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timmy
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Has no life at all |
Location: UK, in Devon
Registered: February 2003
Messages: 13796
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I am constructing a pick list for ethnicity that will be valid worldwide. I've hit a problem with "Asian".
In the UK we use the word to refer to the sub-continent. In the usa this means the chinese (type) of ethnicity
Please can someone who knows help me out? How do I define globally the differnece between an Indian/Bengali/Pakistani (without upsetting each of those, too, and Chinese/japanese/vietnamese etc?
And are there other ethnicity absurdities?
Author of Queer Me! Halfway Between Flying and Crying - the true story of life for a gay boy in the Swinging Sixties in a British all male Public School
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Hey Timmy--
I remember taking a class when i was in community college doing time...err, doing my perequisites for nursing school that is, and i took a class: "Asian American History." The way that it was divided up was "asian" defined everybody from the parts of the world that we usually think of as 'asian' including china, vietnam, cambodia, the filipines, etc. Those from the Indian subcontinent and surrounding area were referred to as 'asian-indians.' I don't know if this makes sense to you, but it made it a little easier for me at the time, in the class.
cheers!
"I promise not to try not to fuck with your mind/ I promise not to mind if you go your way and i go mine/promise not to lie if i'm looking you right in your eye/promise not to try not to let you down."
--Eve6
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... employing "two" questions:
1) In which part of the World do you reside ... ?
2) What is your mother "tongue" (i.e., the language first spoken, and generally used within your home ... ?
The first, using a pull-down list may be broken up into the usual suspects, either by continental, regional or national boundaries; the second, using a pull-down list of known languages (taken from the United Nations Registry of same), editing out, or combining, groups matching them according to known similarities, for example: "Chinese dialects" (Mandarin, Cantonese, Min, Wu, Hakka, et al)
Defining ethnicity in this manner is generally much preferable as the least offence may be derived in your doing so.
Warren C. E. Austin
AustinPalmer Associates
Toronto, Canada
"... comme recherché qu'un délice callipygian"
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I suggest you ditch ethnicity as a category altogether and go with Warren's pull-down list of countries. Regions are too general and too big.
Members of each ethnic group tend to think of themselves differently than others think of them.
For example, in Thailand there are Thai-Chinese and Thai-Lao amongst others, and the same in every other country I have been to. In the Philippines, guys identify their look on gay messageboards with terms such as "Chinito" which is Chinese-Phillipino. And God forbid in Singapore you assume that an as-yet-unmet friend is Malay (Indian origins) vs, Chinese ethnicity withoput finding out for sure...
Somebody told me that in some Latin countries there are more than 100 terms and phrases used to describe exactly the subtle differences in skin color. So Latino is too big a term also...
And don't forget the ever-growing category of ethnic mixes from off-spring of partners of different ethnic origin. Thai-foreign mixed children are highly prized as models and TV stars, since they are widely seen as better looking than either Thai people or whatever foreign origins of the two parents.
Good luck.
See what I mean about country of origin being simpler?
"Always forgive your enemies...nothing annoys them quite so much." Oscar Wilde
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marc
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Needs to get a life! |
Registered: March 2003
Messages: 4729
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I have to agree with David and Warren. There are far too many variables to use large geographic areas as points of referance. I think it is better to relate to small areas where individuality can be exhulted rather than pidgeon-holed into just another one os a vast number of possibilities.
Also, how would the (more than probable) codification of these ethnicaly (unique) groups be included when there are immigrant groups settled on countries other than their homeland?
Life is great for me... Most of the time... But then I meet people online... Very few are real friends... Many say they are but know nothing of what it means... Some say they are, but are so shallow...
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saben
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On fire! |
Registered: May 2003
Messages: 1537
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I think a few more questions would be able to give clues as to the ethnicity, cultural and racial background of most people:
What country were you born in?
What country do you live in?
What country were your parents born in?
What countries do you have citizenship or permenant residency for?
What language do you speak in a home environment?
What race do you consider yourself as being?
Look at this tree. I cannot make it blossom when it suits me nor make it bear fruit before its time [...] No matter what you do, that seed will grow to be a peach tree. You may wish for an apple or an orange, but you will get a peach.
Master Oogway
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timmy
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Has no life at all |
Location: UK, in Devon
Registered: February 2003
Messages: 13796
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A good answer, but it requires a total list of mother tongues.
Author of Queer Me! Halfway Between Flying and Crying - the true story of life for a gay boy in the Swinging Sixties in a British all male Public School
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