Mistaken Identity

After golfing with my wife(Korean born) here in town, I was checking some stuff back into the clubhouse while she went to get the car. This older gentlemen in the clubhouse said something to me about nice to see Si Re Pak out there(Female Korean Pro Golfer) and I think he was waiting for me to ask him to come and meet her and get her autograph. He must not have been watching us too closely, because he would have known we weren’t pro golfers…The dribbling drives and walking back and forth, and back and forth on the greens should have been a dead giveaway.

Anyway, I was taken so off guard that I failed to mention that she wasn’t Si Re Pak…and mumbled something like we had to get going. The men in the clubhouse then said something to the effect of “be sure to come back”…and well my wife thought that was pretty funny. We couldn’t believe that they even knew who Si Re Pak was, let alone mistake Sara’s golf swing for hers!!!…notice they didn’t accuse me of being a pro golfer.

Being Asian born my wife can tell you some funny stories. She’s been mistaken for a tourist, foreign exchange student, pro golfer…and here’s somes questions she gets asked fairly regularly…
-Are you Chinese or Japanese?
-What part of China is that in?
-Do you know kung fu?
-Do you speak English?
-How do you like the US?
-Wow, you speak good English….

Once at a college function Sara and a Vietnamese girl were getting ice cream, the other girl in playful jest said to Sara quite loudly “You think you can just cut in front of me because your Asian?”. The entire social function fell into awkward silence….talk about tension. Everyone was nervously glancing around trying to figure out what was going on. Finally, once they realized it was two Asian girls joking there was some nervous laughter.

I’m Still Waiting…
Me…I’m still waiting my turn to be mistook for a celeb. I once watched out of a basketball arena and was mistake for this mouthy high school player and nearly got beat up…I’ve had my identity stolen multiple times and used to make large purchases, but I’ve never been mistaken for a celebrity…maybe someone will think I’m Matt Damon(wishful thinking).

Once, some kids asked for my autograph for being me! I almost fell over and started laughing, but I caught myself when I saw they were serious…they knew I was a good runner, but mistook me for much, much better than I was. My wife tried not to laugh and I tried to quickly give them the autograph and send them on their way before someone saw what was going on…