# How do you tell asian people apart? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [July 12, 2009, 3:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-tell-asian-people-apart/502733 "2009-07-12T03:03:03Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Risha](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/5fc32e/32.png) [@Risha](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Risha)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2009, 2:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-tell-asian-people-apart/502733/21 "2009-07-12T14:21:13Z")
> [@ShibbOleth](#): > > Why do you need to? I don’t care what most “white” people’s ethnic background is? And if I note it at all, then it’s because of their name. Heh. My first thought when I saw the OP was of Margaret Cho: “I get nervous when people say to me, ‘I just can’t tell any of you Asians apart!’ Um, why do you have to tell us apart? Are we gonna be separated for some reason?” ---
**Author:** ![Mangosteen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Mangosteen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangosteen)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2009, 2:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-tell-asian-people-apart/502733/22 "2009-07-12T14:38:22Z")
> [@sandra\_nz](#): > > Do this quiz, and you will see how different various asian people look. > > [http://alllooksame.com/exam\_room.php](http://alllooksame.com/exam_room.php) This quiz is a joke. They found the least Chinese looking person from China and put them in the quiz. Same for all the other Asians in the quiz. I spent over seven years travelling and living in Asia and I think I’m pretty good at telling the differences between the various groups, but like I said the quiz is a joke and is only meant to show people that “you can’t really tell Asian people apart”, when in reality often times you can. ---
**Author:** ![DSYoungEsq](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/c6cbf5/32.png) [@DSYoungEsq](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSYoungEsq)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2009, 2:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-tell-asian-people-apart/502733/23 "2009-07-12T14:46:28Z")
In Bowling Green, Ohio, there is a very good restaurant serving Chinese cuisine. I ate there often. I knew someone, very American WASP background, who was a server there for a while. She said that the owners of the place were often quite upset that the patrons, vendors, etc. couldn’t tell that they were NOT Chinese, but Korean. I always found that somewhat amusing. Now, here in the suburbs of Charlotte, I go to a dry cleaners that is operated by people who are clearly from Southeast Asia. The only way I can tell that they are likely Korean is that they have Korean writing on the calendar on the wall, some of the signs, etc. Their daughter was also briefly assigned to one of my classes (she moved before actually coming to the class) and her name was Korean. Visually, I would never be able to tell that ethnicity. ---
**Author:** ![ShibbOleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/848f3c/32.png) [@ShibbOleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ShibbOleth)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2009, 2:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-tell-asian-people-apart/502733/24 "2009-07-12T14:57:40Z")
> [@DSYoungEsq](#): > > Now, here in the suburbs of Charlotte, I go to a dry cleaners that is operated by people who are clearly from Southeast Asia. The only way I can tell that they are likely Korean is that they have Korean writing on the calendar on the wall, some of the signs, etc. Korea’s not normally considered to be part of Southeast Asia. ASEAN membership is Brunei Burma (Myanmar) Cambodia Indonesia Laos Malaysia Philippines Singapore Thailand Vietnam Papua New Guinea and Timor-Leste are candidates for inclusion. China is so big that it spans from north to south. Not necessarily an all inclusive list, but Japan and the Koreas are more Northeast. ---
**Author:** ![arseNal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecae2f/32.png) [@arseNal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/arseNal)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2009, 3:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-tell-asian-people-apart/502733/25 "2009-07-12T15:04:29Z")
> [@Mangosteen](#): > > This quiz is a joke. They found the least Chinese looking person from China and put them in the quiz. Same for all the other Asians in the quiz. I agree. They took several people who are just clearly exceptions to the rules that most of us asians have ingrained in our minds. The fact that they were able to do so, in my opinion, shows that these rules exist and the creators of the test used them to throw us curveballs. ---
**Author:** ![guizot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guizot/32/3636_2.png) [@guizot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/guizot)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2009, 3:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-tell-asian-people-apart/502733/26 "2009-07-12T15:32:15Z")
> [@ShibbOleth](#): > > Why do you need to? I don’t care what most “white” people’s ethnic background is. Yes. In casual encounters (such as walking down the street or in the market) it’s not really necessary to know someone’s exact ethnicity, even though you observe that the person is probably from East Asia. Even then, a person of Chinese ethnicity could be from Thailand or some other Southeast Asian country. In a social context (a party, etc.) I might be curious just to know “where s/he’s coming from.” OP doesn’t make