Cinco de Mayo celebrates the battle fought between the Mexican and French armies on May 5, 1862. The Mexican army was able to defeat the much larger French forces under the guidance of General Ignacio Zaragoza. Cinco de Mayo is mostly celebrated in the Mexican State of Puebla and in the United States. It is a celebration of Mexican culture and heritage.
The median age of people of Mexican descent is 25.6 yrs.
The median income is $39,115 for Mexican households.
76% of Mexican homes primarily speak a language other than English in their homes.
Persons with Mexican origin own 1 million businesses in the United States.
In 5 years the percent of businesses owned by Mexicans has increased by almost 48%.
The first woman to be US Surgeon General was Hispanic American, Antonia Coello Novello.
The longest flight by a Mexican aviator was a goodwill mission flown by Captain Emilio Carranza.
Statistics were found on the census website: http://www.census.gov/
Showing posts with label ethnicity. Show all posts
Showing posts with label ethnicity. Show all posts
May 6, 2011
Aug 27, 2009
2010 & the Importance of Culturally Relevant Marketing
by Karen Sinisi karens@ethnictechnologies.com
The Census is coming! The Census is coming! I am sure I speak for all those involved in ethnic marketing when I say that we can’t wait to see what changes lie ahead. Of course we already know about many of the interesting nuances that this new census will bring, after all we are in the trenches. We are on the forefront of multicultural marketing intelligence, so can the 2010 Census really tell us something we don’t know? Time will tell.
But what about the more subtle change in our great nation? We have an African American President now. This was a day that I did not know if I would live to see, but sure enough, here it is. I am a Caucasian woman, but I could literally feel the pride in which every African American in our country must have been experiencing on Election Day. Minorities of all sorts are making tremendous impact and contributions to politics, sports, entertainment and business. And the populations are booming, with Hispanics on the precipice of becoming the majority. So does this mean that culturally sensitive marketing and advertising is becoming less necessary as we move towards 2010?
I would argue that it is more necessary than ever to create and perpetuate strong messages geared specifically towards ethnic groups. Here are a few examples of springboards for the creation of some terrific culturally competent advertising: The sense of pride and fellowship that African Americans have with the election of Barack Obama . The incredible breakthrough of Sonia Sotomayor as our first Latino Supreme Court Justice. Y.E. Yang, the first Asian pro golfer to ever win a major tournament. There are so many more examples, but my feeling is that as the multicultural populations grow, so too must the specific advertising messages that we as marketers create. We cannot move towards a more vanilla, general market sensibility, but must strive to always keep culturally relevant.
The Census is coming! The Census is coming! I am sure I speak for all those involved in ethnic marketing when I say that we can’t wait to see what changes lie ahead. Of course we already know about many of the interesting nuances that this new census will bring, after all we are in the trenches. We are on the forefront of multicultural marketing intelligence, so can the 2010 Census really tell us something we don’t know? Time will tell.
But what about the more subtle change in our great nation? We have an African American President now. This was a day that I did not know if I would live to see, but sure enough, here it is. I am a Caucasian woman, but I could literally feel the pride in which every African American in our country must have been experiencing on Election Day. Minorities of all sorts are making tremendous impact and contributions to politics, sports, entertainment and business. And the populations are booming, with Hispanics on the precipice of becoming the majority. So does this mean that culturally sensitive marketing and advertising is becoming less necessary as we move towards 2010?
I would argue that it is more necessary than ever to create and perpetuate strong messages geared specifically towards ethnic groups. Here are a few examples of springboards for the creation of some terrific culturally competent advertising: The sense of pride and fellowship that African Americans have with the election of Barack Obama . The incredible breakthrough of Sonia Sotomayor as our first Latino Supreme Court Justice. Y.E. Yang, the first Asian pro golfer to ever win a major tournament. There are so many more examples, but my feeling is that as the multicultural populations grow, so too must the specific advertising messages that we as marketers create. We cannot move towards a more vanilla, general market sensibility, but must strive to always keep culturally relevant.
Aug 6, 2009
Semiotics and Ethnic Marketing
by Lisa Radding lradding@ethnictechnologies.com
When I’m not looking up the ethnicities of names, I’m applying linguistic theory to names. No, not usually. But no, I’m not kidding. With my thesis advisor as co-author, I’m shortening my undergraduate thesis about the meaning of a toponym (place name) into an article for publication in a geography journal. One reviewer said I was missing a section on semiotics. Enter a week of linguistic theory punctuated by ethnic name research.
