I know this may seem dumb to many of you, but I (as well as many Westerners) are unable to tell various Asian people apart just by being around them. I can point out someone from Thailand or the Phillipines, but I can't really tell the difference between Korean, Chinese and Japanese people. If I understood the languages, then of course I'd know who was who, but I don't know these either.
Are there certain things to look for? I know most Asian people can easily differentiate between various nationalities and I've always wondered how.
It's not 100%, but their clothes. It doesn't always hold true in other parts of the world...especially Austin where everyone seems to adopt their own style... at least when I went to school there some 10 years ago. In Hawaii though, it's a piece of cake spotting the Japanese tourists.
Hmmm, there's been a thread like this before if I remember rightly. :? I think the consensus then was that it's quite difficult! Some people say they can recognise different East Asian nationalities easily, and other people (I think it was the majority... but I may be wrong) say they find it difficult to distinguish between certain nationalities (or maybe I should say 'races', because 'nationality' is more like what you have on the passport which has nothing to do with appearance! ><)
Only speaking personally, I find that I can tell who is a Japanese person, but I can't say how I can do it :sorry:... I think that it's because I have known more Japanese people and very few of other East Asian countries. So it seems to me there's something distinguishable about the facial structures and eyes. But I can't pinpoint exactly what that 'something' is... probably similar to what enables you to tell someone from Thailand or Philippines (which I probably wouldn't be able to do)
Sorry not to be very helpful it just seems like there is no clear answer to your question.
Whenever I'm near Asians whom I want to know the nationality of, I try to eavesdrop on their conversation (I know- this probably isn't very polite of me!). Even if I can't understand the language, I can still pick out how their words are pronounced. Unfortunately, I can only differentiate between Cantonese, Japanese, and a little bit of Mandarin. I wouldn't be able to tell if someone's Korean, Vietnamese, etc.
This, of course, is assuming that they're traveling in a fairly homogenous group, and that one hasn't learned the language of another of a different ethnicity, which renders this method far from satisfactory.
I've heard a lot of Asian Americans taking the alllooksame.com test having some difficulties distinguishing nationalities, so I wouldn't worry about it too much.
Bone structure and the shape of the face are the main pointers. But a lot of it is intuition especially if the person isn't speaking in their native tongue and you don't know the different dialects. I sometimes don't know why I know someone's Chinese they just look Chinese to me or Japanese or Korean. I guess it has something to with growing up around Asians. I mean I could give a formula that I sometimes use but it doesn't always work so I wouldn't wanna tell you wrong.
There isn't a huge difference in any of them, it's very hard to tell, like, if a Korean was walking down a street in Japan, he wouldn't be taken as a forigener, yet if a westerner was walking in Japan, he'd stand out like a swore thumb 9 times out of 10.
It's like you can't really tell the difference between Europeans.
It's rude to stereotype people, the people who say they are good at differentiating Asians have nothing to be proud of. It only shows how good at categorising people into groups for your own personal glory.
You dont get a prize for guessing correctly either.
While I can usually tell Europeans apart, it's not always possible. The only real clues are the accent and their last names (same as with Asians). I guess this is how people really tell in Asian countries as well since there is no real racial cue to let you know the difference.
It's rude to stereotype people, the people who say they are good at differentiating Asians have nothing to be proud of. It only shows how good at categorising people into groups for your own personal glory.
So should I feel bad b/c I can differentiate people from other nationalities? It's not bad to categorize people racially... it's if you percieve one as less/more than another. I hope people notice I'm white when they see me.
The thing is about all-look-same.com is that it's utter and complete bullsh%%%---- You can't just take a random selection of 2nd and 3rd generation Asian New Yorkers and then get any sort of meaningful results. You might as well pick 10 RANDOM people in general and ask people if they can name what race they are---- it's a quiz that implies some impungement of character based on your score, and it's completely worthless in general.
My girlfriend who is Japanese native, and many other Japanese I know are no better than I at guessing the race of Asians, something we found when we tried to ask directions from a Korean we thought might be Japanese, because of the Japanese lettering on the stand he worked at.
If you take say, "Beauty Standards", say a nation's idea of the for lack of a better phrase, perfect woman, yamato nadeshiko, it's quite easy to discern the diferences between Chinese, Korean, and Japanese women...