clear, though, whether this is includes Asian-Americans, something more important if you want to strike up a conversation with someone. Usually it’s pretty clear before someone speaks if they were born in the States or abroad. If someone is from East Asia, I usually can tell which country it is, but I can’t really say how I know specifically. Of course, once you hear someone speak, or see their first and last names, it’s pretty obvious. And in my work it’s of technical interest because I deal with English language instruction, and different native languages cause different kinds of “interference.” I agree with **Ishaw** that “fashion trends, carriage, [and] manners” can help give one an idea about a person’s origin. On the street I can usually tell if a person is a European student or tourist, but it also has to do with context. In Havana, most Cubans think I’m Italian, simply because few people from the States (of non-Cuban origin) go to Cuba. ---
**Author:** ![HMS\_Irruncible](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hms_irruncible/32/7394_2.png) [@HMS\_Irruncible](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HMS_Irruncible)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2009, 3:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-tell-asian-people-apart/502733/27 "2009-07-12T15:45:17Z")
> [@HazelNutCoffee](#): > > We discussed this quiz in an Asian American studies class - 99% of the students were Asian/Asian American - and most of us sucked at it, oddly enough. It isn’t odd. There’s no reason East Asian people ought to be visibly different any more than French or German people ought to be different. Anyone who says they can distinguish Chinese, Korean, or Japanese based purely on physical appearance\* is suffering from availability bias (the van is always by the corner) or just some dented version of nationalist pride. It is possible to tell northeast asian from southeast asian, but there again, good luck telling Vietnamese/Thai/Malay from one another. - Not counting things like - group of girls all walking pigeon-toed and carrying Louis Vuitton bags, someone currently in the process of eating kimchee… cultural signals can improve the odds, but still aren’t foolproof. ---
**Author:** ![Markxxx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5daacb/32.png) [@Markxxx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Markxxx)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2009, 3:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-tell-asian-people-apart/502733/28 "2009-07-12T15:49:18Z")
I saw this on _All In The Family_ a few days ago [Mike is arguing with Archie as usual] Archie) You mean to tell me, if I put a “Chink” and a “Jap” side by side you could tell them apart Mike) Yes, because I wouldn’t judge them based on looks, I’d talk to them and get to know them as individuals Archie) Yeah, you’d say 'Which one of you is the “Chink” and which one of you is the “Jap”? ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2009, 3:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-tell-asian-people-apart/502733/29 "2009-07-12T15:53:01Z")
> [@ShibbOleth](#): > > Why do you need to? I don’t care what most “white” people’s ethnic background is? And if I note it at all, then it’s because of their name. > > FWIW, many Vietnamese have Nguyen as a last name. Many Koreans have last names of Park or Lee. Japanese names usually end with a vowel. Chinese last names are often short, single syllable names; Han ad “Lee” are both not uncommon, but the Chinese “Lee” is more often spelled “Li”. Indonesians and Malays can quite often have Muslim first names, like Mohammed or Ahmet. Filipinos tend to have modifications of the first names of saints and can, but don’t always, have Spanish surnames. Thais often have long, hard to pronounce last names, as do some Indians. Thai first names are often short and playful nicknames, like Nong (little sister or brother), Tukta (doll), Mu (pig, etc, as a way to make up for their long proper names. > > In the end, as long as you can tell individuals apart, you really don’t need to know if they’re Chinese or Japanese. One of my favorite cartoon jokes: Jon: I wouldn’t say you’re fat, Garfield, but you have more chins than the Hong Kong phonebook. ---
**Author:** ![Green\_Bean](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/green_bean/32/1760_2.png) [@Green\_Bean](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Green_Bean)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2009, 6:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-tell-asian-people-apart/502733/30 "2009-07-12T18:22:43Z")
> [@ShibbOleth](#): > > Why do you need to? Because it’s interesting. I’m interested in knowing what anybody and everybody’s ethnic and/or regional background it. I’ll always take the opportunity to find out if I can. It’s yet another way of learning about world cultures and geography. I’m surprised that anyone has any trouble telling Southeast Asians from the rest of the East Asians. I think they have an unmistakable look. There will be exceptions, of course, but I’d never have any trouble telling Joe Kim from Joe Nguyen. ---
