For goodness sake, what's the big deal?

[anotheoldgit]

http://www.guardian.c...-brown-answer-curious

People are forever curios, what is wrong in asking someone "where do you come from".?

Colour of one's skin, strange attitude, unusual accent, anything else that sets one apart, people will often say "now that's an unusual accent", what part of the country do you come from? etc, etc.

Do you think this person is being over sensitive?.

[Ankou]

ok aog, where do you come from ?

[ummmm]

Silly.

I would ask the same questions..

[Quinlad]

I do actually.

[jno]

That's not what she's complaining about, is it? She is annoyed because they refuse to believe her answer.

[sp1814]

AOG

I don't actuall think she's being oversensitive if someone has ignorantly asked where she's from.

The correct question would be "Where does your family originate from?"

Asking "Where are you from?" when you've been speaking to someone and can hear they have a British accent is just plain stupid.

[Gromit]

// Do you think this person is being over sensitive?. //

Not really , she has answered their question TWICE and they refuse to believe her. That must get annoying if it happens a lot.

[swedeheart]

I would ask (and often have done so) "Where are your genes from?"

[LoftyLottie]

Tesco's actually Swedheart. But I need new pair.

[Ankou]

i would say 'george at asda'.

[vulcan]

you're right jno, it goes beyond curiosity and becomes nosiness at best and downright intrusiveness at worst.If they would accept the first answer ok,but I've lived with this and they just keep going.

[LoftyLottie]

SNAP! lol

[Ankou]

come on aog, where do you come from ?

[swedeheart]

*thwacks lottie and ankou*

[jno]

goodness knows why they ask you, swedeheart, it must be obvious from the horned helmet on your head and the picture of Odin on your T-shirt

[Ankou]

horned helmet and odin ?

is it norfolk ?

[LoftyLottie]

I must admit that I do ask people with foreign accents in our town where they come from, but only if we are in conversation anyway. And people with foreign accents are not common where I live. We even have people with Geordie and Scottish accents!!

[LoftyLottie]

Excuse me Ankou - Leave Norfolk out of this!!

[Ankou]

happily !!

[swedeheart]

http://i48.tinypic.com/akc3m0.jpg (Ankou I'm a Swedish Ms living in Sweden.) Don't get asked myself jno but I do ask others when I feel they trust me not to be a racist, and asking about genes instead of "Where you from?" is appreciated, it seems to me. (And in Swedish it's "jeans" vs. "gener", so I don't get any smart @ss replies either, ha ha ha!)

[anotheoldgit]

She is just being awkward, she knows quite well what they mean.

It's like a Spaniard asking a person of English decent, (who happens to been born and lives in Barcelona), "where do you come from"?

One would not say Barcelona, one is more likely to say my parents are English, but I was born here.

What's the problem?