What ethnic group are you from?

One of the teachers is talking to me in Pulaar, basic introductions, probably more for his own amusement than anything else. He asks my American name and I tell him and he asks me to write it, so I do. I should have told him the written version would not be of any help, but I did not, so he pronounces my name with an English "j" and I cringe. Diana, another teacher, asks to see my name. She says it’s a pretty name and I’m going to pretend she said this because of how the letters S-o-n-j-a look together in that order and not because of how she imagines they’re pronounced.

Then the teacher asks what ethnic group I belong to. As this is a question I’ve only ever had to bubble in an answer to with #2 pencil for the benefit of people not staring directly at me, I don’t know how to answer until Diana prompts, “Your last name, Kubik…” and I explain it is Slovak but I am also Swedish. “From Sweden,” I add, with the faint hope I can convince people I've got no relatives in Switzerland. The teacher responds with some interest, but then explains that wasn’t what he meant, I still have not answered his question. "What ethnic group are you from? What tribe? You know in The Gambia we have the Fulas, the Serrehules, the Mandinkas…"

So I explain we don’t have those in America, people identify with what countries their family members originally came from. Except then I remember the Native Americans so I explain about them too.

I should've just answered “Viking!”