**Author:** ![ShibbOleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/848f3c/32.png) [@ShibbOleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ShibbOleth)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2009, 6:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-tell-asian-people-apart/502733/31 "2009-07-12T18:39:04Z")
> [@Green\_Bean](#): > > Because it’s interesting. I’m interested in knowing what anybody and everybody’s ethnic and/or regional background it. I’ll always take the opportunity to find out if I can. It’s yet another way of learning about world cultures and geography. If you’re getting to know people as people first, and then come to find more about their background and heritage, that’s one thing and that’s fine. If, as some people do, you first slot them into a category of Chinese, Filipino, Korean, etc., then that’s just weird. No white person goes up to every other white person that they meet and insists to know “what they are”? Even if you’re curious and interested it’s still at least vaguely offensive. Especially if that person is just as American (or English or Australian) as you and just happens to have different facial features. That girl working at the Starbucks is not your geography lesson and you’re not going to learn anything about Sri Lankan culture just because she’s making your coffee. Now if these are your friends and colleagues whom you’ve known for a while and taken some time to get to know them, that’s an entirely different issue. But I’ve seen strangers ask these kind of questions, and it’s just wrong and helps to point out to the person being asked that they are somehow different enough to be asked questions about their heritage that others don’t have to field. Don’t mean to single you out, Green Bean, because I really don’t know your situation. I just want to point out that until you know someone fairly well that this can be a really insensitive question, even when it’s not intended as such. ---
**Author:** ![MLS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/919ad9/32.png) [@MLS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MLS)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2009, 6:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-tell-asian-people-apart/502733/32 "2009-07-12T18:51:36Z")
Several years ago I worked in a company that had a fair number of Asian employees, from various countries. One day I asked one of the Asian men to take something to the boss’s secretary, Colleen. “Which one is she?” he asked. “The Irish gal,” I responded. (She was a stereotypical Irish person - very fair skin, red hair, etc.) He found this to be completely unhelpful. I described her more completely, and told him which desk was hers. “You have to remember,” he responded, a bit abashed, “You all look alike to us.” Further discussion ensued. He found the Irish redhead to be essentially the same as the brunette Italian; that is, not Asian. On the other had, it was patently obvious to him which of his co-workers were Vietnamese, Chinese, or Korean. ---
**Author:** ![Mister\_Rik](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mister_rik/32/491_2.png) [@Mister\_Rik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mister_Rik)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2009, 7:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-tell-asian-people-apart/502733/33 "2009-07-12T19:31:43Z")
> [@ShibbOleth](#): > > No white person goes up to every other white person that they meet and insists to know “what they are”? I would tend to ask, “where are you from?” rather than “what are you?”. However, I won’t usually ask until I’ve gotten to know the person to some degree. For example, if I’m a regular enough customer of the person’s store that we call each other by name. (And if they’re using their “native” name rather than an adopted Americanized name, I don’t _need_ to ask, since I know enough to distinguish between a Chinese, Japanese, or Korean name.) But don’t think we white folks don’t do this with other white folks. We just don’t tend to do it based on appearance; rather, as soon as we _hear an accent_ we want to know “where are you from?” And if they’re American, well, white Americans are so mixed anyway that you’re going to get an answer like mine: English, Scottish, Irish, Dutch, and French, in order of proportion. ---
**Author:** ![DSeid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dseid/32/20194_2.png) [@DSeid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSeid)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2009, 7:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-tell-asian-people-apart/502733/34 "2009-07-12T19:33:42Z")
An interesting aside about [the brain functions involved](http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/574037): > [@](#): > > social experience has been demonstrated to mold the way in which individuals recognize familiar faces (Carroo, 1987), as well as own-race vs other-race faces (Walker and Hewstone, 2006a). Behavioral research over the past few decades has suggested that increased experience with faces of one’s own-race vs other-races can shape the initial way in which faces are encoded (O’Toole et al., 1991; Walker and Tanaka, 2003). > > Face perception is a key example of a well-tuned perceptual system. Individuals are able to recognize and remember countless numbers of faces, subsequently facilitating interpersonal communication. Much attention has been paid to the neural basis of face perception. Intracranial recordings of field potentials from the cortical surface of neurological patients and non-invasive hemodynamic imaging studies with healthy volunteers have suggested the existence of a visual area specialized for processing faces located in the middle section of the fusiform gyrus… > > … the own-race effect: individuals demonstrate greater difficulty in recognizing other-race faces than own-race faces. This social-cognitive phenomenon has been noted as an impediment in interracial social communication and eye-witness identification (Sporer, 2001; Wright et al., 2003). The neural circuitry involved in the categorization by race-of-face has been examined by fMRI studies (for a review see Eberhardt, 2005). Activation in the middle fusiform gyrus is modulated by