Judging People by their looks and speech - Personal Statement Example

Judging People by Their Looks and Speech In our daily life we often come across people of different social, economic, racial or ethnic backgrounds. There are certain traits, values and languages which distinguish people of one culture from the other. The instinct which helps us in differentiating on person from the other also helps us identify those traits, languages, and way of speaking and dressing to identify their distinct identity in terms of their ethnic background. I have the power to judge people from their looks and if not always, I am correct most of time in my judgments.

I personally believe that a person’s dressing and way of speaking is the easiest and most accurate measures of identifying their ethnic backgrounds. I personally believe that asking ethnicity may not be suitable for some people as they find it impolite. However, dressing shows the ethnic background and values of a person as well. We can say that there are numerous observable factors which may help in the identification of ethnic background of a person. For instance, people often observe me to be from Middle East and especially from Morocco.

I believe that this judgment about me is basically dependent on my dressing sense, behavior, likes and choices in food, living and socializing habits. My way of speaking, however, is a clear indication that I am not a native English speaker. This gives rise to their judgment on my background as being from Morocco. Since I am not a native speaker I tend to give more attention on the way I speak. I have lived in the USA for one and a half year now. I pay particular attention to my speaking abilities in order to adjust myself in the majority of US citizens.

They usually identify my origin but when they do not, they simply blame it on my dressing habits. I try to adopt American dressing style as I do not want to isolate myself from the native society. However, I enjoy my traditional dresses when I am at home. My eating patterns and food choices differ greatly from the American population which distinguishes me from them. Associating me with Middle East is based on their observations about my eating choices. I should accept that unconsciously I want people to believe that I am a Native American to reduce any instances of bias or discrimination.

I want them to feel comfortable with me and I consciously or unconsciously adopt the patterns of dressing and speaking that usual American citizens follow. However, I have yet not been able to trick people as per my physical appearance, facial features and speaking accent. I observe the speaking habits and skin color to observe the background of a person. However, it is not a perfect way to identify or guess their ethnic background. Skin color or facial features, however, help in guessing the correct origin of a person in most cases.

Chinese people, for instance, are easily observed among people from other ethnic backgrounds yet Japanese people may be confused with Chinese people. I still believe that facial features and skin color help a lot in the correct identification of people’s background. Moreover, the speaking habits, accent, food choices, dressing habits and other living patterns also help a lot in understanding the exact origin of a person. These factors are, however, secondary and require a longer interaction with the person to know his/her origin.

The easiest and primary factors are facial features, skin color and accent (in case of verbal interaction) to identify the background of a person. In conclusion we can say that judging a person by looks is possible, though it cannot be relied on completely. People guess the origins observing different factors and it always depend on their knowledge about other cultures which results in the correct identification of the background. Lack of knowledge about cultural differences and poor judgments result in wrong guessing about people’s backgrounds.