How do you tell apart from different yet similar races (living, vs.)

[808n310]

For me, being asian, asians are the easiest to tell apart....i get confused with a lot of darker white people / middle eastern / eastern european / latin etc...

for the three east asian nationalities, e.g. japanese, chinese and korean, it's pretty straightforward.

chinese tend to have larger eyes than koreans and japanese, often times they'll have a 'double' lid, and frequently they have a 'baggier' lower lid...they also tend to have wider noses.

koreans are probably the most distinct of the three, single eyelids (often made double through surgery - very common in korea) and in general eyes are a more rectangular shape, usually have relatively prominent nose bridges, but thinner noses than chinese, and high cheekbones.

japanese usually have smaller noses, often lacking a bridge part completely between the eyes, rounder eyes than koreans but often still single lidded, and usually a more ovalish face with more chipmunk cheeks as opposed to cheekbones.

for SE asians, filipinos have a lot of range, some look almost chinese, others look almost malay....they can also often be confused for hispanics

Vietnamese are pretty easy to pick out too, tend to have eyes that are spread a little further apart, soft noses, and a more apple shaped face...

go watch some youtube kpop and jpop videos and you'll easily see the differences between the generic japanese vs generic korean looks...

[john_starks]

i can't tell the difference between south asians - indian, pakis, sri-lankans, bangladesh all look the same to me - north indians look a little different

[18Montclair]

I ask that person what their ethnic background is. Why guess?

[Bluesmama]

Originally Posted by Lycanmaster

Vietnamese are easily distinguishable from Cambodians, particularly if you're talking about those in Asia itself. Cambodians tend to have thicker and wavier/curlier hair and have much darker skin than Vietnamese on average (although some southern vietnamese can be pretty dark). Cambos tend to resemble Malays and even Hindu Indians (the australoid/dravidian types, not the "middle-eastern" ones ) in physical appearance more than their neighboring countries.

Thanks. Someone once told me that Cambodians tended to have "rounder" faces than Vietnamese; however, I did not find this to be true.

[Lycanmaster]

Originally Posted by Bluesbabe

Thanks. Someone once told me that Cambodians tended to have "rounder" faces than Vietnamese; however, I did not find this to be true.

From my experience, thats been somewhat true. As well as having rounder eyes.

[CMDallas]

I can't really distinguish people of Latin American origin other than general features.
Latin Americans can vary, I've met some who are dark as night and some paler than the sun.

Northern Mexicans tend to be lighter, Souther Mexicans tend to be darker and shorter.
Guatemalans, Ecuadorians, Bolivians, Peruvians, El Salvadorians, Belize-ians (?), and Honduras tend to be a lot like southern Mexicans. Sometimes they also tend to have *****-y eyes, because many are almost completely of Native Origin (which supposedly came from Asia)
Brazilians can vary a lot, from African decent to being white.
Argentinians, Uruguayans, Panamanians, Costa Ricans, Chileans tend to be more Europeans looking.
Guyana and what not can vary too, many of them are Indian...from like...INDIA...
Colombians, Nicaraguans, and Venezuelans also look like Mexicans in General.
This is all general though, don't go around saying "OMG it's a white Southern Mexican"

as for Asians.
Koreans have the smallest eyes in general. Japanese 2nd smallest. Then maybe the Han Chinese.
These three groups IMO are the hardest to distinguish between each other, I can usually pick out Koreans well though... I've grown up around them.
These groups along with the Vietnamese and Lao in general tend to have the lightest skin, which is noticeably yellow.
Vietnamese and Lao tend to have larger eyes, along with the rest of the Asian, excluding Mongolians which can vary so much it's not funny (they're people with *****-y eyes who HAVE blonde hair...NATURALLY)



...It blew my mind away.
ANYWAYS
Filipinos, Thais, Indonesians, Malaysians, Cambodians, and Burmese all tend to be darker.
All of them tend to have less of a slant to their eyes and can sometimes be mistaken as Latin American. Sometimes Vietnamese also fall into this category.
Especially Filipinos, it's easier to tell them apart as they usually can be EASILY mistaken for Latin American.
Finally, we have the Turkic people, who differ.
Those central Asian countries: well most people don't look like Borat, they look Asian but are Turkic.
These countries along with Afghanistan and Mongolia consist of the Turkic orientals
Although it differs because they are ethnic groups, no so much a unified people that inhabit the entire country.
Hazar from Afghanistan:
Kazakh people :
http://www.cyclingpeace.org/gallery/albums/album03/Lee_with_Kazak_people.jpg (broken link)
Many of these tend to have mixed blood and sometimes look a mix between Anglo and Asian or Middle Eastern and Asian.
(when I say Asian I mean Oriental)
and LASTLY
people from Bhutan and Nepal are more closely aligned with the Indians, but they look primarily "asian".
Nepal:


Facial structures also vary, but god those are a whole 'nother story.
I have difficulties picking out people sometimes, but accents are much more distinguishable.
My grandmother is Chinese from the Philippines, Grandfather Born in Shanghai, and my Mother from Mexico.
So I have a general idea of what I'm talking about.

[ajf131]

A lot of times you can tell by facial structure.

[Thomas R.]

I was a bit surprised by that picture too as I'd not heard about blonde Mongolians. However the Mongolians were nomadic and mixed with various people. (There are also Russians and maybe even Poles with a bit of a "Mongolian" look due to the Khanate going that far.) There were also lighter-skinned people like the Tocharians who sometimes went to the region. All you need to be blonde is have two parents with the recessive gene so in theory it could appear/reappear. In theory it could also even be continuous, while other European features aren't, if Mongolians had specifically liked blondeness while not necessarily caring about other European features.

I think mostly Mongolians are dark-haired though.

[mas23]

i really cant tell the difference between kore3ans chineese or japaneese....however those group look diff from southeast asians like vietnamese, fillipinos, ect.

white people, pretty much most meditaraneans look different from western euros(english irish dutch) and northern euros are madd pale.


hispanics.....dominicans and pricans and cubans look very similar while you got mex, c americans, some s. americans who sometimes look alike.


nobody has mentioned black people, first you got east africans who look different than w. africans. Then you got west indians( descendants of w.africans) and black americans(also w. african decendants) and they for the most part have facial features more similar to west africans then e. africans.


-mas23-

[fromdust]

i thought the op's question was about race and not ethnic groups, which everyone is describing?