Crash course in semiotics: Ferdinand de Saussure (famous Swiss linguist) says a sign is the unification of two distinct pieces: The signifier is the form (sounds or letters) and the signified is the concept represented. He is writing about words, not specifically names. D-O-G is different from that furry thing that plays fetch, but together they are a sign, which has meaning in the context of the English language. The sign, however, is not static, but manifests itself differently with each signified: a golden retriever, a stuffed snoopy, etc. If you take this beyond the realm of language (as the French social and literary critic Roland Barthes does) that same sign can also be “a person regarded as contemptible” or “a person regarded as unattractive or uninteresting.” These meanings stem not from a linguistic context, but from a societal context. It gets way more complicated, but I think that’s plenty for the casual blog-reader.
Now I try to apply this to ethnic marketing:
1. I study signifiers. For example, I look at H-E-R-N-A-N-D-E-Z and determine that it is Hispanic. I look at just the form, the letters. I deal with signifiers.
2. Our clients care about signs. They want/have lists of individuals. Real person + name on list = sign. To those doing the marketing, unification of the person and the ethnic name is important.
3. Someone named Hernandez can be viewed differently in different societal contexts. The ethnic name has connotations that are both positive (diversity) and negative (racism). We must always be aware, when dealing with ethnic names, how they are being used.
I like the simplicity of a name and where it comes from. But I constantly remind myself that when this research is used, there are real people behind the names. People with purchasing power, and customs connected to various cultures. Based on my work with these signifiers, we can step outside the American mind frame into the land of semiotics and the ethnic consumer.
Too theoretical? Perhaps. But applying linguistic theory to this line of business was an interesting exercise for my brain.
AT: 08/06/2009 04:07:31 PM
When I’m not looking up the ethnicities of names, I’m applying linguistic theory to names. No, not usually. But no, I’m not kidding. With my thesis advisor as co-author, I’m shortening my undergraduate thesis about the meaning of a toponym (place name) into an article for publication in a geography journal. One reviewer said I was missing a section on semiotics. Enter a week of linguistic theory punctuated by ethnic name research.
Crash course in semiotics: Ferdinand de Saussure (famous Swiss linguist) says a sign is the unification of two distinct pieces: The signifier is the form (sounds or letters) and the signified is the concept represented. He is writing about words, not specifically names. D-O-G is different from that furry thing that plays fetch, but together they are a sign, which has meaning in the context of the English language. The sign, however, is not static, but manifests itself differently with each signified: a golden retriever, a stuffed snoopy, etc. If you take this beyond the realm of language (as the French social and literary critic Roland Barthes does) that same sign can also be “a person regarded as contemptible” or “a person regarded as unattractive or uninteresting.” These meanings stem not from a linguistic context, but from a societal context. It gets way more complicated, but I think that’s plenty for the casual blog-reader.
Now I try to apply this to ethnic marketing:
1. I study signifiers. For example, I look at H-E-R-N-A-N-D-E-Z and determine that it is Hispanic. I look at just the form, the letters. I deal with signifiers.
2. Our clients care about signs. They want/have lists of individuals. Real person + name on list = sign. To those doing the marketing, unification of the person and the ethnic name is important.
3. Someone named Hernandez can be viewed differently in different societal contexts. The ethnic name has connotations that are both positive (diversity) and negative (racism). We must always be aware, when dealing with ethnic names, how they are being used.
I like the simplicity of a name and where it comes from. But I constantly remind myself that when this research is used, there are real people behind the names. People with purchasing power, and customs connected to various cultures. Based on my work with these signifiers, we can step outside the American mind frame into the land of semiotics and the ethnic consumer.
Too theoretical? Perhaps. But applying linguistic theory to this line of business was an interesting exercise for my brain.
AT: 08/06/2009 04:07:31 PM
Jul 31, 2009
Hyphens and Other Changes
by Lisa Radding lradding@ethnictechnologies.com
It’s not uncommon for a married couple to give their children a hyphenated last name, a combination of their two names. Personally, I’m happy to have just one last name, but I guess I can see the appeal… no favoritism, embracing multiple heritages, uniqueness, etc. In American society, however, while hyphenated names are prevalent, it’s most common for the woman to take the man’s name.
