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Q: Am I still a 'Waiguoren' in Canada?
When I was back in Canada at an asian grocery store, The asian cashiers said something in Chinese about me, and they called me 'waiguoren'
I thought this was strange because 'waiguoren' translates to 'outside country person'. But I guess they still use this term even in our countries.
What do you think?
BTW I am a born and raised Canadian. Also as white as rice, so they wouldn't have been confused.
once a waiguoren always a waiguoren part of you for life.
Waiguoren will always be the polite word for outsider for a lot of Chinese people.
I have had the same thing happen in the US. And when I told the girl that she was the Waiguoren here, she turned about 50 shades of red and couldn't stop apologizing and being stunned that I understood what she said.
cooter:
I can't wait for this to happen. But alas, the majority of the Asian population where I live is Laotian. Not sure where I can run into some Chinese folks :P
Xpat.John:
Just on the street where I live in the US, there are 4 people from China. And Chinese restaurants, stores and businesses are all over the place. Not to mention hordes of Chinese tourists.
I have asked many chinese people about this very question. It confuses the hell outta them. Some said they still use "laowai" others said that when they travel abroad they will use the country, so in your ( as well as my) case "jianadaren" but i think they were lying as I have never heard someone call me that while in canada just "laowai" . Hella good question
siyingyuan:
they are definitely lying. I've been living in Vancouver for 9 years, never heard Chinese call Canadians "jianadaren" always "laowai". and I'm Chinese, I hang out with a lot Chinese. And, sorry, I do the same when I'm with my Chinese friends. It's more of a slipping tongue kind of thing, we got used to it and never bothered to change. I don't do that with non-Chinese friends though, because.....they don't understand mandarin. 
LOL, my wife and I lived in the UK for nearly 7 years before we came to China and she constantly referred to me as foreigner, both in Chinese and English, I pointed out to her that in fact she was the 'foreigner' but I may as well have been talking to the wall. As far as she is / was concerned a foreigner is anyone not Chinese regardless of where they live or your location and the dictionary really doesn't matter!
Zhongguo is the middle kingdom, the centre of the earth. Everything outside it is foreign.
I guess that's the mentality.
It's F****** STUPID and DISRESPECTFUL. :( You should have corrected him on the spot and told him that HE IS THE FOREIGNER!! :( Typical stupid,arrogant Oriental. :(
Koreans are the same...my favorite line ever
"I went to Australia, so many foreigners there. "
