# People of different nations and their looks **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [October 19, 2004, 5:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-of-different-nations-and-their-looks/269982 "2004-10-19T05:49:37Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![seosamh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ce7236/32.png) [@seosamh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/seosamh)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2004, 10:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-of-different-nations-and-their-looks/269982/41 "2004-10-21T22:26:31Z")
Strolling along the street with my mate in Memphis, Tennessee a couple of years ago, we were stopped by a bloke and a girl in their 20s asking for directions. As soon as we opened our mouths the bloke said “I knew you were from Europe”. Well, he was half right: I’m from London and my mate’s from New Zealand but has lived in the UK for 10 years. We asked how he could tell, he said it was because we had our hands in our pockets [our _own_ pokets, before anyone starts getting funny]. Don’t Americans do that? ---
**Author:** ![tremorviolet](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e47774/32.png) [@tremorviolet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tremorviolet)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2004, 10:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-of-different-nations-and-their-looks/269982/42 "2004-10-21T22:44:40Z")
> [@DougC](#): > > - > - > - How about them Orientals… [http://www.alllooksame.com/](http://www.alllooksame.com/) > (fun stuff, see how dumb you is) > -BTW, I looked around on that Nordish site for a bit, and it seems like the “examples of types” they have bear little resemblence to each other at all. That, or maybe I’m just not a very good racist. > ~ Heh. Just took the test. I got everyone of the Chinese but I can’t really tell the difference between Japanese and Korean people. Hmmm… ---
**Author:** ![GorillaMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/50afbb/32.png) [@GorillaMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GorillaMan)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2004, 11:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-of-different-nations-and-their-looks/269982/43 "2004-10-21T23:08:02Z")
> [@Bruce\_Daddy](#): > > I was in a cafe in Montreal a few years ago, they just sold coffee and sandwiches and things like that. I was behind about 5 or 6 people and as each reached the cashier he would greet them/say what they owed in French. Every one of them. When I reached him he said “Hi, that’ll be $3.76”. In English?! I was too surprized/confused/ :o to ask him how he knew the difference but I wish I had. It doesn’t surprise me at all. One the other hand, I’ve no explanation. I’ve worked in the past in a violin repair/dealer shop, which is in a beautiful square in a quaint town which attracts plenty of tourists. So we’re used to the cameras and so on. We developed the ability to identify nationalities before they walked through the door (they’d invariably spend time looking through the window first). I’ve no idea how it happened, but we could distinguish between the four most common groups, French, German, Belgian and Dutch, before they said a word. ---
**Author:** ![Merkwurdigliebe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/74df32/32.png) [@Merkwurdigliebe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Merkwurdigliebe)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2004, 2:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-of-different-nations-and-their-looks/269982/44 "2004-10-22T02:08:22Z")
yeah that’s true, there’s just some way you can tell. Its partly the clothing, partly the posture, or the way someone walks. To me, Dutch people just have this attitude, or gezellig or whatever that just seems to show on their expressions. Its this weird, take everything as it comes, unfazed look. It looks like they are sizing everything up as quickly as possible. I can’t imagine what people think about Americans. Its gotta be easy in most cases. When I lived in Europe, I could spot an American from a mile away. Normally by clothes, but also by their posture, body type, or maybe their faces or haircuts. But clothes are the number one factor. Even if you think that you dress pretty internationally, you’d be so surprised at the minute differences. ---
**Author:** ![gum](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/bbe5ce/32.png) [@gum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gum)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2004, 7:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-of-different-nations-and-their-looks/269982/45 "2004-10-22T07:22:43Z")
Originally posted by **GorillaMan** > [@](#): > > - We developed the ability to identify nationalities before they walked through the door (they’d invariably spend time looking through the window first). I’ve no idea how it happened, but we could distinguish between the four most common groups, French, German, Belgian and Dutch, before they said a word.\* and Originally posted by **Merkwurdigliebe** > [@](#): > > \*To me, Dutch people just have this attitude, or gezellig or whatever that just seems to show on their expressions. Its this weird, take everything as it comes, unfazed look. It looks like they are sizing everything up as quickly as possible. \* See? That fits perfectly together. The Dutch spend some time looking through the window first, size everything up, walk away and unfazingly look into windows of other shops, come back and then ask: “Have you got anything less expensive?” Not too hard, distinguishing a dutchie. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2004, 12:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-of-different-nations-and-their-looks/269982/46 "2004-10-23T12:45:59Z")
I can’t believe nobody has caught the glaring error made in the OP about Tony Blair - cited as typically “English.” Blair is a Scot. Yes, he speaks with an almost perfect middle-class Estuary accent, but that is probably cultivated. (The very complex sociolinguistics of class and regional accents in England is best left for another thread.) I wonder if, when visiting close friends and family in Scotland, in private, when he’s had a few, his Scots accent is let loose. The two basic types of English face that I’ve noticed are: 1. Dark, heavy browed, somewhat rounded face, widely set eyes. I think of this as descended from the prehistoric, pre-Celtic aboriginal peoples of Britain. Ringo Starr and Davy Jones are two of the strongest examples of this I can think of (but Jones is Welsh, right?). George Harrison and Kate Bush also. Phil Collins seems to have a milder version of this look. I imagine you find more of these the further west you go. 2. Light-complexioned, more square and Germanic looking. Like Sir Laurence Olivier, Roger Daltrey, Robert Plant. I think of this as the Saxon look. I guess more of them in the southeast and east. P.S. I’m hot for Kate Bush. ---
**Author:** ![Hypno-Toad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b2d939/32.png) [@Hypno-Toad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hypno-Toad)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2004, 12:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-of-different-nations-and-their-looks/269982/47 "2004-10-25T12:13:49Z")
> [@seosamh](#): > > Strolling along the street with my mate in Memphis, Tennessee a couple of years ago, we were stopped by a bloke and a girl in their 20s asking for directions. As soon as we opened our mouths the bloke said “I knew you were from Europe”. Well, he was half right: I’m from London and my mate’s from New Zealand but has lived in the UK for 10 years. We asked how he could tell, he said it was because we had our hands in our pockets [our _own_ pokets, before anyone starts getting funny]. > > Don’t Americans do that? I’m an american who does it and I get questions from my coworkers about it all the time. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-of-different-nations-and-their-looks/269982.md?page=2)