What makes people exciting and interesting to us, are the differences. My girlfriend is constantly touching the bridge of my nose to feel the depth of it, and then touching her own... I notice this on more Japanese now myself, and I find it quite beautiful to notice these little things, rather than caring what race someone is to begin with.
Now, show me two hipsters, one from New York, and one from Shibuya, show me 20, I'll tell you who is from where, each time.
It's rude to stereotype people, the people who say they are good at differentiating Asians have nothing to be proud of. It only shows how good at categorising people into groups for your own personal glory.
You dont get a prize for guessing correctly either.
I'm not supporting racism but there is a difference between being racist and being able to tell someone's ethnic roots. There is NOTHING wrong with it unless it's being used as a tool for racism. Yes, some people do go around looking down their noses at certain racial groups. But that and just simply being able to tell a difference between groups are two COMPLETELY different things.
And it isn't that I take pride in the fact that I can sometimes tell the difference, it's just a fact that I can. And it does come in handy because asking someone their race is rude. If you want to talk about being rude and racist then something you should know is that going, "Hi, what race are you?" is ruuuuuuuuuuuuuude.
Also being able to tell the difference can prevent racism from coming up in a convo with an Asian. Most get very offended if you ask them their race in the form of "Are you Chinese/Japanese/Korean?" and they're really a different group then the one you mentioned. If you don't need to ask then you don't risk hitting a sensetive button.
One other thing, based on the response above. What a lot of people don't even realise is that there are built in predudices at times, for all of the Asian races as well... When we think 'racism' we think of 'whitey'... But I've heard disparaging remarks about whole different 'untrustable' races from various Asians...
Predjudice is a frailty of the human condition, and sometimes it's not the sort of predjudice that we asociate with hate... sometimes it's just there, unfortunately.
I'm not supporting racism but there is a difference between being racist and being able to tell someone's ethnic roots. There is NOTHING wrong with it unless it's being used as a tool for racism. Yes, some people do go around looking down their noses at certain racial groups. But that and just simply being able to tell a difference between groups are two COMPLETELY different things.
And it isn't that I take pride in the fact that I can sometimes tell the difference, it's just a fact that I can. And it does come in handy because asking someone their race is rude. If you want to talk about being rude and racist then something you should know is that going, "Hi, what race are you?" is ruuuuuuuuuuuuuude.
Also being able to tell the difference can prevent racism from coming up in a convo with an Asian. Most get very offended if you ask them their race in the form of "Are you Chinese/Japanese/Korean?" and they're really a different group then the one you mentioned. If you don't need to ask then you don't risk hitting a sensetive button.
I didnt mention anything about racism i said stereotyping, there's a difference between the two words.
I dunno about you but i dont like being categorised and labelled into what i should look like being from X,Y,Z ethnic group, or how i should dress, talk, act, etc...
I am a person not some animal in a picture book >.>
Just like you. I'm asian, I can't tell who is american or european because I'm not live in those countries. but as you told I can distinguish all any of them.
for example
Japanese people,their noses have more aquiline and prominent than Chinese people and look at the Chinese eyes they have some differences to distinguish. Their eyes have slender than the Japanese (Japanese eyes are sharper and larger than the Chinese) for Korean look at a shape of their faces and their noses are closer to the chinese than Japanese people.
hmm... why don't you guys tell the different between American and European?
well i am from europe and some people here say they could see a difference between polish people and french people. or, lets say german people and russian people. (they are no racists, either)
but i cant.
you may could tell the difference between native americans and americans -- but between europeans and americans? i would say no because most of the amercans are mixed and once immigrants from... europe!
i think in former times lets say in 1800 it was more easy to make differences between the races of people but now it is most difficult!
people get in a plane and settle down there and there... rising families and so on, and each race mixes with the other.
there is a project where you could re-code your dna to see from which race you are. it comes from the us!
i am european and cant see a difference between european people. plus i cant say: this person is from the us. plus i cant make a difference between asian people.
but howdy i can live with it. i see one and say: this one is black, asian or european and thats enough information for me
In my humble opinion, I still think being able to tell a person by their racial, ethnic, etc. has more to do with the culture more instead of appearance. I can tell when a person is Chinese or Japanese by their names. Like if someone has a names such as "Yamaguchi or Takahashi" to me, that would mean they are Japanese. But if someone were to have a name such as "Qing, Zang, or Chang" there's a chance that the person is Chinese. It's gets harder, when the person is Korean, at least for me it is. Because Li and Chan are also Korean.
