Does anyone else have trouble identifying ethnicities?

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I just realized today that someone I know is Iranian, after thinking for the last few months that he was either Hispanic or Latino. His accent didn't really help me to identify his ethnicity either. He sounded like Spanish or Portuguese could have been his native tongue. After looking up pictures of people of both ethnicities, I still think it would be kind of hard to identify a lot of them as one or the other. I have this problem with identifying people of other ethnicities too. Mixed-race people make it even harder to identify which ethnicity someone is.

I could never figure out how so many people can identify which European country someone's ancestors originated from, based on appearance. I can't tell the difference between people whose ancestors were English, Irish, French, German, etc. Not only that, but some people even have a large list of stereotypes memorized that they can apply to people of each national origin and ethnicity, after identifying them. I think that's pretty impressive for something that's almost completely useless. I also think it's pretty impressive how much random information about celebrities, a lot of people have memorized. I guess my life is too solitary to be concerned with information that's only important as far as pop culture goes. This is probably part of the reason why I have trouble identifying people of different ethnicities. I don't really care what role people of different ethnicities are supposed to play in pop-cultural society. My outlook on life is more individualistic, like myself.

Europeans and Africans I have no idea how to tell. But Asians are easy (it took me a while to figure out though). Koreans have rectangle/squarish heads. Vietnamese have raised cheekbones and have their mouth slightly open all the time. Japanese have roundish "pillow" faces. Chinese have similar facial structure as white people (though, chinese seem to have the most variance). That's how I tell them apart, and it works 99% of the time.

But yea, I have a hard time with other countries/ethnicities. I know a few accents (spanish, german, french, etc) which help, but faces are really difficult. Mixed-race is impossible. Even if it is part asian.

I have a few friends that are mixed race, and whenever someone mentions it, I'm always suprised/confused. And when saying it myself I always get it wrong.

Not sure exactly why I want to tell them apart... but I tend to be unable to distinguish between Latino and Caucasian.
But I can tell different Asians apart easily-- Japanese/ Chinese/ Hongkongers/ Hongkongers who stayed in the USA for a while/ stayed in UK for a while.......
But most of it was from their behaviour, clothing and voice.

I can also distinguish several types of British accents.
I can also tell apart French, Spanish, Russian, German by how they speak English.

Being mixed race, I'm fascinated by "brackish" peoples of the world. The brackish area of a river is where salt water meets fresh water. The fish that live in those areas share the traits of fish from both the fresh and salt water. In humankind, I would categorize the peoples of the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous region of Western China close to the Russian border as being brackish. They share the traits of both Asian and Caucasian peoples. Eskimos are the same, too. Some look Asian, others Caucasian, but most a mix of the two.

I think everyone does. I can identity northern Chinese and southern, but I often mix up northern Chinese and Japanese or Koreans.

Yes, I can have a real hard time telling ethnicities apart. Allegedly there are differences between different peoples in Africa, but I can only tell the Arab north from those who would be called blacks, beyond that I’m clueless. I can’t tell a Japanese from a Korean (or Chinese, Vietnamese or Thai). Some people in Asia have looks that are somewhere between Oriental and typical say Pakistani, and I can’t tell where they are from either. I can’t tell which country any white person is from and it’s not easy either. There are physical traits that are supposed to be typical for different countries, but although some of its population has said traits, a lot of its native population doesn’t, and plenty of people native to other countries have the same traits. There are some differences between western Europe and eastern Europe but in many cases I can’t tell.
Case in point, myself. Being short, round, brown-haired and brown eyed, I don’t fit the foreigner’s idea of a typical Norwegian, but I’m 100% ethnical Norwegian. Apparently I could pass for Mediterranean, although I think my skin is too light.

Some are obvious, and others are very hard to tell among several possible ethnicities.

I can usually tell Mideastern from Hispanic, but I have a hard time telling dark-skinned mideastern ethnicities apart from each other (Pakistani vs. Indian vs. Saudi, etc). Iranian and Iraqi people are often light-skinned and can appear as Hispanic or Italian, but they have different facial features as a rule.

I myself am hard to identify ethnicity for, because I'm 50% Irish, and 25% each German and English/Viking. The Irish gives me olive skin and Asian-looking eye shape, but also dark green eyes, which rule out Asian itself. The German also gives me THICK body hair, which I shave, but it adds to the confusion. The only well-known man who is ethnically identical to me, was Patrick Swayze. I look like he did at my age... Enough that people ask me constantly if we're related. But people often ask me if I'm Asian also.

Charles

after looking through the posts, I've realized I'm horrible at identifying race. Some of you can tell what ethnic background someone is, and that is way too difficult for me. I could not tell if someone was Russian at all.
Recently, I saw a white chick. But then my boyfriend was like "WHAT? She's at least half black."

If your skin is white, I don't notice your facial features. I don't notice eye color, hair color... nothing. ergh.

But I know when someone's Asian.
Unless they're Asian/white or some other mix.
Then I can't tell :/

I'm extraordinarily good at it. However, that's probably due to being around people of many races my entire life. I'm also mixed-race myself. I have had close ties with all types of Asians, Indians, Native Americans, Middle-Easterners, etc.

Asians are the easiest for me and also Pakistani/Indians, Middle-Eastern. Also, in my opinion, Mexicans and South Americans look very different.

Africans - now that I have NO clue about but now I am interested! Must learn!

There was an earlier post, I forget which one, where someone said that Brits have a certain look about them and then someone else got offended by that. I always thought they did, too. I realize that Brits are "mixed" in the fact that they have ancestors from all over Europe, but there seems to be a look! I wonder if part of it has to do with communication - meaning different cultures might use certain facial expressions to communicate and that can contribute to one's overall "look". It's certainly the case between different Asians.

Looks can be deceiving, though. Many people have a very hard time figuring out which race I am, but that's kind of a trick question since I'm mixed Caucasian/Japanese/Native American. Also, some people never guess I am part Caucasian (not sure how you can miss that).

It all comes down to familiarity.

Actually it doesn't. It's rare, but some people from Asia have green eyes. A colleague of my mother had all-Pakistani background and he had fairly light skin and green eyes.

Mostly. Visually, I can usually tell someone's general ethnicity (e.g. white, black/African, Oriental), but specifics I have a lot of trouble with. I have an idea about Japanese, Chinese, and maybe Korean, but they're kind of iffy. Other Orientals I'm not very familiar with at all.

I'm generally better with accents, though it's still somewhat generalized, and it depends on how much I've heard the accent.