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Grace sometimes is asked if she speaks Japanese/Hawaiian (she speaks both fluently) and then tends to get "How do you say . . ." questions. It doesn't seem to bother her most of the time, not as much as "What are you?". Most of the time she'll just give her standard answer, (Hawaiian of Japanese and native descent), but sometimes the questiioner, especially if it's a stranger asking out of the blue, will get human, American, a paramedic, a woman, her age, "hotter than a firecracker", "an aesthete", Dr. Light (my suggestion), her height (which surprisingly, is sometimes what's being asked), "formal model Pat Stevens", or Tia Carrere (which, sadly, has been what was being asked on two occasions that I know of). She doesn't try to embarass people, but she does seem to enjoy their discomfort at wanting to ask but being unwilling to ask directly where her ancestors are from.
There does seem to be a little bit of subconscious racism going on here, as people tend to ask me where my ancestors are from a lot less often, even though it's a subject I do enjoy talking about.
Most of the time she uses it as the opportunity to dispel a misconception or two about Hawaiians.
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