Oh man, my family is Okinawan, and when we were visiting Aomori, this touristy market had an Okinawa fair going on and my kids went to go get a traditional Okinawan donut snack (we had been travelling for two weeks and they missed the taste of home), and when my kids thanked the staff in Okinawan, they looked really puzzled because I think they were just mainlanders selling Okinawan goods. I’m not even sure if they were even aware that we have a different language here. My kids looked really bummed.
It’s okay, happens to the best of us. I’m half Korean, half Czech, but I look like a big Polynesian dude. Not too long ago I went to a “Korean BBQ” place in the Midwest where the server greeted me in Korean. Which I thought was strange because he looked Chinese, but hey who am I to judge, I look Polynesian.
So I started to speak to him in Korean, and the dude panicked and ran away to get the manger who was Korean. Seems as if the manager/owners were Koreans hiring Chinese immigrants and having them pretend to be Korean to non Korean people.
Are you me? I would do this because I didn’t have anywhere else to practice Japanese outside of class. The first Japanese restaurant I went to the experience was great; the waitress was first or second gen and seemed tickled that this random white girl was trying to communicate with her in broken Japanese. The second place I went the waitress replied with embarrassment that she was Korean. I didn’t try again after that.
Haha this brought back a memory! I also tried to speak Japanese that I learned from anime to a Asian person in a sushi restaurant! They looked at me and said, “Ill go get the manager”
In my teenage years I embarrassed myself by trying to order in Japanese… The server was Korean.
Oh man, my family is Okinawan, and when we were visiting Aomori, this touristy market had an Okinawa fair going on and my kids went to go get a traditional Okinawan donut snack (we had been travelling for two weeks and they missed the taste of home), and when my kids thanked the staff in Okinawan, they looked really puzzled because I think they were just mainlanders selling Okinawan goods. I’m not even sure if they were even aware that we have a different language here. My kids looked really bummed.
It’s okay, happens to the best of us. I’m half Korean, half Czech, but I look like a big Polynesian dude. Not too long ago I went to a “Korean BBQ” place in the Midwest where the server greeted me in Korean. Which I thought was strange because he looked Chinese, but hey who am I to judge, I look Polynesian.
So I started to speak to him in Korean, and the dude panicked and ran away to get the manger who was Korean. Seems as if the manager/owners were Koreans hiring Chinese immigrants and having them pretend to be Korean to non Korean people.
Are you me? I would do this because I didn’t have anywhere else to practice Japanese outside of class. The first Japanese restaurant I went to the experience was great; the waitress was first or second gen and seemed tickled that this random white girl was trying to communicate with her in broken Japanese. The second place I went the waitress replied with embarrassment that she was Korean. I didn’t try again after that.
Haha this brought back a memory! I also tried to speak Japanese that I learned from anime to a Asian person in a sushi restaurant! They looked at me and said, “Ill go get the manager”