention and training, it is easy to distinguish between Chinese, Japanese, and Koreans. What this means is that we can tell people apart not on how they look (racially - Koreans and Chinese are not that different), but on what they wear and how they act.

Until late 1990s, I could unmistakably identify people from the former USSR, particularly Russians, even from the back - and I did it primarily by clothes and walk. And when I and other people in the thread say "by clothes" - it's usually not by specific kind of clothes, but by a certain "style." It is true, however, that since the beginning of the century, styles have been multiplying and younger people often walk and talk differently - like their peers everywhere.

In short, it is still an easily mastered art of identifying nationalities, but it will gradually become harder and harder, as time goes on.


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## Black Opal

I'm another one who feels that dress has a lot to do with it.

I've been here for 26 years, when I first came here I was 25 and dark-haired, and before I could even open my mouth I was recognised as northern-European/American by native Neapolitan men ("Hallo!") 

Looking back I think it was probably my way of dressing more than anything else.

Many years on, I can recognise an italian anywhere at 20 paces by the (generally carefully put together) look, the shoes, the sunglasses (I wear them all the time too), the carefully cut hair... and that's just the men.

I know italian women who change into smarter clothes to go out shopping or to collect the kids at school, and change back again once they come home: La bella figura, it's called.
I know of english people who nip (there's that word again) out to the shops in their pyjamas with a coat on top - an italian simply wouldn't think of doing that.

However it is the North Americans who are so easily recogniseable, I find. Not just water bottles, lots of people carry those nowadays. I do. In my bag.

I think with (older) North Americans they may be roaming around Rome in shorts and polo shirts, but they will be _different_ shorts to the italian ones. They will be ever so slighly out of date as a rule, and not in muted shades and in linen or pure cotton, and they will have front waist pleats of the sort that went out of style here about ten years ago, and also knife edge pleats down the front. Also the ubiquitous baseball hat on the head, while the italian counterpart will have only sunglasses on his or hers, and will usually also have the latest mobile phone clamped to their head while making eternal phone calls....

Younger americans? Well, if I see a centre parted long-haired teenager à la Ali McGraw in Love Story (how come that style never went out of date over there?), I can be pretty sure he or she will be North American, especially if sporting a large backpack and huge hairy trainers and clutching a ragged map of Rome.

My fellow brits tend to fall into two categories: the cultured understated ones who seek out obscure churches and medieval hill villages and say please and thank you every two minutes, much to the amusement of the locals, and the others who spend most of their time seeking out the local nightlife or 'pubs', in the hope of securing a good hangover at a fraction of the price it would cost back home... both however can be distinguished by an overall whiteness of skin and almost universal inability to command anything but the shortest phrase in another language (unless they come and live here and have to, like I did).

I could go on, but won't (you'll be delighted to hear  ).


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## MarX

Musical Chairs said:


> I have a feeling this has been talked about before, but I did a Google search and I didn't find anything.
> 
> Especially among Asian countries, someone from one country can tell if an other Asian person is "one of their kind" or from somewhere else. For example, some people look "very Japanese" or "very Korean" or "very Chinese" to me and I can't explain how I know where they're from just by looking at them when they haven't said a word. It's really strange. I think with Japanese people, I can tell because they walk a certain way, have the same hair, dress a certain way, and their faces look a certain way too. I can't always tell where someone is from, but there's just a distinct look for certain countries that I can't explain.
> 
> I wondered if it happens all over the world. Can Italian people tell someone is Greek just by looking at them? Can people from Puerto Rico tell if someone is from Mexico? Can African tribes tell each other apart? What makes people who look similar to some people, different to others? Do you think this affects any (sub)conscious judgments people make?
> 
> Edit: In the US, I can't tell between a person from Mississippi and a person from New York.


I can usually recognize people from Spain and Scandinavia. I don't know how to explain it, but so far my guesses have been quite right.

Salam


MarX


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## Mate

This thread requests personal opinions, which have been out of the scope of the forum for over a year now. Please do not resurrect old threads without checking that they are still relevant.

Thank you.

*Thread closed*.


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