Because I’m Asian and I can remember like at least 10 instances where people in the US (Including Both White and Black people) would assume I don’t speak English before I had a chance to talk. I’ve lived in this country since 8, I speak on a native level. I wonder if there is just a subconcious “perpetual foreigner” stereotype engrained into people.
Because I sometimes feel uncomfortable. Like it just feels very awkward after I get asked that, then I speak English perfectly lol.
As an American, not usually. Depends on where I am. Around my own city or something like that I would assume they speak English in most cases.
If I was at a theme park or other touristy place, I probably wouldn’t. I also wouldn’t if I was on a farm out here, since a lot of the Mexican and Portugese workers don’t speak English.
There’s so much diversity where I live, I see “foreign” looking people every single day and yet they’re usually still Americans just like me.
Lol no. It’s wild to me that people are like that. I can only assume they must be completely surrounded by people who are very similar to them at all times.
I’m a Chicagoan. No one looks foreign in the city of immigrants.
Fellow Chicagoan!
Fellow Chicagoan!
Depends what you mean by “looks foreign.” If you mean their skin is a different color than mine, then no. Half my neighbors and coworkers are different ethnicities than me.
If you’re Asian and you walked into my old office building and then stood in the elevator looking helpless, then I assumed that you were there looking for the embassy in that building and when I hit floor 8 for myself I also smiled at you and hit floor 4 for you to get where I assume you were going. (Seeing faces light up every time and thankful nods as they walked into the embassy just confirmed it.)
So: no, not just if you’re another race. Yes, if you go somewhere I expect people from out of the country to go and then demonstrate a lack of English.
In your particular case OP I’m betting you live in a small town in the south, where every random white person barely ever even meets someone who was born more than 100 miles away. Shit I’ve met people who have never left the county they were born in. (Not a typo, I meant county not country)
I live in a deep blue city 💀
Then I kind of assume, like the folks in the elevator, you were doing some behavior which, unbeknown to you, signaled that you felt lost or out of place.
If you disagree, feel free to share a story that you remember in specific detail. And of course, even “blue cities” have racist assholes, could have just been some bigoted piece of shit.
But you haven’t told us what you mean by “looks foreign”. What does that mean?
That doesn’t answer my question. If I’m looking at a human being that “looks foreign”, what am i seeing about them with my eyeballs? What are the physical characteristics of their appearance that visually can be seen?
If by foreign you mean wearing a red ball cap and not understanding the laws of this nation then yes, I assume and am mostly correct that they can’t speak English.
No. Because most people in the USA speak English. Even immigrants and children of immigrants often speak English.
Nope. Even when they say they don’t, they probably do (but don’t think they speak it well enough).
I assume everyone i see is American here. (Portland, OR)
Not usually. If they are speaking another language when I encounter them and look like a tourist, it might occur me to.
But I live in New York where there’s a wide variety of people.
Hell, I assume most people speak English when I travel to foreign countries, and they usually do.
I’ve never been asked that and would feel offended if some whitey asked me that. But then I also live in California where it’s very diverse.
Nope, I generally assume people I run into speak english even if it’s not fluent. That includes all the asians I interact with, there’s a lot by where I live.
Even newer immigrants speak at least some english.
I assume basically everyone around me can speak English even if I hear them speaking a different language. Kind of hard to get by in America without learning a little English.
If their English is difficult for me to understand then I’ll profile them like asking if they speak Spanish if they look Latino. My Spanish is bad but if they talk slow I can understand it pretty well.
If they don’t look like they speak Spanish (or their accent doesn’t sound like it) we just have to keep trying to communicate in English because I don’t know any other languages well enough to be useful lol
Outside of tourists areas, No.
In tourist areas generally I assume that the “ Foreigner” Can’t speak English.
Maybe it’s just from living in the Midwest, but that seems strange to me. I’ve certainly met plenty of people that don’t speak English natively, but I wouldn’t assume that by looks. Where did you have people making that assumption? It might be more of a rural thing?
Tbh I can’t quite remember the specific locations. But it’s almost always adults making the assumption when I was a kid/teen/young-adult, my peers never made that assumption.
Like… once a teacher made the assumption. I guess perhaps I was doing introvert things so he made the assumption?
Lol, no. I grew up in pretty diverse US communities though. I’ve had Asian friends who’ve traveled to the southern states of the US though and have had people talk slow to them and act shocked when they can speak perfect English.
It’s just racism, whether overt or unintentional, it is.
It’s good and safe to assume everyone around you, regardless of skin color or appearance, speaks the local language. And if they don’t, don’t be a dick about it. Pretty simple shit that apparently makes certain asshats in this country uncomfortable.
