Several people have commented on the “Hispanic” category of the test registration. Apparently I have offended some people. I admit, I am not so familiar with Hispanic culture, although most of my neighbors are Puerto Ricans. When I was building the site, I did have to think about the “race” category a lot. I thought about not having it at all, but it is, after all, interesting to see if there is any correlation. Incidentally, a friend of mine gave me a copy of The Economist (July 28, 2001) which had an article titled “Sex, Race, and Brain-scanning”. According to the article, there is a scientific proof that one is better at recognizing the faces of one’s own race.

With any race, as with CKJ’s, depending on a situation, you are damned if you make distinctions, and you are damned if you do not. One could altogether ignore anything to do with race, but that is unreasonable too. It’s like the big white elephant in a room that no one talks about. In any case, I’d like to better educate myself with Hispanic culture. Questions to the readers: what are some ways that you can subdivide the “Hispanic” category?

Here is the accuracy result by location. The percentage number represents the accuracy. 100% being everyone getting everything right and 0% being everyone getting everything wrong. Keep in mind that if everyone picked randomly, 33.33% would be the result.

This list only contains locations that had more than 100 test takers, which means that those locations that are not listed here are not necessarily better or worse than the ones listed here.

My friends and I went to Tokyo last year just to do what we normally do here in New York: Hang out. Tokyo is like one big amusement park with many theme parks within it, interconnected by a circular train called Yamanote Line. The towns form around train stations. Every town has its own specialty. One station may have nothing but electronic stores around it. Another may have nothing but bookstores. Another, fashion boutiques. Another, bars and restaurants. And so on… You just get on the train and hop from one station to another.

For foreign visitors, finding the right places to hang out can be a very difficult task. For instance, “Pub” in Japan apparently means that you get a female company assigned to your table. We assumed that it was like Irish pub. We found ourselves sitting with a Japanese girl who hardly spoke English, mixing our drinks and trying to converse. And she would not leave! We had no interest in talking to her. We just wanted to hang out with each other. And, in the end, they charged us a lot for her service.

We often hear that restaurants in Japan are very expensive, but this does not have to be so. There are plenty of places that serve quality food at a decent price. It’s just that these places do not look so inviting to foreigners. Tokyo is a place where reading up tourist guides really helps. Here is a good one: www.metropolis.co.jp. This one isn’t exactly a tourist guide. It seems to cater to English speakers living in Japan, but that’s even better, since you won’t be going to a bunch of tourist traps.

In my life, I’ve heard so many “theories” about how to distinguish Chinese, Japanese, and Koreans. Some of them were really funny. Someone once told me that the Japanese have bigger eyebrows. I’ve heard someone say the Chinese people are taller in general. It is amusing and entertaining at the same time how people form these theories. Here are some that I found in the discussion board.

“And by the way, don’t you know that it’s all in the legs!?” -Aussie ML

“I think for Koreans (not to be rude of course) but they have flatter noses, bigger lips, and more prominent cheek bones. I’d say the most common thing would be the big cheek bones and nose, the lips are less distinctive.” -Chris

“Northern Chinese and Koreans tend to be taller, less prominent features, fairer skin. Japanese have tracings of ainu (the native people.. which supposedly have a more Caucasian look?)” -Mashimaro

And, this was the funniest of all:

“During WWII a news magazine such as Time published an article on how to differentiate US friendly Chinese from potentially dangerous Japanese.” -East Coast

This is one of my favorite sites. www.engrish.com. I wonder: are there similar phenomena in China and Korea? (i.e. Funny misuse of English language). Also, am I correct in assuming that Koreans do not have the problem of mixing up R’s and L’s?

Update: answer to my question from a reader

“In reference to your question regarding R’s and L’s with Koreans. Have you not seen old korean men in parking lots shouting to those who are backing out, “o-righ! o-righ!”? Sadly, we, too, share the infirmities common to asians when pronouncing L’s.”