It's ironic when I did not have the intention to fool other people, they are fooled and when I had the intention to fool them, they are soooo not fooled.. I did not fool others verbally, but they were just fooled just by the way I looked. Let me describe the way I look. I have black short hair, dark skin, average-sized eyes, average height, and I am Chinese. (Refer to the side of the blog) But people tend to think I am Malay. And that's understandable. People tend to mistake my ethnicity, but recently, strangers that I just met had their own ideas of what my nationality is. I thought I looked so Malaysian, and then the comments and queries from strangers made me think twice.
The first incident was when I was at Prangin Mall with my sisters and her friends at a bra store. Suddenly the saleswoman approached me while I was scanning through the weird-looking bras and asked me "Are you Indonesian?" The moment I heard her question, I laughed out loud. I told her that I am a Sarawakian. And she just nodded. And she asked us if we came to Penang to work, and I answered her, "Urm, we come here to study.." I could not hide my amusement and I was clearly grinning that moment. The saleswoman was smiling sweetly and looked at the five of us and nodded "Good, good." Then I nodded along and wondered, if only we were really Indonesians and we came here to work, will the same comment come out of her mouth?
The second incident happened the day right after the first incident. This second incident took place at a bus stop near the Language Centre. Me and my friend, Hema, just came back from swimming practice and we were like, dead tired, man.. We talked and talked but not even one bus came that time. Then, suddenly, a Chinese guy appeared. Apparently, he just came back from jogging. He asked us, in English, with his Mainland China accent, how long have we been waiting there. I answered him "Half an hour." Then, out of the blue, he asked me "Are you from Thailand?" I was like, hehe, with an amused facial expression, corrected him and said that I am from Sarawak, Malaysia. I even told him that I am actually Chinese, but I am a mixed-blood of Chinese and Melanau.
The third incident, took place at the Language Centre's bus stop again. And the incident happened just yesterday. There were these two girls, one with tudung and one without tudung, waiting at the bus stop with me. They were conversing in a foreign language, which I finally detected as Thai language. Suddenly, the Thailand girl who wore the tudung eyed me with an interested look and asked me something. At first, I thought she was speaking in Thai language to me, but when I asked "huh?" she repeated her question -"Where are you from?" Inside my mind, I was like, not again, not this question. I've had enough of this questions for the past few days. No wonder I noticed both of them kept checking on me earlier. I thought they were laughing at my slippers, and thank God, no, they weren't. I answered them, with the same amusing feeling, telling them that I am from Sarawak, Malaysia. And she was like smiling, saying that she thought I was from Thailand too. She informed me that she and her friend were from Thailand and I was like, "Oh, i see.." And pretended that I just realized it though I knew it all along. ;)
Actually, I am not the only one in the family who faced this looks-fooling crisis. Both of my elder sisters were facing the same circumstances too. My eldest sister was mistaken by her best friend's family's friend as their Indonesian maid when she went shopping with her best friend's family, which I find amusing till now. My second sister, on the other hand, was mistaken as an international student from Japan during her first year in the university. It was not easy being mistaken as international student, she said, for the other students did not dare to approach her, thinking that they need to speak a really good English to interact with her. Lol.
Me, a Thailand girl? Maybe, I gotta do a research on my family background to see if I have ancestors from Thailand. Or else, why do people got fooled when we don't even try?
The first incident was when I was at Prangin Mall with my sisters and her friends at a bra store. Suddenly the saleswoman approached me while I was scanning through the weird-looking bras and asked me "Are you Indonesian?" The moment I heard her question, I laughed out loud. I told her that I am a Sarawakian. And she just nodded. And she asked us if we came to Penang to work, and I answered her, "Urm, we come here to study.." I could not hide my amusement and I was clearly grinning that moment. The saleswoman was smiling sweetly and looked at the five of us and nodded "Good, good." Then I nodded along and wondered, if only we were really Indonesians and we came here to work, will the same comment come out of her mouth?
The second incident happened the day right after the first incident. This second incident took place at a bus stop near the Language Centre. Me and my friend, Hema, just came back from swimming practice and we were like, dead tired, man.. We talked and talked but not even one bus came that time. Then, suddenly, a Chinese guy appeared. Apparently, he just came back from jogging. He asked us, in English, with his Mainland China accent, how long have we been waiting there. I answered him "Half an hour." Then, out of the blue, he asked me "Are you from Thailand?" I was like, hehe, with an amused facial expression, corrected him and said that I am from Sarawak, Malaysia. I even told him that I am actually Chinese, but I am a mixed-blood of Chinese and Melanau.
The third incident, took place at the Language Centre's bus stop again. And the incident happened just yesterday. There were these two girls, one with tudung and one without tudung, waiting at the bus stop with me. They were conversing in a foreign language, which I finally detected as Thai language. Suddenly, the Thailand girl who wore the tudung eyed me with an interested look and asked me something. At first, I thought she was speaking in Thai language to me, but when I asked "huh?" she repeated her question -"Where are you from?" Inside my mind, I was like, not again, not this question. I've had enough of this questions for the past few days. No wonder I noticed both of them kept checking on me earlier. I thought they were laughing at my slippers, and thank God, no, they weren't. I answered them, with the same amusing feeling, telling them that I am from Sarawak, Malaysia. And she was like smiling, saying that she thought I was from Thailand too. She informed me that she and her friend were from Thailand and I was like, "Oh, i see.." And pretended that I just realized it though I knew it all along. ;)
Actually, I am not the only one in the family who faced this looks-fooling crisis. Both of my elder sisters were facing the same circumstances too. My eldest sister was mistaken by her best friend's family's friend as their Indonesian maid when she went shopping with her best friend's family, which I find amusing till now. My second sister, on the other hand, was mistaken as an international student from Japan during her first year in the university. It was not easy being mistaken as international student, she said, for the other students did not dare to approach her, thinking that they need to speak a really good English to interact with her. Lol.
Me, a Thailand girl? Maybe, I gotta do a research on my family background to see if I have ancestors from Thailand. Or else, why do people got fooled when we don't even try?
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