Strange Questions International Students Face

As an international student from Russia, there are various questions asked about my home country. Questions like, “How cold it is there?,” are understandable and expected; however, questions like “Do you have McDonald’s there?,” or “Do you have cell phones?” are always unexpected. International students at Concord decided  to discuss weird and sometimes even offensive questions they are asked.

    Brahim Ladhar, international student from Tunisia, easily creates a list of funny and sad questions he has been asked while studying in America. He starts with common questions like “Do you have cars?,” “Do you ride camels to school?” Ladhar says, “I was sarcastic and kept lying about it that I ride camels and stuff.” Other frequently asked questions include,  “Why aren’t you black since you are from Africa?,” “’Do you have a tribe?,” “What’s your tribe name?,” “Do you wear clothes back there?” Ladhar states, “They just assume all Africa is a jungle and people who live there are Tarzans wearing a leaf and a necklace made out of shark teeth or something.”

    Elisa Sperandio, Concord student from Italy, recalls only one unusual question that Americans ask her, “I think the weirdest was if we have American restaurants in Italy with Americanized food. The same way they have Olive Garden which is an interpretation of Italian food.”

    Olga Novikova, student from Russia, recalls one weird question, “Do you have a pet baby bear in your house in Russia?” Novikova laughs, “My answer to it was ‘Yes sure, and I’m going to teach it how to use a unicycle when it grows up.”

    Masae Kanno, student from Japan, finds the question “Do Japanese eat cheese?” to be quite puzzling because, of course, people do eat cheese in Japan. 

    Levi Osawe, student from Nigeria, says people ask him “Do you guys have animals walking amongst you in Africa?,” “Do you live in huts in Africa?,” “Do you ride animals to school in Africa?”

    Megastatia Waddy, student from Indonesia, thinks of a whole situation. “A stranger asked if my skin color is real or not (fake tan). It was weird for me because you don’t just go to someone and ask about the realness of their skin color. I just answer yes my skin color is real, I don’t go tanning and I’m from Indonesia and not from here. I smile and leave.” Also, she notes “I have some weird questions people asked me like if I have TV in Indonesia, or a car, but this [situation] is the weirdest one.”

    Catherina Medaglia, Concord student from Brazil, lists several weird questions she came across in the U.S. “I was asked if I had cars in Brazil, if I had Internet and if I had Google…If I had pet monkeys,” says Medaglia. “Of course people assumed very stereotypical things like if I knew how to play soccer, if I been to the rain forest. This last one I get so vocal about. People don’t just go to the Amazon and I feel like here they [Americans] think we do, like we go there for a hike or something. No! It’s a huge and dense forest with dangerous animals and everything. I mean, it’s barely even reachable without an airplane.” And of course, she was asked to show some samba.

    Most of the international students can think of some weird questions they’ve been asked in the U.S. Sometimes these questions are based on stereotypes, but not really wrong ones. Jonaied Toshif, CU student from India, says that people often ask him if there are really animals freely walking in streets of India, and the answer is yes, they do. Other times questions come out to be not particularly polite, because some people’s assumption that the rest of the world outside of the United States is extremely undeveloped , which is not true. Most importantly, even curiosity needs to be respectful to a person the question is forwarded to.