I have traveled some cities in the US and some countries in Europe so far. Then, some people who just passed through me said "ni hao" to me.
I am a Japanese girl and I know that it is difficult to distinguish Chinese, Korean and Japanese. It's okay if they don't understand which country I'm from, but I don't really understand why they say "ni hao" estimating I am Chinese and give me this kind of unnecesary greetings. (I'm sure that if I look like the local people, they would not say "hello" or whatever to me.) They were not trying to draw my attention to sell something, but they were ordinary people who were just walking on the streets.
Why are they saying "ni hao" when they see asian people? What are they thinking when they say it?
To be honest, I feel annoyed when strangers say "ni hao" to me. Thus I wanna know what makes them to say such a thing to understand them.
I'm so sorry for my terrible English grammer!
Why do some non-asian people say "ni hao" to Asians although they dont know their real nationality?
- Posted:
- 3+ months ago by J222
- Topics:
- europe, people, asian, fars, real, cities, passed, countries, nationality
Details:
Responses (2)
Most likely a failed attempt to be kind. It may seem as if they're being rude but just remember it's their way of trying to be friendly.
Quite commonly, people who have an interest in Japan or Korea and so on can distinguish one Asian from another. From this you can tell that if someone says "konnichiwa" or another Japanese greeting to you, that they may be someone who has a huge interest in Japan and therefore, can easily distinguish a Japanese person among others.
I hope this answers your question. If not, I'm sure someone else will have a better explanation.
P.S. Your English is great! Much better than most of the population nowadays.
If they were just trying to be friendly as you say, I was very rude to them... because I ignored them with a frown thinking they were making fun of me. I feel sorry if they were such nice people...:'(
Thank you for your answer!