How do you identify foreigners?

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From Korea..

It's really easy for us... Any Western people are all foreginers to us(usually). People from other Asian countries usually stick out as well... By characteristics in their faces like slightly flatter noses than us, etc..

Also, I don't think Virne is entirely right. Sure, it applies to people like my mom(patent attorney, so she goes abroad a lot), but it doesn't work on me, and a couple of other people I know. Every American I've talked to since coming to Korea(mostly English conversation teachers) say that I have a Bostonian accent, and can't tell the difference between me and any other person from Boston, which is because I lived in Boston since I was six, and came back when I was ten. But my nationality is still South Korea, so I'm a foreigner, right?

 

The IQ & nationality matching isn't so stupid as people would like to think. Average IQ differs among nations, from 90 to 120. In the latter case it's a whole + 1 INT bonus With Americans, I guess it's a culture thing more than real IQ problems. To Europeans, their culture appears to be focused heavily on physical aggression and lacking in the regions of proper manners. Someone who has a knack for getting physical and behaves in an anti-refined way tends to be taken for slightly retarded at best. Call it Mac Culture, whatever. When it comes to individuals, I don't really care.

In Poland, you know foreigners from looks. Even if they're half-Polish, they still look different. Face in most cases, but not only. Certain patterns of fashion popular in the West... or in the East are also very alien here.

Another helpful factor is standard foreigner uncertainty. You just know the guy isn't from here. No matter where 'here' is

The most important one is speech. Polish is very complicated and even most of native speakers speak it badly. So badly, I'd rather speak another language to them sometimes ... and I'm quite sure they would understand English sooner than proper Polish. A foreigner simply won't learn it well. Unless he stops being a foreigner and settles here for long years. Still, his grammar might be spotless, same for syntax and interpunction (I used to get emails from a foreigner girl and she didn't make a single mistake), even word stress, accents and setence melody. But the sounds a person gives out will be different. Always. Except for immediate neighbours of the Slavic stock who still speak strangely but are sometimes taken for real Poles.

 

From Australia

Well, here in Australia, it's very hard to identify someone who is a 'foreigner' as a large part of our population is foreign immigrants, so for the purposes of this question and at the risk of p***ing some people off, I'm going to use 'foreigner' to mean anyone not Aboriginal or, I guess, 'Australian-caucasian'

So with that said, a foreigner to me is easiest distinguished by accent, skin tones, speech patterns and dress sense I guess - not necessarily all at once but maybe a combination of a couple. Though that again changes according to the different areas of Australia you're in.

 

New Zealand

Too many people in New Zealand are immigrants. It is nigh-impossible to tell if someone is an immigrant or was born in the country. I have a friend who is a 4th generation New Zealander however he is of a Chinese background. He still retains his accent and values if not culture.

There only way to identify a foreigner is to ask if they were born here. The only way that stands out is the American accent. There are very few American immigrants in New Zealand and those with an American accent are usually tourists.

 

Personally I've never had any trouble being a foreigner in other countries.(maybe its because I fit in everywhere ). otherwise, i've noticed that people who look at things nobody else does are usually tourists, foreigners, or lost.

 

I attended a secondary school in Wales, and refrained from speaking to anyone in the school for two hours. They all thought I was welsh until I spoke and my glaring american accent gave me away.
Only in the british isles can a pale guy like me blend in. However, they did not have bushy, non-styled or uncombed hair. Precisely the opposite, 80% of the teenagers had overdone, gelled-up hair.

As for identifying foreigners in my hometown? In a small town in upstate NY, we identify foreigners by the fact that we haven't known them since kindergarten!

 

Well, to be serious, here in Sweden it tends to be pretty easy to spot touristy foreigners by the fact that they look happy and are polite and actually seem to notice other people. One prejudice about Swedes is that we are very introvert and it is pretty dead on. Any warm, open, happy person is immediately viewed with suspiscion and discomfort hereabouts.

