Just turn the question back at them.
Them: Where are you from?
You: Where are you from?
Them: Anytown.
You: Anytown? No kidding. What street?
Them: Main Street.
You: Main Street? I don’t believe it. What house number?
Them: 123.
You: 123? Do you know John Doe from 125 Main Street?
Them: No.
You: Yeah, you must’ve known him. 6 ft tall, brown eyes, ran for city council, got arrested for protesting the nuclear power plant?
Them: There’s no nuclear power plant in Anytown!
You: Sorry, I must’ve gotten mixed up with AnyCity over in Podunkistan. You look kind of Podunkistanian to me.
By that time they’ve forgotten their original question.
I used to get this a lot, when I was an expat. It does get tiresome. If I wasn’t in the town where I lived, I would answer with the name of my town. (This happened once when ruadh was visiting. The questioner, a cab driver, responded with “No, that is gypsy place! You are not gypsy!”) Sometimes I’d just ask them where they thought I was from. No one ever guessed it correctly, as the US is apparently a very obscure location.
I guess this didn’t happen often in the town where I lived, because everyone knew who I was: the English teacher. Which meant that I was obviously from England. Duh.
“I’m a preacher’s kid/ army brat/ circus performer. ***From ***is a bit of a nebulous concept. I was born in Anyplace/ I went to High School in ThatTown/ I’m currently in ThisTown”
Choose the combination that best suits your situation or whim. Usually works for me.
I sometimes ask why they want to know. If they mention my accent I tell them I don’t have an accent. The older I get, the less willing to be imposed on I’ve become.
Tell them you have a speech impediment and thank you very much for pointing it out, you’ve been in therapy for years and no one has said anything for so long that you thought you might have grown out of it.
Abroad, my straight answer is “Spain”. Perhaps half the time, it triggers requests for flamenco (sadly, using a sharpened vynil of Lola Flores’ Greatest Hits to perform a tracheotomy on a moron is illegal in most jurisdictions). I’m from the other end of the country. Oh and no, my foreparents did not harass any “Injuns”, the direct lines stayed home (two of them eventually immigrated to Spain from Italy and Lorraine) and the uncles went to harass the Flemish instead.:smack::smack::smack:
In Spain, answering “Navarra” has been known to trigger political speeches, “oh, the weather is cool there!” (not in my end of Navarra, which looks more like Arizona than the Smoky Mountains), remarks about Sanfermines ranging from the admirative to the offensive and questions of “from Navarra City?”. Then again, saying that I was born in Pamplona has been known to trigger “Pamplona capital or Pamplona province?” And no, hitting people with hardcover map books is not legal either (Pamplona is the capital, Navarra the province). :smack::smack::smack::smack:
When people insist in asking for details, though… HAH. From Pamplona since before the Romans set up camp, my mother was from a different town and culture, raised in another town, my house is in a fourth one, I currently work in a fifth but rent a flat in a sixth… Normally people’s eyes glaze over by the time I’m at the third place and they stop asking questions.
Maybe the OP should be equally detailed. Instead of saying, for example, “from Spain”, start with the third version straight off. “Oh, I’m from the High Navarra, that’s the Spanish part of Navarra, the French part is called the Low Navarra(1), I was born in Pamplona, which is the capital, my family have lived there since forever and a century but my mother was born in Barcelona and…” eyes glaze over Most of the time I’m just too polite to inflict that on people, but I can certify it works.
You must be American. Many Americans wonder about accents if they can’t decipher, I believe it is a combination of natural curiosity and more rarely, xenophobia. I can usually tell where you come from judging minimally from appearance and accent… It’s just a natural ability I have. I am simply very curious as a student of language. If you are a native American with an unusual accent I might be even more of a grill and heel… you shouldn’t take it personally.