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What is the difference between these two questions:

Where are you from ?
What country do you actually belong in ?

(Does that mean where you was born ?)

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"Where are you from?" can be answered many ways, but it usually refers to the place the person normally resides. - "Denver." (person was born in Denver) - "Paris." (person lives in Paris; this, or "France", answers the usual understanding of the question) - "New York." (person came to this meeting from New York, where they were attending another meeting)

"What country do you actually belong in?", to my ears, is insulting. It implies "Well, I know you're here right now, but you act/speak/look like a foreigner and should go back to where you came from." I would never use that wording.

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  • Thank you so much for the correction and explanation. Now my all doubts are cleared.
    – Sarah
    Mar 23, 2016 at 20:15
  • @Sarah: Glad that helped.
    – Mark A. Mandel
    Mar 24, 2016 at 1:43

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