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I've been told that number 1 wrong and number 2 is correct, but I'm wondering
why exactly.

  1. 出身は何ですか。
  2. 出身はどこですか。

In English, what's your origin vs where's your origin has the same meaning to
me and my first instinct is to use what instead of where for this. Does anyone
have any insight on why this is exactly?
CC BY-SA 4.0
2019-07-02T13:08:47.793
69223
2019-07-02T14:04:12.533
34539
question
word-choice
What/Where usage English vs Japanese
This is the difference between what a word means according to a bilingual
dictionary and what a word means within its native language.

According to the 日本国語大辞典

> その土地またはその学校など **から世に出る** こと。また、それまで過ごした経歴{けいれき}。

So the word 出身 literally speaks of where a person has come "out of" or "from,"
it makes sense to use **where** instead of what because of this. Note also
that it is not only in the sense of birthplace, but family size
「そんな彼女自身も、「5人きょうだいの末っ子」という **大家族の出身** 。」, school 「 **関西大学出身** の有名人をご紹介します。 」,
and so on.
CC BY-SA 4.0
2019-07-02T14:04:12.533
69224
2019-07-02T14:04:12.533
1761
69223
answer