The whole durned human comedy keeps perpetuating itself.

I just returned from a conference at BYU.  In the van from Provo to SLC was a Chinese man who spoke no English.  He showed us a card that said, "I do not speak English. Please help me find my flight," but it didn't say anything about which flight he needed.  Without knowing the airline, the van driver didn't know where to drop the poor guy off.  We tried everything we could think of to elicit the airline (many strategies, not just SPEAKING SLOWLY AND LOUDLY, haha) with no luck.

Then, the van driver spied a dark-haired man on the sidewalk lighting a cigarette.  "I'll bet that Chinaman can help us!" he cried, slamming on the brakes and leaping out of the van.  I cringed.  Not only is "Chinaman" not the preferred nomenclature, but just because someone looks Asian doesn't mean he speaks Chinese!

Well, wouldn't you know it, the cigarette guy did speak Chinese, and he spoke the same variety of Chinese as our passenger!  One quick conversation later and we were on our way to the correct terminal.  "I figured that Chinaman could help us," the driver said happily.  And he was right.

Comments

[Michel S.]

I'm of (mostly) ethnic Chinese heritage and no longer speak any Chinese language, but I'd say this sort of "ethnic profiling" is perfectly understandable. Surely someone who is vaguely Oriental looking (I say this, because from experience most Westerners can't tell Chinese/Japanese/Korean/etc. apart) is statistically more likely to speak an Oriental language than, say, an African-American or Hispanic-looking person.

As to terminology -- it could be cringe-worthy or not. I'd say in this case it's not -- I normally only get upset if it's apparent that the other person shows a prejudicial or mocking attitude. There's enough unintended slights going around in the world that one should assume the best intentions whenever possible :)

[Beth]

You make really good points, Michel S. I agree that assuming the best intentions is the way to go.

Utah K-12 schools have a Chinese language immersion program, and LDS mission trips have inspired lots of non-Asian-looking people to learn Asian languages, so a vaguely Oriental-looking person in this particular city might not be statistically more likely to speak some variety of Chinese . . . but in this case, the van driver's ethnic profiling worked, and no one was offended. I guess life doesn't always imitate Seinfeld's Cigar Store Indian episode. :)

Thanks for stopping by.