race, being larger for own-race faces (Golby et al., 2001; Golarai et al., 2004); and activation in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, involved in executive control, is modulated by racial bias in response to other-race faces (Richeson et al., 2003). Activation in the amygdala, a limbic structure implicated in processing emotional and motivationally salient stimuli, is also modulated by race-of-face (Cunningham et al., 2003; Hart, et al., 2000; Lieberman et al., 2005), habituating faster to own-race vs other-race faces (Hart et al., 2000). Greater activation in the amygdala has been observed to other-race faces during social-categorization tasks (Wheeler and Fiske, 2005) or when presented subliminally (Cunningham et al., 2004). Moreover, amygdala activation to other-race faces correlates with measures of implicit social bias (Phelps et al., 2000) supporting the involvement of the amygdala in explicit and implicit race evaluation. … > > … In sum, the present experiment demonstrates that effects of race occur relatively early, during perceptual analysis of faces (N170), and percolate through multiple stages of face processing. Differences in own-race vs other-race face processing at the neural level substantiate previous behavioral research on the own-race effect, while results from correlational analyses reveal that race effects may be related to the degree of experience an individual has with different races. Indeed, individuals with more other-race experience show more similarity in the processing of own and other-race faces, whilst those with less experience show greater disparity and disruption in the processing of other- vs own-race faces. Ultimately, these findings have important implications for future research exploring the influence of social factors on neural stimulus processing. In short this is not a conscious rules-based executive decision process going on. No one actually says to themselves that this face is rounder so the person is of this ethnicity or that one. We literally perceive, in a very real sense _see_, faces of familiar racial groups differently than we see those that are out of our in-group based on experience - in way very similar to how some Asians can really not hear the difference between “r” and “l” as it is out of their experience to be salient. So how do you learn to tell them apart? Get a critical mass of dealing with a variety of members of each group as individuals, preferably as early in life in possible. ---
**Author:** ![hibernicus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hibernicus/32/2802_2.png) [@hibernicus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hibernicus)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2009, 8:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-tell-asian-people-apart/502733/35 "2009-07-12T20:36:09Z")
A lot of people in this thread believe that they can tell East Asians apart, by their facial features, with some degree of reliability. When faced with an online test that seems to show otherwise, they conclude that the test must be flawed. It may be true that you can actually do this. But it’s also true that it’s really easy to kid yourself into thinking that you’re good at making such distinctions, by a process of unverified self-confirmation (“I can always tell if someone is wearing a wig. Look: that guy over there, he’s wearing a wig. You see, I can always tell.”) In Northern Ireland a lot of people sincerely believe that they can tell the difference between Catholics and Protestants by facial features alone. Without good evidence (such as a test that unambiguously measures your ability) how can you be sure? ---
**Author:** ![lshaw](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e36b37/32.png) [@lshaw](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lshaw)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2009, 9:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-tell-asian-people-apart/502733/36 "2009-07-12T21:51:29Z")
> [@ShibbOleth](#): > > If you’re getting to know people as people first, and then come to find more about their background and heritage, that’s one thing and that’s fine. If, as some people do, you first slot them into a category of Chinese, Filipino, Korean, etc., then that’s just weird. No white person goes up to every other white person that they meet and insists to know “what they are”? Even if you’re curious and interested it’s still at least vaguely offensive. Especially if that person is just as American (or English or Australian) as you and just happens to have different facial features. That girl working at the Starbucks is not your geography lesson and you’re not going to learn anything about Sri Lankan culture just because she’s making your coffee. > > Now if these are your friends and colleagues whom you’ve known for a while and taken some time to get to know them, that’s an entirely different issue. But I’ve seen strangers ask these kind of questions, and it’s just wrong and helps to point out to the person being asked that they are somehow different enough to be asked questions about their heritage that others don’t have to field. > > Don’t mean to single you out, Green Bean, because I really don’t know your situation. I just want to point out that until you know someone fairly well that this can be a really insensitive question, even when it’s not intended as such. It’s funny you mention this, because this happens to me all the time. And usually, the people who do it to me are Asian. They always ask me “What are you”? My first response would be to say that I am human. Then, they’ll say, “No, where are you from?” To which, I’d reply that I’m from America. This would be followed by a “No, I meant where are your ancestors from”. A lot of non-Asians, especially those from not very diverse areas, just assume that I’m “from China”. I once flew to Texas with my sister, and two minutes after getting off the plane, we encountered a white guy who spoke slow, enunciated English to us (as if we couldn’t understand) and asked if we were from China. A few moments after this (I kid you not), we passed a white couple who muttered that they thought they were in America and not China. Wow. ---
