Reflection paper

05 December Judging people by their looks and speech How other people make judgments about my ethnic or birth origin depends upon the person who is judging. Different people judge differently. Some people identify me by my looks. They study my facial features and according to the perceptions of features they have in mind with respect to different ethnicities, they associate me with a group of particular ethnicity. Other people tend to pay attention to my language. If they find that I speak English fluently, they think that I am either a British or an American or Australian etc. If they find that English is my second language, then they think about countries like India and China etc. However, most of the people make judgments from looks.
People sometimes try to guess my birth origin. Normally, when somebody doesn’t know me, he asks me what my ethnic origin is. Normally, my ethnic origin is guessed or asked when I come across strangers.
People cannot tell confidently where I am from because I look as much British as I look American, Canadian or Australian. Basically they pay attention to my language, and try to find similarities with the type of English spoken in the different countries where English happens to be the first language.
I pay most attention to the way I speak. I believe that English is a very good language, and has proper grammar and rules of speech that are being frequently overlooked in the present age. People are relying upon slangs and short-cuts and as this has become a practice, the grammatically correct English is receding. I tend to maintain English in its correct form as I speak. I try to speak it correctly so that the original form of the English language is sustained.
Since I tend to speak English correctly unlike most of the people with whom I share my ethnic origin, people who don’t know me try to judge my ethnic origin from my accent, but very few actually make the correct judgments. I have noticed that when they find that they have guessed my ethnic origin wrong, they tend to be sorry and respectfully ask me where I belong.
Yes, I do trick people about my origin just for fun. I have noticed that people have preconceived notions about people belonging to specific ethnic origins. I like to experience how people would deal me if they thought that I was from a different ethnic origin than what my ethnic origin is. Usually, when I tell lie to someone telling him that I am from the same ethnic origin as he, the other person’s attitude becomes much more over-whelming and welcoming. People tend to develop friendship with people belonging to their ethnic origin.
I guess other people’s ethnic background from their language. Although looks are a very good means to judge a person’s ethnic background, yet they could be deceitful because certain ethnic origins have common features. For instance, Indians and Pakistanis resemble a lot. Likewise, the British and the Americans resemble a lot. So I think judging people’s ethnic background from their language is better.