Yesterday a male friend suggested to me that when two people marry, they should just take the better of the two names. Loving the essence of the name, I, of course, have always felt this way. I was surprised to hear it from someone else, particularly a guy. People tend to feel very connected to their names. That’s one reason to hyphenate children’s names and for women to keep their original last names. On the one hand, we feel connected to our names because they are a basic part of our identity. But conversely, they are something our parents bestowed upon us, over which we had no control. Thus, we shouldn’t be offended if someone doesn’t like our name, or if the woman in a marriage has a “better” last name.
Would I give mine up? Sure, but I’d hope his (the future husband I have yet to meet) name is better than mine. There are a lot of considerations at stake in deciding what makes a name better. For example, I like “Radding” because it’s relatively unique. Any Radding is related to me. That’s pretty cool. One point for Radding. But “Radding” is annoying in my signature. It has a lot of “clock-climber letters,” as my third grade teacher called them, which are painstakingly slow to write in cursive. Minus one point for Radding. Regardless of whether or not I give up “Radding” later in life, I’m still connected to the family. I’m not giving up an identity.
Most couples don’t weigh the pros and cons of two names and pick the better one. For those looking to compromise, the most prevalent solution seems to be sticking the two names together, for the kids at least. Yet what happens when Jones-Smith marries Adams-Brown? Should the kids be Jones-Smith-Adams-Brown? Enough is enough. Plus, while it feels fine to adopt a partner’s name when it’s a single name, would I really want to adopt someone else’s hyphenated name? For some reason adopting someone else’s hyphenated name feels more like adopting someone else’s identity than just adopting their single name. It may be one thing to carry around both your own parents’ heritages, but to carry someone else’s? I think not.
Regardless of my feelings about changing last names, the plausibility of them boggles my mind… the infinite number of combinations out there to capture and analyze. But I must say that I haven’t yet come across a Jones-Smith-Adams-Brown, or anyone with more than two names connected by a hyphen.
It’s not uncommon for a married couple to give their children a hyphenated last name, a combination of their two names. Personally, I’m happy to have just one last name, but I guess I can see the appeal… no favoritism, embracing multiple heritages, uniqueness, etc. In American society, however, while hyphenated names are prevalent, it’s most common for the woman to take the man’s name.
Yesterday a male friend suggested to me that when two people marry, they should just take the better of the two names. Loving the essence of the name, I, of course, have always felt this way. I was surprised to hear it from someone else, particularly a guy. People tend to feel very connected to their names. That’s one reason to hyphenate children’s names and for women to keep their original last names. On the one hand, we feel connected to our names because they are a basic part of our identity. But conversely, they are something our parents bestowed upon us, over which we had no control. Thus, we shouldn’t be offended if someone doesn’t like our name, or if the woman in a marriage has a “better” last name.
Would I give mine up? Sure, but I’d hope his (the future husband I have yet to meet) name is better than mine. There are a lot of considerations at stake in deciding what makes a name better. For example, I like “Radding” because it’s relatively unique. Any Radding is related to me. That’s pretty cool. One point for Radding. But “Radding” is annoying in my signature. It has a lot of “clock-climber letters,” as my third grade teacher called them, which are painstakingly slow to write in cursive. Minus one point for Radding. Regardless of whether or not I give up “Radding” later in life, I’m still connected to the family. I’m not giving up an identity.
Most couples don’t weigh the pros and cons of two names and pick the better one. For those looking to compromise, the most prevalent solution seems to be sticking the two names together, for the kids at least. Yet what happens when Jones-Smith marries Adams-Brown? Should the kids be Jones-Smith-Adams-Brown? Enough is enough. Plus, while it feels fine to adopt a partner’s name when it’s a single name, would I really want to adopt someone else’s hyphenated name? For some reason adopting someone else’s hyphenated name feels more like adopting someone else’s identity than just adopting their single name. It may be one thing to carry around both your own parents’ heritages, but to carry someone else’s? I think not.
Regardless of my feelings about changing last names, the plausibility of them boggles my mind… the infinite number of combinations out there to capture and analyze. But I must say that I haven’t yet come across a Jones-Smith-Adams-Brown, or anyone with more than two names connected by a hyphen.
Jul 24, 2009
But is that really a name?
by Lisa Radding lradding@ethnictechnologies.com
Sometimes it is hard to determine when a name is a name. Native American names, for instance, can be misleading to the American eye. But let me assure you that a Mr. Big Horn and a Ms. Flying Earth do exist and that those are their legal names.
