In 2012 I wrote a post, Seven Ways to Talk to a White Man in which I talked about how Taiwanese react to seeing a foreign-looking person speak Chinese. Here is a funny video from Japan which dramatizes the scenario I described as “Look at the Asian”:
More after the jump.
This short film is a fun example of a somewhat reverse situation. “Yu ming is ainm dom” is about a Chinese man who works on his foreign language skills before taking a trip to Ireland.
Finally, when I posted the first clip on Facebook David Leitner recommended this clip from the British comedy show, “Goodness Gracious Me.”
Truth be told, the situation depicted in the Japanese restaurant film is highly exaggerated. It is true that wait staff will turn to a Japanese-looking person first, expecting them to speak Japanese; but foreigners fluent in Japanese are now increasingly common. As soon as one of us speaks up, the situation is easily sorted out.