What is it about this question that likely gets asked hundreds of times every day by someone who meets another someone for the first time?
Where are you from?
'Earth' would be a sarcastic response. Especially if the asker is also from earth and they were standing on said earth at the time of the Q and A. Alternately the askee would typically respond with an answer that conveys their place of birth. Sometimes it also conveys the place that the askee grew up or did some key part of the growing.
The asker is trying to categorize the newly introduced specimen into a frame. Or perhaps it is idle chit chat and the asker does not give a cent what the askee responds. That would also border on the rude.
The said categorization is our human filing system. 'I am from Norway' would shed some light to the asker especially if they have an idea of what Norway is. And the asker might have follow up questions to that response. If the asker is clueless they may move on to sports or expressing an obvious comment about the current weather.
A person's habits or likes and dislikes are often shaped by their upbringing and the surroundings in which this bringing up occurs. Eating preference, clothes, language, accents, manners and other sensibilities or lack thereof are crafted and leave a trace, which to the anthropologically minded are a clue. A clue to how to interact with this person without knowing with certainty where they are from.
Asking the question sometimes merely confirms the suspicion. Allows the asker to gloat in their self proclaimed powers of deduction. Stokes the asker-ego.
Then come the drill down questions. Where in India? Slippery slope that. In a land of billion (which the asker may or may not have a clue about) there are uncountable shades of personalities and unless the idea is to benefit the askee in some way may simply be a wasted question. Worse case construed as intrusive depending on who the construeree is.
If the asker is a fellow Indian of course that is considered normal line of questioning. Again it takes one to know one. Many questions get asked which to a westerner might be considered as personal or private but to an Indian are just another way of cutting through the fat in real time. Forget Tweeting or Gramming we ask in person.
Often the drill down results in some generic response like - I am from Los Angeles. Again context matters. L.A is a megapolis with close to 15 million people in its larger boundaries but a person from Oxnard (60 miles due NW of LA) will probably just say LA and be done with. The askee understands the put me in a box concept and will throw enough detail to move on to the next question.
By and large the intent is to have a level set between the asker and askee and their mutual relationship for the moment. A boss asking their report is different contextually than a couple on their first date or a guy you meet on a plane at random. The intent matters. Tense matters as in time line. From now or from way back when?
When back when?
Where are you from?
'Earth' would be a sarcastic response. Especially if the asker is also from earth and they were standing on said earth at the time of the Q and A. Alternately the askee would typically respond with an answer that conveys their place of birth. Sometimes it also conveys the place that the askee grew up or did some key part of the growing.
The asker is trying to categorize the newly introduced specimen into a frame. Or perhaps it is idle chit chat and the asker does not give a cent what the askee responds. That would also border on the rude.
The said categorization is our human filing system. 'I am from Norway' would shed some light to the asker especially if they have an idea of what Norway is. And the asker might have follow up questions to that response. If the asker is clueless they may move on to sports or expressing an obvious comment about the current weather.
A person's habits or likes and dislikes are often shaped by their upbringing and the surroundings in which this bringing up occurs. Eating preference, clothes, language, accents, manners and other sensibilities or lack thereof are crafted and leave a trace, which to the anthropologically minded are a clue. A clue to how to interact with this person without knowing with certainty where they are from.
Asking the question sometimes merely confirms the suspicion. Allows the asker to gloat in their self proclaimed powers of deduction. Stokes the asker-ego.
Then come the drill down questions. Where in India? Slippery slope that. In a land of billion (which the asker may or may not have a clue about) there are uncountable shades of personalities and unless the idea is to benefit the askee in some way may simply be a wasted question. Worse case construed as intrusive depending on who the construeree is.
If the asker is a fellow Indian of course that is considered normal line of questioning. Again it takes one to know one. Many questions get asked which to a westerner might be considered as personal or private but to an Indian are just another way of cutting through the fat in real time. Forget Tweeting or Gramming we ask in person.
Often the drill down results in some generic response like - I am from Los Angeles. Again context matters. L.A is a megapolis with close to 15 million people in its larger boundaries but a person from Oxnard (60 miles due NW of LA) will probably just say LA and be done with. The askee understands the put me in a box concept and will throw enough detail to move on to the next question.
By and large the intent is to have a level set between the asker and askee and their mutual relationship for the moment. A boss asking their report is different contextually than a couple on their first date or a guy you meet on a plane at random. The intent matters. Tense matters as in time line. From now or from way back when?
When back when?
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