One day at work when it wasn't busy and my cubical neighbor, who was a caucasian female was chatting with me and my old buddy who is middle eastern and was my "wing man" at the time. Somehow, she broached the subject of not being about to tell one Asian from another and asked if I could do so since I hung out with Asians quite often. My friend immediately stepped in and explained that I was an "expert," but she seemed unconvinced after some probing questions as to how I could come to my determination on a persons nationality. As it turned out, her birthday was that weekend and she said that she and some friends would be meeting at City Walk (back when it was "the place") and she wanted to see me prove it if I showed up. Of course, it was a challenge I couldn't pass up. The gauntlet had been thrown down and I relished the chance to prove my ability to her.
To make the story as brief as possible (and still not brief).. She and about ten friends were occupying the two couches in the back corner of one of the dance rooms when I found them. She explained what we had all talked about at work and of course, they were all white and were almost rude in their skepticism. Since there were no Asians in the room, as it was early in the evening, I tossed out a bet to my friend ... a beer for her versus a coke for me that I could immediately tell her where the next Asian girl to come through the door was from...in other words, what country she was from or I would buy. She took the bet. Within a few minutes, two Asian females came into the room about 30 feet from where we were seated and were immediately spotted my my coworker. I took one look at the girls (whom I had never seen before in my life), and said, "they are Taiwanese."
My coworker and her friends were immediately balked immediately saying "no way" and "you cannot possibly guess that right from one glance." My intuition was dead on and I knew it, so I raised the ante by saying...."I will do one better, I will tell you what city they are from and if I don't get it right, I will buy beer for all of you." How could they miss on such a bet? Ten beers vs one coke... they all agreed - all in. So, I took a longer glance...maybe 5 seconds, and said "They are from Kaoshiuong." In case you don't know, this is the second largest city in Taiwan and is near the southern tip of the island. My friend had never even heard of it, so she and another of her friends were anxious to go with me to see if I was wrong. When we approached the girls, I politely tapped one of them on the back and said, "ni hao?" They returned my greeting and I asked, "excuse me, are you girls from Kaoshiuong?"... They immediately looked at each other and then back at me with a look of shock and said, "how do you know?" I never answered their question....I just thanked them, turned to my friend (and her friend) who stood jaws on the floor, and said, "my coke, please." Of course, they had to ask the girls if they knew me and they admitted that they didn't. Later, while drinking my coke, I explained that besides that fact that my Asian radar was pretty dead on most of the time, I knew they were of Chinese descent immediately, and at that time the demographics for international students in OKC were such that almost all Chinese here were from Taiwan or Malaysia. Maybe it was their fashion, hairstyles, body language... I just knew they were Taiwanese. As for the city, well - they were ever so slightly dark....I went with a hunch.... I mean Kaoshiuong is a big city in the southern part of Taiwan.... I went with the darker complexion, closer proximity to the sun, and nailed it. Even today, that is the best explanation I can give.
Since that time, I admit that my radar has dulled a bit. One of my closest friends is Thai and we've always played the game of "where is she from?" A few years back, we went for Korean food and were eating when I saw her looking over my shoulder and hitting me with that question. I took a minute to pause, turn and observe a beautiful young woman sitting down near us. I admit to being perplexed, even as my friend immediately proclaimed her Taiwanese. I was thrown off and couldn't rely on any of my normal senses. I had to observe her carefully for more than 10 minutes (as she waited for her to-go order) before finally turning to my friend with a smile and uttering the word "Vietnamese." My friend, convinced that she had finally ended my unbeaten streak, got up and walked over to the girl in hopes of proving me wrong. I listened as they made small talk and then came the words, "well, I grew up in Texas, but my mom and dad are from Vietnam." As with so many times before, my friend came back to the table, head down like a scolded puppy and asked, "how did you know?" I had to admit that the one thing that gave it away... the unique shape and texture of her fingernails. Sometimes it really is intuitive and sometimes...its all in the details.