About two months ago The Seattle Times published an article about how Facebook deals with these names: it simply shuts down the accounts. You can read the article here:http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/businesstechnology/2009235357_facebook19.html
Facebook faces (no pun intended) an interesting conundrum: How can it keep its integrity as a network if people use fake names? But then, how can it accurately determine which names are fake without extensive research or some (probably labor intensive) proof of identity screening?
I wrote last time about Jonnathan Smmith. Would Facebook consider this a fake name or is it simply an alternate spelling? He wouldn’t be able to prove that it is his name because legally, it isn’t. Yet if you search for the last name “Fingernail” (Native American), at least four people appear who seem to legitimately have this name. I do, however, question the other six results that appear on the first page. What then should Facebook do with a name containing “Fingernail?” We may laugh at the name “Fingernail” but we could also simply consider it an ethnic name. Perhaps we should consider Facebook’s action discrimination against ethnic names. Or perhaps we should consider it an antifraud measure.
Whichever way you view it, it strikes me how easily an ethnic name can be misunderstood. It’s my job to understand them correctly, in the abstract, unconnected to a person. That way, if someone uses the name “Fingernail” or “Smmith,” for example, we can understand the names and the people as Native American or English (baring Enhanced Neighborhood Analytics) respectively. And I frequently get a good laugh imagining people going through life with some of the names I come across, the type that would cause Facebook to shut down accounts.
About two months ago The Seattle Times published an article about how Facebook deals with these names: it simply shuts down the accounts. You can read the article here:http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/businesstechnology/2009235357_facebook19.html
Facebook faces (no pun intended) an interesting conundrum: How can it keep its integrity as a network if people use fake names? But then, how can it accurately determine which names are fake without extensive research or some (probably labor intensive) proof of identity screening?
I wrote last time about Jonnathan Smmith. Would Facebook consider this a fake name or is it simply an alternate spelling? He wouldn’t be able to prove that it is his name because legally, it isn’t. Yet if you search for the last name “Fingernail” (Native American), at least four people appear who seem to legitimately have this name. I do, however, question the other six results that appear on the first page. What then should Facebook do with a name containing “Fingernail?” We may laugh at the name “Fingernail” but we could also simply consider it an ethnic name. Perhaps we should consider Facebook’s action discrimination against ethnic names. Or perhaps we should consider it an antifraud measure.
Whichever way you view it, it strikes me how easily an ethnic name can be misunderstood. It’s my job to understand them correctly, in the abstract, unconnected to a person. That way, if someone uses the name “Fingernail” or “Smmith,” for example, we can understand the names and the people as Native American or English (baring Enhanced Neighborhood Analytics) respectively. And I frequently get a good laugh imagining people going through life with some of the names I come across, the type that would cause Facebook to shut down accounts.
Jul 7, 2009
Multicultural Name Identification
by Candace candace@ethnictechnologies.com
Conventional wisdom says that America is a melting pot of many different cultures. Try mixing up six different cheeses in a pot then try to find the different taste values of each. It is very difficult to do. The same idea applies to identifying the different cultures that make up our nation. The segmentation system that we habitually use simply divides the population into color or racial categories: White, Black, Hispanic, and Asian. Using this type of approach or methodology has its downfalls and in most cases antiquated census information is used, as it's sole input for development. A better approach is to see the diversity in America as a mixed salad, where each ethnicity is a different ingredient and can be identified. This method, if used properly applies to the many ethnicities and different cultures in our nation and each can be identified.
Marketers, researchers, advertising agencies and the media often market to Hispanics as a separate group from Whites, Blacks and Asians. When you take an in-depth look at the Hispanic population in the Untied States they often associate with one or more of the aforementioned racial groups and those racial groups can be correlated to their country of origin or cultural identity. An individual or family from Puerto Rico does not exhibit the same cultural identity or buying habits as those of a family that has immigrated to the US from Mexico. If that is the case then why do marketers, researchers, advertising agencies and the media often approach Hispanic's as a whole with the same exact offers, disregard their country of origin and then complain that their campaigns were not successful. Even the dialect of the Spanish language they speak differs.
The same issues arise and in greater depth when attempting to target the Asian community, the "One Size Fits All" mentality is often the method used and low response rates and product interests are the norm. With so many different Asian countries of origin and Asian languages of preference currently residing in the US, it is the smart marketer that embraces technology that allows them to identify all ethnicities, countries of origin and languages that are available. An offer tailored to a Chinese American living in San Francisco CA should differentiate from one being tailored to a Korean American living in Fort Lee NJ or a Vietnamese American living in Houston TX. Now if you add into the mix the different levels of assimilation and acculturation, the buying habits and traditional cultural customs the individual embraces are all over the chart.
