Character Ethnicity

[mysteryking]

So, on the brass tacks of roleplaying, what does a person need to account for when creating characters of a specific unfamiliar ethnicity or nationality?

One obviously has to consider speech and appearance, but what parts of culture need to be paid particular attention to? Is it safe to translate any particular language that they speak into English and assume it works? Or is it better to not write too far out of one's own experience or familiarity?

I know my less realistic feeling characters tend to be foreign. Even those from another plane of reality seem to have more depth than a Japanese secret agent or a British superhero (both of which I have.)

[Elite]

Frankly, I don't think most roleplayers really care, mostly because they're not familiar with the ethnicity/nationality either. And even if they were, they probably wouldn't bring any attention to it unless the way you're portraying your character is blatantly wrong or strange. Of course, I'm not saying that you just shouldn't worry about it; a little research is always good.

Every culture is different, so I can't pinpoint anything in particular you should look for. Just look for strong mannerisms. For example, a Japanese person probably has it ingrained in their brain to bow when greeting others and would do it by instinct even if they moved to another country where it's considered strange. An American may be very liberal with their speech and actions which would be considered blasphemous in another country.
I think it's okay to translate their speech to English, so long as everyone else is speaking that language too, and it's established that they're foreign.
I say do whatever you want, regardless of your experience or familiarity. If you really want a character to be a certain ethnicity, chances are you're interested in the culture of said ethnicity, so researching should be easy and fun. And even if you aren't interested, after a bit of research, it's hard not to find something interesting. But I do think, either way, some amount of research should be done.

I personally haven't ventured too far from the my own ethnicities, but then again, I have a mixed heritage. My grandmother is Japanese, my grandfather a blonde Caucasian, my step-father's Mexican, and I don't even know what's on my blood father's side (though it's obviously something very different)! I also have many friends of different ethnicities and managed to indulge myself in various cultures, even in my short sixteen years of living on this earth. So I can't say I've had much of a problem with this, but like I said, a little research into culture will never do you any harm. ;3