By Sarah Han
I stumbled upon this brilliant infographic explaining that it’s never ok to ask a woman if she’s pregnant. It inspired me to make this .gif (with the help of Melissa Small), based on something that happens a lot to me and, apparently, to a lot of other Asian American people. I’m Korean American (and one who isn’t fluent in any second language) and it still blows my mind that strangers (mostly men) greet me with “konnichiwa” in San Francisco, a city where Asians make up 33.3% of the population. If the above .gif seems a little ridiculous to you, that probably means you’re smart enough to understand why you shouldn’t greet someone in a language you assume they speak. But if you’re confused about why it’s not cool to say “konnichiwa” to a random Asian person, even if they’re Japanese, let me spell it out for you:
First, go visit this old-school site. We not all same.
Statistically speaking, you’d probably have a better chance saying “Ni hao” and be correct about the ethnic background of your victim. According to the 2010 US Census, 21% of San Francisco’s population is Chinese (only 1.3% is Japanese).
When you try to speak to me in another language, you’re assuming I don’t speak English. That’s not winning you any points.
And finally, being a creep in another language doesn’t make you less creepy.
