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For me as an Asian, I can't tell the ethnic difference among various European people. We only can tell the rough difference between the dark skin, dark haired southern Europeans (Spanish, Greek, Italians, Portuguese) from the light skin light haired northern Europeans (Germans, Scandinavians, English etc.), although there is great variation within a country as well. For example, There seem to be many light skinned Spaniards as well. I don't know about the French, or east Europeans. Anyway, these are all just "white people" for us. I can't even tell the difference between a Russian from a Brit.
However, a colleague of mine told me that she could pretty much tell the difference in appearance (not all the time of course) because each ethnicity has a "certain look".
Does each European have a unique look that distinguishes it each other (besides hair/skin colour)? Of course in very general sense, and it is by no means 100% accurate.
As an American, I can tell the difference between certain "regions" based on looks. Historically Slavic people have certain facial features compared to Western Europeans. That said, I couldn't tell the difference between a Brit, a Frenchman, and a German until one of them spoke. Scandinavians are, for the most part, easier to tell apart from Western Europeans -- but I couldn't tell you which countries one is from. Mediterranean Europeans definitely have more distinct looks, but North-Italians appear more similar to Western Europeans.
Here in the US, while most White-Americans trace their roots to Western Europe, I could not tell you where. However, our culture is different enough from European culture, that I could fairly-reliably pick out an American from a European based on clothing / style, and body language (ignoring accent / dialect).
By comparison, my view of Asian ethnic differences is probably similar to your view of European ethnic differences. I can typically tell a Japanese person from a Chinese person, but all of Southeast Asia appears to have similar features. Koreans, as well, are hard to distinguish from both Chinese or Japanese (almost appear to be "between" the two regions). I know there's great variation within China, but couldn't begin to match differences with geographic regions.
In my case in live in the United States and am of Portuguese ancestry from the Azores islands I can't identify Europeans of other ancestries but I can usually easily spot those that are of my ancestry although there is a variation of hair color/eye color/height/and even variation in skin color it's very hard to explain how. If I hear them speaking Portuguese I can identify what region they are from for the most part. If they are from my region I can Identify what island they are from based on accent and somewhat on appearance. If the person is from my island and I hear them speak Portuguese I can pretty much identify what part of the island they are from, education level, social status etc. just from some basic small talk.
Ethnicity describes peple who share a cultural identitiy. Since language is a chief hallmark of culture, I would suppose it is quite east to tell ethnicity by listening to language.
Although biological races/physical features are correlated with ethnicity, technically they do not define ethnicity, so going by looks alone cannot reliably cue one to a person's ethnicity.
The Hispanic ethnicity as it exists in North America is a prime example of this. A Cuban, for example, can appear to be a pale European or a dark African, but they both share the same ethnicity.
Location: Northern Ireland and temporarily England
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Originally Posted by botticelli
For me as an Asian, I can't tell the ethnic difference among various European people. We only can tell the rough difference between the dark skin, dark haired southern Europeans (Spanish, Greek, Italians, Portuguese) from the light skin light haired northern Europeans (Germans, Scandinavians, English etc.), although there is great variation within a country as well. For example, There seem to be many light skinned Spaniards as well. I don't know about the French, or east Europeans. Anyway, these are all just "white people" for us. I can't even tell the difference between a Russian from a Brit.
However, a colleague of mine told me that she could pretty much tell the difference in appearance (not all the time of course) because each ethnicity has a "certain look".
Does each European have a unique look that distinguishes it each other (besides hair/skin colour)? Of course in very general sense, and it is by no means 100% accurate.
Yes. I can spot Spanish and Polish people.
For others I can't really spot where they are from but I can tell they are foreign/not from this country.
I can usually tell if someone is eastern European, southern European or northern European. In the USA, we are so mixed up now that it's pretty tough to tell.
No you cannot, you can only make assumptions and then believe you are right, there are a multitude of 'looks' for Europeans, I myself have been mistaken for Croatian (I married a Croatian), an Italian, a Frenchman, a Belgian, a Scotsman and a Spaniard - by nationals of all of those countries (apart from Italian, my Croatian ex wife assumed I was Italian when she met me and even started asking me questions in Italian). The point is despite what (some) people on here think there is NO difference in the European look depending on which country Europeans reside from (more dark hair in Southern Europe yes, more blond in Scandinavia yes but NO WHERE near exclusive in either area), ask yourself this - who 'looks' more Scottish when it comes to stereotypes Golfer Miguel Angel Jimenez from Andalucia or actor Sean Connery from Edinburgh?
You can tell germans because they wear sandals with socks, and dutch because they're usually at least 1.90m tall.
Otherwise some people are hard to tell from each other.
Perhaps the question should be can you tell 'naked' Europeans apart!?
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