Four years ago, I had four Vietnamese boys in my classroom. During one of our many conversations about race, they expressed frustration over being referred to as Asian.

Or even Southeast Asian.

As they rightly pointed out, their culture has almost nothing in common with the other nations that comprise Asia or even Southeast Asia.

Vietnam, they explained, is nothing like Japan, India, Mongolia, Russia, or Iran, yet all of these countries — and many more — are located in Asia. It’s not uncommon to refer to the race of people living in many of these countries as Asian.

But Asia is a big place. Referring to someone as Asian doesn’t say much about them in terms of culture or history.

Saying someone is Southeast Asian doesn’t narrow things down very much, either. Eleven nations make up Southeast Asia:

Brunei, Myanmar, Cambodia, Timor-Leste, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam.

I asked my students how they would describe their race, and they all said, “Vietnamese.”

It made a lot of sense.

Yesterday, I was speaking to someone who mentioned that both sides of their family are of Asian descent.

“Where in Asia did your family originate?”

“Malaysia,” she said. “Why?”

I explain those boys’ thoughts on being referred to as Asian, and how, since I taught them (and they taught me), I try to ask where someone’s country of origin is if they mention that they are Asian, since “Asian” is a silly way to describe anyone.

She likes this idea a lot and thanks me. “I never thought of it that way before,” she says.

“Don’t thank me,” I tell her. “It wasn’t my idea. Thank four Vietnamese boys who taught me.”

Kids are smart.

Sometimes they do incredibly stupid things, but adults do stupid things, too. Sometimes more often than kids.

But kids have fresh eyes on the world, and many times, they can see what we cannot if we’re wise enough to listen to them.

I’m happy I was listening to those boys that day.