 

There's hardly an indication. With things as they are, it's not as easy to see who's a foreigner and who isn't than to know who belongs (or should belong) to the mother country.

 

It is many things, for me. The "obvious" stuff such as looks, accent and such are easy. Often it is the way people dress, even the way they do theitr hair. There are small, subtle digns. Body language, mannerisms, the like.

*shrug*

 

@ Arabwel

Thank you. Please give some details!

 

It is hard to go into details, but here in the north it's often clothes that do not fit the weather, being either too little, too much, and still "shiny new".... the way people hold themselves is often a clear giveaway, too. They're not accustomed to our climate.

It's more of a feeling than anything else.... of course, more often than not it al comes down to the accent. For one, speaking FInnish without an accent uis damned hard. Secondly, the possibility of someone speaking English being either a) foreign or b) speaking to someone foreign are pretty substantial, so by observing the accent it can be deter mined which it is in a given case.

It's pretty hard to explain, really. *shrug*

 

Okay, fair enough. Thanks for your help.

To be honest, my knowledge of Finland is rather poor. What I do know is positive. The land is supposed to be exquisitely beautiful and the peopel kind and well studied - albeit reserved.

[snip]

I have the sinking feeling I typed something that sounded rather naive.

[ January 03, 2004, 15:37: Message edited by: Taluntain ]

 

ROFLMAO...

[snip]

And the people are NOT nice...

And your sinking feeling... ya got it!

And how do i identify foreigners... They do not seem paranoid... being paranoid is teached in the schools here.

[ January 03, 2004, 15:42: Message edited by: Taluntain ]

 

I disagree with you, Joaquin. I spent the summer driving around Sweden (circumnavigated both lakes), and I found you Swedish to be among some of the warmest people I've ever met. We were taken out to lunch and shown how to find the not-so-touristy stretches of lakefront by two couples we met in Askersund. The mechanic who fixed our VW bus in Orebro invited us out to go swimming with him and his friends, and we did. Had a riotous time. Everywhere we went people were friendly, inquisitive and generous. And I find it remarkably welcoming that exactly everyone spoke English. (I didn't, and don't, as many anglophone tourists do, *expect* the Swedes to speak my language, and I felt a bit silly that all my Swedish was horribly mangled and came from a phrase book.)

Maybe things are different in Stockholm, or maybe it was due to the twenty plus hours of daylight, but everyone I met was delightful.

 

Well of course we are nice! We just dont tend to be overly open, and actually the weather does make a huge difference. Quite a difference between a Swede in the summer and one in winter. I dont know much about Stockholm as I have only been there once as a baby but I do know that they are all jerks.

 

In Scotland, anyone who is trying to get their children to swim in the north sea (the one with the arctic around the corner) is probably foreign. Or a complete pratt.

 

Whenever I see happy peeps lingering about, savoring the oppulent beauty of our decadent cities - instead of running frantically and ever busy around the place, nagging and lamenting how things go downhill all the while - I just KNOW: Foreigners!

 

Norway here.

I've spent much time at "tourist traps", places where both foreigners and natives visit, especially during summer. The general observations I've made - and mind you, these have been accurate in every case where I've been close enough to hear them speak, I've found the following:

If a group of people talk especially loud, they are a) German, b) American.

Two or more SHORT women together, big brown eyes and SHORT dark hair: Southern France, Spain or Italy.

Pale, almost white skin, AND/OR very sunburned and red: British.

Women with eyebrows plucked away and reapplied as a thin line with pencil: Also British.

Women looking very business like, wearing pumps and a suit (suit jacket and skirt in same fabric): French

Elderly couples in casual attire where man has white floppy hat and sunglasses, woman has permanented hair, both wearing white or light grey comfy shoes: American

Asian men in suits: Japanese
(Or to be exact, most Asian looking tourists are Japanese... perhaps people in other Asian countries can't afford/don't like going to Norway?)

I know these are generalizations, and that there are probably lots of people from these countries who don't look like this, but still, these are typical cases.