An individual's ethnicity is not in all circumstances related to ones "Country of Origin". A Deepak Banerjee may have been born in England and then came to our country, but his ethnicity and cultural identity is Indian and in most cases his religion would be Hindu.
Many ethnic and religious groups in the United States maintain a strong cultural identity. They are often attracted to communities with their same ethnicity, communities in which many traditional cultural customs are maintained. Given that the ethnic diversity in the US is far more reflective of a global landscape, it is even more important for marketers to fully understand cultural differences, language preference, purchasing habits and other socioeconomic information and integrate those variations into their everyday marketing strategies and tactics. The time for the" One Size Fits All" methodology is gone that way of the dinosaur.
Marketers, researchers, advertising agencies and the media often market to Hispanics as a separate group from Whites, Blacks and Asians. When you take an in-depth look at the Hispanic population in the Untied States they often associate with one or more of the aforementioned racial groups and those racial groups can be correlated to their country of origin or cultural identity. An individual or family from Puerto Rico does not exhibit the same cultural identity or buying habits as those of a family that has immigrated to the US from Mexico. If that is the case then why do marketers, researchers, advertising agencies and the media often approach Hispanic's as a whole with the same exact offers, disregard their country of origin and then complain that their campaigns were not successful. Even the dialect of the Spanish language they speak differs.
The same issues arise and in greater depth when attempting to target the Asian community, the "One Size Fits All" mentality is often the method used and low response rates and product interests are the norm. With so many different Asian countries of origin and Asian languages of preference currently residing in the US, it is the smart marketer that embraces technology that allows them to identify all ethnicities, countries of origin and languages that are available. An offer tailored to a Chinese American living in San Francisco CA should differentiate from one being tailored to a Korean American living in Fort Lee NJ or a Vietnamese American living in Houston TX. Now if you add into the mix the different levels of assimilation and acculturation, the buying habits and traditional cultural customs the individual embraces are all over the chart.
An individual's ethnicity is not in all circumstances related to ones "Country of Origin". A Deepak Banerjee may have been born in England and then came to our country, but his ethnicity and cultural identity is Indian and in most cases his religion would be Hindu.
Many ethnic and religious groups in the United States maintain a strong cultural identity. They are often attracted to communities with their same ethnicity, communities in which many traditional cultural customs are maintained. Given that the ethnic diversity in the US is far more reflective of a global landscape, it is even more important for marketers to fully understand cultural differences, language preference, purchasing habits and other socioeconomic information and integrate those variations into their everyday marketing strategies and tactics. The time for the" One Size Fits All" methodology is gone that way of the dinosaur.
Jun 26, 2009
How Many of Me?
by Lisa Radding lradding@ethnictechnologies.com
There are only two of “me,” that is to say, two people named “Lisa Radding.” I know this because the name Radding was created at Ellis Island and thus all Raddings are related to me. Additionally, my family has done extensive genealogical research to find these Raddings and connect them all in an enormous family tree. There is one other Lisa with the last name Radding, a distant cousin of mine (who had the name first.)
But if you don’t have a last name like mine, you might be curious how many of “you” are out there. Visit this website, How Many of Me, for the answer. Granted, the site only gives you an estimate, based on how popular your first and last names are (according to the 1990 census data.) Actually in my case, it’s wrong. The site predicts that I am unique! But that’s pretty close.
This site also doesn’t take ethnicity into account in its predictions. Why should ethnicity matter? Well, Jose Gonzales is a much more likely combination than Jose Kowalski or Jose Tanaka. Unlike with E-TECH, this website looks at Jose and Gonzales or Jose and Kowalski independently from each other rather than looking at the name as a whole. But then again, this site isn’t in the business of predicting ethnicity the way we are.
Regardless of its flaws, it’s still fun to see the rough estimate… although you probably have one already. Who hasn’t googled themselves?
But if you don’t have a last name like mine, you might be curious how many of “you” are out there. Visit this website, How Many of Me, for the answer. Granted, the site only gives you an estimate, based on how popular your first and last names are (according to the 1990 census data.) Actually in my case, it’s wrong. The site predicts that I am unique! But that’s pretty close.