**Author:** ![arseNal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecae2f/32.png) [@arseNal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/arseNal)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2009, 9:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-tell-asian-people-apart/502733/37 "2009-07-12T21:58:49Z")
> [@hibernicus](#): > > A lot of people in this thread believe that they can tell East Asians apart, by their facial features, with some degree of reliability. When faced with an online test that seems to show otherwise, they conclude that the test must be flawed. To be fair, I still scored something like 60-65% the few times I tried it way back when, which is admittedly less than I thought I would do, but still probably better than pure chance. Of course we can’t ever be totally sure, but I’m convinced the ability is not completely fabricated. Like I said, I feel that they purposely threw in some faces that they knew would look very much like a particular ethnicity but were actually not that ethnicity. That the makers of the test were able to do this, to me, indicates that they were using the same ability we all believe we have. In short, if the faces were randomly picked, I think the results would be different. But hey, I’ve never really read hard facts on the subject except for what’s been posted in this thread, so I could be wrong. ---
**Author:** ![Myglaren](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f1d935/32.png) [@Myglaren](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Myglaren)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2009, 10:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-tell-asian-people-apart/502733/38 "2009-07-12T22:04:40Z")
> [@Crafter\_Man](#): > > My wife is from Hong Kong. I can tell Asian people apart. But I guess I can’t tell you you “how” to do it. It takes experience. My wife isn’t. There aren’t many orientals around here (Asians I define as being from the Indian sub continent) but I can usually define Chinese, Japanese, Korean and Thai from their appearance. Don’t ask me how though. I have had a few of Chinese friends and acquaintances. My second daughter’s best friend is Chinese. There are a few Japanese live near me that are attached to the local Nissan plant, there is a Chinese community about ten miles away, around the University, and I’m often in that area, otherwise I have practically zero contact with them. There are very few Koreans or Thai in this locality. I do however have an interest in Oriental culture and particularly music. Whether this has any influence or not I cannot say. If it is it is entirely subliminal. ---
**Author:** ![CairoCarol](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cairocarol/32/3825_2.png) [@CairoCarol](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CairoCarol)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2009, 10:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-tell-asian-people-apart/502733/39 "2009-07-12T22:43:20Z")
> [@](#): > > originally posted by **ShibbOleth** : > Indonesians \ can quite often have Muslim first names, like Mohammed or Ahmet. Not to nitpick (okay, I _am_ nitpicking, and my only excuse is my love of Indonesia and the distress I feel when foreigners oversimplify its complexities or dismiss the nation as a bunch of Moslem extremists, or think that everyone who follows Islam is named “Mohammed”) but in 8 years of living in Indonesia I have yet to meet an “Ahmet,” although there is an occasional “Ahmad” so that’s not completely wrong. But here are the first (or only, since not all Indonesians have two names) names of every Indonesian I currently know in a work-related capacity: Yanto Udin Mulyono Iis Eti Harun Widodo Edward (I work with 2 people named Edward) Sutrisno Aris (I work with 2 people named Aris) Farid Wawan Januar Satia Endah (2 of those, too) Parno Wakidi Deborah Ari The three front-running teams in the just-held Indonesian elections had these first/only names: Susilo Budiono Megawati Prabowo Yusuf Wiranto Now, you will note that some of these names - like Farid and Yusuf - are indeed Arabic in origin. But Indonesians with Arabic names are at least as likely to be named Aburizal or Walid as they are worn-out American stereotypes like Mohammad and Ahmad. Sorry, **ShibbOleth**. I don’t mean to pick on you, just on the tendency of Americans to reduce everything Islamic to names like Mohammed. I’m sure you personally are not guilty of that. ---
**Author:** ![CairoCarol](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cairocarol/32/3825_2.png) [@CairoCarol](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CairoCarol)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2009, 10:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-tell-asian-people-apart/502733/40 "2009-07-12T22:51:27Z")
Missed the edit window: on rereading, I’m guilty of stereotyping too: I should have said “worn-out stereotypes” rather than worn-out American stereotypes" and referred to the tendency of _some_ Americans. Mea culpa. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-tell-asian-people-apart/502733.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-tell-asian-people-apart/502733.md?page=3)