I know that Oriental people (especially Chinese, Japanese, and Korean people) are very proud of their heritage, but it boggles my mind that you all changes you're names to English! Or you're parents name you with an English names even though there are soo many unique and beautiful (way better than English names) Oriental names you could have!\n\nWhat do you think? Are you guys really that proud of your heritage or is all a show? \n\nAlso, many of you will say it's hard for people to pronounce, that doesn't make other ethnic folks change their names. I still have my own cultural name and many people have trouble saying it.\n\nSo doesn't that show you guys actually lack pride in your ethnicity? culture? origin?
211239
I don't have an answer but I'd like to share with you my experience of this.I recently worked at a local building society and a co worker of mine was Chinese.He told me he was called Ben but that it wasn't his real name,He'd changed his name to sound more 'westernized '.out of 'feminine curiosity' I asked him his real name,expecting something UN pronounceable............"LEE", was his reply !!!!!
185921
The worst...when people come up to me and say, "Do you know karate?"  That's just stereotypical talk.  I'm Asian, but it doesn't mean I'm Chinese or Japanese.
585548
There are great koreans n there are some not nice ones, as is the case with other races/nationalities. However, this is my general, personal opinion\n\nSome koreans are very proud of their race and/or country. \nI actually respect/like ppl who are proud of their origin/country. However i feel that some koreans overdo it n are too ethnocentric. Race/ethnicity seems to be the overriding factor in their decisionmaking or opinions etc. \n\nThere are a lot of other factors in this life than race alone.\n\nNeedless to say, i have also met some really nice koreans who do not look mainly at ethnicity  :)
571963
I have a number of Asian friends and some of them refer to themselves as oriental. The word oriental means- eastern.\noccidental means western. huh
286106
I agree that it is good manners and a sign of respect to use the modern terminology when talking about different races and cultures. The only thing that bothers me is the way the "names" keep changing.\n\nI took a sociology course last year and one of the chapters in out textbook was devoted to various ethnic cultures. A classmate, while trying to make a discussion point, referred to people from India as being "East Indians," a term that was "politically correct" in our area some years ago. The instructor corrected him, saying that the preferred form was "Indo-Canadian." Every "Indo-Canadian" in the classroom was embarrassed at being singled out.\n\nThe instructor than went on to say that the term was changed to prevent misunderstandings within the Canadian Aboriginal communities, who were traditionally called "Indians." However, Indians are now called "Aboriginals." She then turned to the only Aboriginal person in our classroom and asked him how he and his friends referred to themselves when there were no "white people" around. He said, "Well, we just call ourselves Indians." This got a good laugh out of all of us, but it made me think. Who decides what the correct terms are? Do the people who bear the burden of being referred to as Indo or African or whatever the word may be, get any say in these matters? \n\nI just wish they would stop changing the rules and settle down to something we can all live comfortably with, but I guess that would be against "Human Nature."
65147
>>>>Not to be racist, but it's as if only white people are >>>>allowed to have an identity.\n\nThat's simply not true. \n\nHow many people do you know of who could explain the cultural differences between a Libyan and a Turk? To most Americans they are simply Arabs, white or not. Similarly how many people do you know of who could distinguish between a Boer and a white Kenyan based purely on cultural difference? Both are simply Africans. How many people do you think understand the difference between a Georgian and a Muscovite? How about a Berber and a Taureg? A Kurd and a Sikh? A Lapp and an Norwegian?\n\nYet those are all white people. Quite clearly this cultural ignorance has nothing whatsoever to with skin colur or race.\n\n\n>>>>>Nobody confuses an Irishman with an Italian just \n>>>>>because they are "European".\n\nThat is because America has huge numbers of Italian and Irish immigrants. Try the average American on groups from European areas that haven't emigrated to the US in large numbers. How many people wouldn't confuse a Dane and Norwegian as both being Scandinavian? Or a Frenchman and a Belgian? Or a Spaniard and a Portugese?\n\nFor perhaps the perfect example, even after 20 years of being a major public figure my experience tells me that well over 25% of Americans still don't understand that Arnold Schwarzenegger is not and never has been German. \n\nThe simple fact is that there are far to many cultures and ethnicities in the world to have even a cursory knowledge of them all, even those of us that are interested. We need to lump cultures somehow to get any sort of handle on what is out there. Sometimes that lumping is ridiculously broad, as with your examples of "Africans" and "Asians" but we still need to do that. And African is no more ludicrous as a grouping than “Russian”, and Russians are largely white.\n\nAs we become more and more interested in regions and people we narrow down those divsions. So most Americans can separate out Sicilians and Italians generally. Many now can also separate out Hmong and Vietnamese generally, which is a very fine scale split. \n\nBut the parts of the world we have no reasons to be interested in tend be populated in our minds by "Africans" and "Russians", even though those groupings are more or less meaningless.\n\nBut rest assured it has nothing to do with race. Americans are just as almost as ignorant or European cultural differences as Africans.\n\nBut just to make you fell a bit better, my experience has been that most Africans don't draw any real distinction between Americans and Canadians either. The USA and Canada are usually treated the same way Americans treat Austria and Germany. Everyone more or less knows they're separate countries, but the differences in language, culture and so forth are so small that they feel they can be ignored.\n\nLike I said, nothing to do with race.
406284
Other minorities don't seem to make it as well as orientals. Guess they are jealous. Personally, I've been amazed at the Vietnamese who came to America. They seem to be doing just fine.