This site also doesn’t take ethnicity into account in its predictions. Why should ethnicity matter? Well, Jose Gonzales is a much more likely combination than Jose Kowalski or Jose Tanaka. Unlike with E-TECH, this website looks at Jose and Gonzales or Jose and Kowalski independently from each other rather than looking at the name as a whole. But then again, this site isn’t in the business of predicting ethnicity the way we are.
Regardless of its flaws, it’s still fun to see the rough estimate… although you probably have one already. Who hasn’t googled themselves?
Jun 23, 2009
“Guess My Weight.”
by Lisa Radding lradding@ethnictechnologies.com
“Guess My Weight...” My life is not a carnival, but I play this game a lot. At Ethnic Technologies, people frequently walk up to our booth at places like DMDays NY and ask us to guess their ethnicity by looking at their name tag. We lovingly refer to this aspect of our work as the “guess my weight” phenomenon.
At DMDays NY last week one skeptical show attendee came up to the booth, not to discuss our product, but to test us at this game. I tried to explain that while our software product is name based, it’s a bit more complicated than that. He didn’t care; he just wanted me to tell him he was Bulgarian, which Tina did, much to his amazement. I’m sorry I don’t remember his name. And he wasn’t interested in leaving a business card.
Unless it’s a name I’ve looked at specifically, a name with glaringly obviously letter combination's, or an ethnicity with which I have a lot of experience, I usually only know the region. When the person stands in front of me, I also get their physical features and their accent as hints. I don’t, however, have 30 years of research or the Internet at the click of my mouse like I do in the office. Bulgarian, Romanian, Moldavian, Croatian, Serbian, Bosnian… so, he was one of those, or a few others. You go with your first instinct, which in Tina’s case is almost always correct.
I play “guess my weight” pretty much every time I meet new people. When my sister introduced me to some friends last weekend, one with the last name Soltani asked the inevitable question. After he spelled his name (see my previous post about pronunciation), I knew the area of the world. Persian was a lucky guess… the luck being that I had some other clues from earlier in our conversation. But it’s always nice to impress rather than be forced to bumble about not having my computer at hand. Back in the office yesterday, I looked up Soltani in our software. No surprises there.
If I knew everything already, I wouldn’t be a researcher. I would be simply a product developer. But as a researcher, the very nature of my job is to learn more. It’s this learning that keeps the work interesting. On those days, however, when I correctly identify an ethnicity from a name tag, the knowing is immensely satisfying. My job is to learn (and to apply this learning to improve our products), not to know. Therefore the “guess my weight” phenomenon can put me in an awkward situation. People expect me to know, but I see success at the carnival as an added bonus.
At DMDays NY last week one skeptical show attendee came up to the booth, not to discuss our product, but to test us at this game. I tried to explain that while our software product is name based, it’s a bit more complicated than that. He didn’t care; he just wanted me to tell him he was Bulgarian, which Tina did, much to his amazement. I’m sorry I don’t remember his name. And he wasn’t interested in leaving a business card.
Unless it’s a name I’ve looked at specifically, a name with glaringly obviously letter combination's, or an ethnicity with which I have a lot of experience, I usually only know the region. When the person stands in front of me, I also get their physical features and their accent as hints. I don’t, however, have 30 years of research or the Internet at the click of my mouse like I do in the office. Bulgarian, Romanian, Moldavian, Croatian, Serbian, Bosnian… so, he was one of those, or a few others. You go with your first instinct, which in Tina’s case is almost always correct.
I play “guess my weight” pretty much every time I meet new people. When my sister introduced me to some friends last weekend, one with the last name Soltani asked the inevitable question. After he spelled his name (see my previous post about pronunciation), I knew the area of the world. Persian was a lucky guess… the luck being that I had some other clues from earlier in our conversation. But it’s always nice to impress rather than be forced to bumble about not having my computer at hand. Back in the office yesterday, I looked up Soltani in our software. No surprises there.
If I knew everything already, I wouldn’t be a researcher. I would be simply a product developer. But as a researcher, the very nature of my job is to learn more. It’s this learning that keeps the work interesting. On those days, however, when I correctly identify an ethnicity from a name tag, the knowing is immensely satisfying. My job is to learn (and to apply this learning to improve our products), not to know. Therefore the “guess my weight” phenomenon can put me in an awkward situation. People expect me to know, but I see success at the carnival as an added bonus.
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