That one question....

[Nic]

Originally Posted by Loren_Q

"Where are you from?"
"What's your nationality?"
"What are you?"

I got these a lot growing up. The 'nationality' one got weird because I'm an American. Here's a sample exchange:

Them: What's your nationality?
Me: I'm an American.
Them: No, I mean, where are you from?
Me: Originally from Arizona but have lived most of my life in California
Them: No, before that.
Me: I wasn't around before that.

Not that long ago someone asked me "what part of Mexico" I was from. I said, "I'm from Panama." He just nodded. Didn't occur to me until later that he had no clue they were different countries. Too busy shaking my head over his assumption that all brown people he hears speaking another language must be from Mexico.