Originally Posted by
lotalota
lavalyn,
Thank you for the clarification. Does this issue just boil down to a lack of specificity in the question? To me, when someone asks me where I'm from I don't read that as anything other than where do you live. I suppose that's because I would never move anywhere else, not for love or money.
When I saw "ambiguity" and "correct answer" in your post it made me think that you were hinting at some ill intent by the person asking the question.
You're welcome.
That's about half of the annoyance for me.
Originally Posted by lotalota
Although some people may be uncomfortable I'm still going to be curious. The way I see it, they always have the right to say "I don't want to discuss that" or "I don't want to talk right now". I'll respect that. But I'm not going to hold myself back from meeting interesting people (one of the great joys of traveling) just because I don't know who might be made uncomfortable by what I consider to be a simple, general question.
I would hope that I am indeed an interesting person, of course. I daresay that I am an interesting person because of my life experiences, such as my travelling time
. I am not particularly thrilled when the implied question is "where are your parents from," since that says you found me interesting due to the colour of my skin. I am not thrilled at all when the real question is "where were you born" for the same reason.
I get a great deal of stereotyping as it is; follow-up questions I've heard include "do you people all watch Japanese anime?"
You're going to have to forgive me if you think I'm being overly sensitive after that kind of questioning.