"nee how", "konichiwa"

[naobot]

My Chinese-Canadian roommate was telling me how the other day on her way home from work, a few guys on the street approached her and said "ni hao". We live in Toronto, one of the most multicultural cities in the world, and which has a very very high Asian population. She said they looked Latino or southern European, and my best guess it that they'

Comments

[chungguksaram]

Something to consider is the fact that, despite being multicultural and diverse, many cities are still segregated. I live in New York City, which is about as diverse as you can get -- demographically speaking, whites are actually a minority (as in less than 50% of the population is white). However, the city is still visibly segregated: there are neighborhoods that are predominantly black, Latino, and Asian. I used to live in two different largely Latino neighborhoods and almost never saw another Asian face. In these neighborhoods I often have strangers make comments, either by saying "ni hao" to me in the street or being called chino, etc., because even though they live in a city that is technically one of the most diverse in the nation, that does not mean they actually see a diversity of people in their daily lives.

[naobot]

This is true. I live in Toronto, which is often compared to NYC. There are certainly neighbourhoods that are very segregated by immigrant background and culture. I was surprised when my friend told me about her incident, though, because it was in an area of town where you definitely will see Asians walking around, and you definitely will see Asians interacting with people of varying ethnicities in English. It would only take a look around to realise there are Asians everywhere, many of them very assimilated into Anglophone life.

[apis_cerana]

Happens pretty often to me! Mostly it's not malicious, I think, but it grates on my nerves. I believe it's bc in NYC Chinese people are the majority when it comes to East Asians. I usually just ignore it, or if they're clearly trying to street harass me I glare at them. It's not worth the time to try to educate inconsiderate assholes tbh.
If they're just being friendly and receptive to a conversation, I explain to them that assuming I'm Chinese or that I don't speak English as my primary language is offensive.

[naobot]

Right, this is why I'm not as bothered in the shopkeeper setting. I don't understand when it's a stranger approaching you just to say "hello", though. I mean, unless they actually try to start conversations with everyone, I can't see how that can be completely innocent and always end up feeling like a zoo animal.

[savagedamsel10]

Quite a few times actually. It's so annoying and patronising because I don't see them greeting white people hello. I usually do nothing but shoot them my best deathly glare except for the one time where this idiot kept on going braying neehowneehowneehow like a donkey repeatedly while I was clearly paying attention on getting into the bus that I turned around and screamed at him "I'm not a fucking donkey arsehole!" I didn't bother waiting for his reaction though.