Any Bengalis here and have someone confuse you with different ethnicity?

[XEmoCatX]

I’m Bengali from Bangladesh (my parents being from Moulvipazar, Sylhet) and was told I look Filipino, Malaysian, Chinese or Korean cuz of my facial features. I was even told I look Japanese once.

My dad and my younger brother look Filipino too. I noticed that my family members from my dad side look Southeast Asian.

 

[Tom]

I don't know from your post who is doing the telling, but as a guess I think it may be that people in general do not recognize features outside there own area very well. And most of this is due to just lack of exposure. There are towns in the USA for example, even today, where people have never met an asian of any nationality, and this also applies to many different places accross the globe. Only certain parts of the world and some large cities have high cosmopolitan nature or traffic. Even on the internet, the language barrier as well as political firewalls limits exposure.

To this I may add, although not Bengali I have occasionally been misidentified. It's not very specific and more like I have an ethnic look, or perhaps said another way I look like I come from somewhere else. Somewhat humorously I have also often been mistaken for someone who works there. It doesn't matter where, I just look like I work there. I have been mistaken for supermarket stockkeeper, luggage carrier and even the pilot of a large passenger plane. When my brother had his DNA genome done, it offered some insight as it listed bits of 11 diiferent ethnic groups.

 

[Tired]

I don't know from your post who is doing the telling, but as a guess I think it may be that people in general do not recognize features outside there own area very well. And most of this is due to just lack of exposure. There are towns in the USA for example, even today, where people have never met an asian of any nationality, and this also applies to many different places accross the globe. Only certain parts of the world and some large cities have high cosmopolitan nature or traffic. Even on the internet, the language barrier as well as political firewalls limits exposure.

Well living in Ukraine in a small city, I never met any Asian or Afroamerican, everyone was just white. So when I see them now, I have 0 idea are they from that or that country or ethnicity, they just look Asian to me. But I can say the same about all white people, Ukrainian, Danish, American, all are the same Caucasians to me, I won't even start wondering who is from where.

 

[Tom]

Well living in Ukraine in a small city, I never met any Asian or Afroamerican, everyone was just white. So when I see them now, I have 0 idea are they from that or that country or ethnicity, they just look Asian to me. But I can say the same about all white people, Ukrainian, Danish, American, all are the same Caucasians to me, I won't even start wondering who is from where.

Even though raised in a fairly cosmopolitan area (NYC) and traveled a lot with military for 27 years, and having faces as a sub-special interest to my history interest, I doubt I can do much better. I think it quite difficult as the clues are usually very subtle. But it is interesting as the features are a part of the historical record in a way, clues in unraveling the story of humanity. For instance while living in Germany I would look at the faces and wonder is this what a 2nd Century Sugambri warrior looked like? You know the ones that were causing my Roman ancestors such agita. But I am not judging I have italian and germany tracers both. No Ukrainian but an unspecified Balkan that might have a slight Slavic connection.

 

[Judge]

I’m Bengali from Bangladesh (my parents being from Moulvipazar, Sylhet) and was told I look Filipino, Malaysian, Chinese or Korean cuz of my facial features. I was even told I look Japanese once.

My dad and my younger brother look Filipino too. I noticed that my family members from my dad side look Southeast Asian.

Maybe your family has ancestral ties with Malaysia or Indonesia (Sumatra).

Then again it may also depend on how well people can- or cannot identify various ethnic groups on sight alone.

I'd be reticent to speculate on such things. So many subtle differences to consider!

 

[ManuelXX]

Near my city there is a city where the second biggest national community is from Bangladesh, and it's very difficult that these people are confused with different ethnicities

 

[Jumpinbare]

My adopted son is half Lumbee. The Lumbee were a Native American tribe living in Southern North Carolina and Northern South Carolina. When black slaves escaped from the European settlers, the Lumbee would readily accept them into the tribe. Many whites also married into the tribe. Today's Lumbee are nearly all tri-racial as a result.
People look at my son, and have guessed he was from nearly every ethnic group you can name.

Here he is with his daughter

 

[XEmoCatX]

Maybe your family has ancestral ties with Malaysia or Indonesia (Sumatra).

Then again it may also depend on how well people can- or cannot identify various ethnic groups on sight alone.

I'd be reticent to speculate on such things. So many subtle differences to consider!

All I know is that during Pala empire era, they used to do tradings with East and Southeast Asian countries.

 

[XEmoCatX]

I’m Bengali from Bangladesh (my parents being from Moulvipazar, Sylhet) and was told I look Filipino, Malaysian, Chinese or Korean cuz of my facial features. I was even told I look Japanese once.

My dad and my younger brother look Filipino too. I noticed that my family members from my dad side look Southeast Asian.

Here’s a pic of me