84741
Yes, I do. I'm an Indian - from India. I refer to myself as an Asian, bust most of my American friends do not, as they tend not to refer to people from the Indian sub-continent & Russia as Asia, despite belonging to the continent of Asia. They tend to see only South-East Asians as 'Asian' & I've lost track of the number of times people have told me, "You're not Asian, you're Indian!" Which irks me a little.\n\nHope that helped
350768
I love it. There are many Asian American families that have been here for a long time and I think it's about time the Media recognized them to a greater degree. America's supposed to represent for the whole Earth. We have citizens from every bloodline and tribe on the planet. I think this should be seen more often. I think Asian Americans are just awesome anyways.
673633
well there are definitely cultural differences between all countries...the japanese and chinese are quite similar in language and culture because the japanese took the chinese culture hundreds...even thousands of years back but koreans may be different because of what is cool now in korea...you might have noticed that out of all the asian countries, the korean teenagers smoke more, drink more, and they usually try to act more...gangster and highlight their hair and act rude...but I have a lot of korean friends...and many of them are my best friends and they are very different from those koreans that I have just described.  it may also be the family's influences and not just the cultureal differences
25278
Its pretty cool, sounds exotic.\nThank you for answering my question earlier.\nI think its a cool name and theres no mistake.
383668
What is the English identity? Is it the same as it was a generation ago? A century ago? Surely a nation's character is in a continual state of flux and evolution? I don't think there is anything to worry about, this is business as usual for a healthy country.
515814
I'm not so sure on what you're asking, but I think most people want to know about their culture, race, ancestry, etc. because they want to know where they come from.  They want a "sense of belonging" if you will; what and who they can connect to. You can read and learn about other cultures and find it just as interesting, but for them, you can't relate or associate with it,  I suppose. Or, maybe they are looking for something to be proud of; like being able to say, " I'm a descendant of great people who invented this, conquered that, journeyed here," etc. I can't remember who the person was that said this, but I think this quote explains a lot too:\n\n"A people without knowledge of their history is like a tree without roots."\n\nI don't even remember if those are the exact words, but anyhow,  the quote is basically saying that a race or even nationality without knowledge of their people cannot grow as people; hence, "a tree without roots" it ain't gonna grow none!\n\nI hope that my answer has helped you understand this perspective a bit more ;-)
675378
Are you saying that Korean grocery stores should not be allowed to advertise Korean foods to Korean customers (who are most likely the only ones who will be buying them) in Korean? So you're suggesting that they be forced to spell out the words phonetically in English and hope that Koreans will know what the made-up English spelling means? What kind of sense does that make?\n\nHave people completely lost their minds? Why is all of this hatred suddently being directed at anyone and everyone who dares to display knowledge of any language besides English in the United States? What are immigrants supposed to do, have a labotomy in order to delete their native tongue and any memory of their native land or culture so that Americans will not be submitted to hearing other languages besides English under any circumstances whatsoever?\n\nI can't believe how freaking ignorant and xenophobic people are becoming. If you're pissed off about illegal immigration, fine, do something about it: start fining companies that hire illegals huge fines, and the illegal job market will dry up. If you're worried that people don't understand English and won't be able to find a job, then offer free or low-cost English classes at various times and on various days in neighbordhoods where there are lots of immigrants. But stop throwing fits about the fact that some people are able to communicate in TWO languages and choose the language in which they communicate at any point in time based on the context. \n\nGeez...Is it ridiculous to ask for a LITTLE tolerance and common sense?\n\nTO Bluffmike: Dude, your argument makes no sense. So you're saying that in order to avoid becoming like the Chinese, who were able to employ xenophobic, intolerant troops to squelch liberty by killing the protesting Hans, whom they disliked, we should become more intolerant and xenophobic. Does that not seem a little contradictory to you? No, no, no, if we want to avoid the path of the Chinese, we need to encourage TOLERANCE not intolerance.\n\nTo Concerned: Actually, plenty of Americans do move to China and expect to be spoken to in English. My ex-husband travels there all the time and may be transferred there next year. He speaks very little Chinese. Luckily, all the business people in China speak English, so when he's around, they speak English. They would make him an immigrant who doesn't speak the language, dear.\n\nAre you aware that something like 50% of the business in non-English speaking countries in Europe is conducted in English? That's because they're intelligent enough to realize that it's in their best interest to be multilingual. The more languages you speak, the more business you can do with monolinguals, and the more money you make. It's the way of the whole freakin' world. Only citizens of the U.S. seem to think that they should never be forced to speak, or even listen to, another language. Talk about being rude!\n\nJust out of curiosity: when you travel to Europe or Asia on business and are talking to American co-workers, what language do you speak in? English? Then by your own rules, you're being rude. Looks a little stupid when you put the shoe on the other foot, doesn't it?\n\nTO Concerned, again: Incidentally, you misspelled "illiterate" and "their" in a sentence accusing people of being illiterate in their own language. Nice job.
170893
Well to be fair, I'm Asian and I tried fitting in the predominately "white" community of my hometown....but I just wasn't taken seriously as a friend. It's hard to fit in w/ people outside your race b/c there are all these barriers and such.  I mean it's easy for you to say we seclude ourselves, but we don't have a role amongst a group of "whites" except as a token, a mascot if you will. But I think after a few more generations, Asians will be considered Americans instead foreigners.
419888
I am so glad your proud of your heritage, too bad your an idiot to go along with it. As for your question call yourself whatever you want.
98836
i myself am a FULL FLEDGED asian (vietnamese chinese). we stick together because we need each other in this world of hate and racism. we are just scared that we are just going to get made fun of and beaten up. there are just a whole lot of racists in the world. also because we don't really find any other asians to hang out with, and it's cool that we get to meet some of our kind once in a while.