Originally Posted by sarettah

There is nothing wrong with humility.

There is nothing wrong with a polite apology to acknowledge that someone might take umbrage at having their language or culture mis-identified.

Mistaking Chinese and Japanese may mean nothing to you or I, but to the Japanese or Chinese person the mistake might be very insulting.

Let's put the shoe on the other foot for a second. Let's say that you are a foreigner and you get confused between New Yorkers and Bostonians. While the Bostonian may feel quite honored to be elevated to a level where they are mistaken for a New Yorker, the New Yorker would be quote mortified to be so lowered in status to be mistaken as a Bostonian (while both the Bostonian and New Yorker would kill you for mistaking them for someone from Jersey).

There is absolutely nothing wrong with keeping a polite tone to the conversation nor with being able to acknowledge your own shortcomings. Only a very insecure person (with a little tiny itty bitty dick) would think that there was.

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