But more often than not, people who stereotype an Asian being Chinese, is only ignorance in my opinion. You do have to have some knowledge about the culture before you'll know weather a person is Chinese, or Japanese, or Korean, etc. And some people don't have alot of knowledge about Asian cultures, (not that I do :sorry: ) But that's just how I feel.
So, in order to be able to tell weather a person is Japanese falls more onto how he/she behaves than how they look.
er, i tihnk you notice the differences by their fashion. japanese have cool hairstyles, dresses that are reall cool and bold too. if u stay in singapore, u will know the difference between koreans, chinese and singaporean chinese too. =) Most probabaly style, culture (behaviour), language.
In the past i felt hard to distinguish westerners from different countries but after doing some homework it is quite okay.
How to tell if someone is Japanese . . . ? Hm? Wait, wait - I know!
1) Can they pilot a giant robot? If they can pilot a giant robot, then they must be Japanese! No, wait . . . I've seen Russians, Germans, and French do that, too, so I bet other Asians can pilot giant robots as well. Hm . . .
2) Hey, are they a ninja ? Because Ninja is a Japanese word, so if someone was a Ninja, then they must be Japanese, because Chinese would be like Shaolin Monks or something! Oh, shoot, I don't think this one is any good after all either. I mean, there was that Beverly Hills Ninja, and not all Japanese are ninja, and if you met a ninja, they probably are too sneaky for you to know it. Sigh . . .
3) Oh, oh, oh, can they slurp up ramen noodles? I mean, what could be more ubiquitously Japanese than slurping up ramen noodles, ne? Uh . . . wait, shoot, ramen noodles actually were introduced from China, so that means there is probably a fair chance that Chinese could slurp them with skill, too. And come to think about it, I can slurp ramen as well, and I not even remotely Japanese. Sa . . .
4) What if they are a sumo wrestler? Isn't sumo like the Japanese national sport? So, if someone were one of those thundering mounds of meat, they must be Japanese. Eh? You say the current yokozuna is Mongolian? Criminy! So, being a sumo wrestler isn't a dead giveaway either? Gosh . . .
5 etc.)
Drives a Honda! No? Lots of people do?
Eats rice! Not even close? Many, many asians eat rice?
Lives in Japan! What, ethnic Koreans live there, too?
Rides a train all the time! So do many Europeans?
Had their home squashed by Godzilla! As did New Yorkers a few years back?
I quit! This is too hard! I don't know how to pick a Japanese out of the crowd without asking. Maybe you could just develop psychic powers . . .
Korean scientists allegedly produced what they call, "the average Korean face". The Korean Institute of Science and Technology information (KISTI) working together with the Catholic Institute for Applied Anatomy made computer tomographic scans of Koreans last year and with the aid of a supercomputer produced a "digital Korean" -- a 3-D video of the average Korean's physical structure.
Perception of Facial Esthetics by Native Chinese Participants by Using Manipulated Digital Imagery Techniques
Sample population
The Chinese rater group consisted of 85 native Chinese participants from Beijing. Of these raters, 38 were women, and 47 were men (45% women and 55% men). Their mean age was 26.3 ﾂ± 5.3 years.
Manipulated digital imagery technique
An adult native Chinese male and female stimulus face (A) was selected for digital distortion (Figures 1 and 2 ). Both subjects were 24 years old and were chosen because they exhibited Class I occlusions with average dental proclination and balanced lower facial skeletal proportions previously established as norms for this population. They were meant to be representative of the average facial profile for this ethnic group. Because the Chinese have a shorter than average anterior cranial base and a dental proclination greater than Caucasian norms, their ﾂ"normalﾂ" profile would be classified, by Caucasian standards, as bimaxillary protrusive.29,30 This profile was selected as representative of the ﾂ"normalﾂ" Chinese participant.
FIGURE 1. The ﾂ"normalﾂ" Chinese male stimulus face (A) with a balance of dental and skeletal proportions
FIGURE 2. The ﾂ"normalﾂ" Chinese female stimulus face (A) with a balance of dental and skeletal proportions
There are certain features of face that are more frequently observed among one of the three Asian nations than among the remaining two, although even such features are not exclusive to one and could be found in the other two at somewhat lesser frequency. These girls from the site, for example:
I'm sorry for the oversized pics!!!
Funny, but true, isn't it?
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it just seems like there is no clear answer to your question.
