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Well I live in Spain (Barcelona) and look Asian. It often happens to me that people start a conversation with me in English.

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I am from Barcelona and it happens something similar with my Japanese wife, but with Spanish. She is not fluent in Catalan nor Spanish, but she can speak some Catalan. And every time, because she looks asian, everybody changes the conversation to Spanish even if she started talking in Catalan.

Everybody assumes that she is Chinese as well...

Well I'm French (grew up and born in France, but my father is Vietnamese), and some people have trouble to accept that I am not from an Asian country. The conversation goes like this: "Where are you from?" "France" "Uh?? no, come on, seriously" "Yes, I'm from France" "OK, but... where are you born?" ""Uh... France...".

By the way, my wife is also Japanese... it's possible that our wives know each other :)

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