Thursday, April 9, 2020

Multilinguals' "They Didn't Realize I Understood Them" Stories


This fun AskReddit thread that has multilinguals describing the times that they overheard people talking in a language, that those very people didn't think they'd understand. Assumptions are a tricky thing. It could be best to assume nothing, and even play around with the idea that someone in the vicinity understands what you're saying. The looks of shock that likely flashed across these people's faces, must've been a thing of beauty. 

1.

Text - Darkon224 • 1y I live in England but I come from Poland and am fluent in Polish alongside English. Couple of days ago I was ordering at a Subway when two Polish employees started talking. It went something along the lines of "this fatass wants chicken AND bacon" and they laughed (on a side note I feel like thats not that uncommon of an order, right?). When it got to putting vegetables on the sub, I gave my order fully in Polish with a big smile on my face. The order cost me £4.80, but the

2.

Text - mynameissarah • 1y I was solo traveling in Morocco. I'm 22/ female and speak Arabic enough to understand conversations, basic words and phrases, etc. was trying on clothes at a small shop and there were two women helping me choose what to try on. They started talking about me in Arabic, saying how I would be a great wife for one of the lady's sons. They were going on and on, and as I was leaving I responded in Arabic, "No thank you, but I appreciate your help," and they were stunned.

3.

Text - svehlic25 • 1y Was a high school student in Toronto, but I speak Slovak, which is similiar to Czech and polish. I was going to school on the subway in the morning and two good looking women started to talk in polish right next to me. I usually like to strike up conversations with fellow central/Eastern Europeans. Unfortunately they started talking about how one of them has had a burning pee problem. With nowhere to move on the packed subway and no headphones, it was an awkward thing for a

4.

Text - kdoyle29 • 1y Not me, but my dad (very white guy with equally white Irish last name) was born and raised in India. He speaks a variety of languages (Gujarati, Hindi, Konkani, English, Portuguese etc.). He was at an airport and sitting across from two young Indian women. One was saying to the other in Hindi, "Look at that fat old white guy over there". My dad got up, walked over to them and greeted them in Hindi, proceeding to make small talk about their flights and days. From his telling,

5.

Text - veekay45 • 1y When I was doing my exchange studies in China (native Russian), I was riding a subway in Shanghai. At one of the stops a mother and her daughter sat beside me. The daughter was maybe 4 or 5 and she wouldn't stop looking at me, then without turning her head she started asking her mom "Mommy why is mister so strange? Why is his hair strange?" and so on. I didn't react as if I didn't speak Chinese, and the mother patiently told her daughter "Mister isn't strange, he's just a fo

6.

Text - holyturmoil • 1y I was in the line to renew my license, at the DMV. Two Latina girls were behind me and were talking about me having pretty blue eyes, in Spanish. They turned three shades of red when I turned around and said thank you.

7.

Text - GodsGift420 • 1y My dad grew up in Egypt and now travels the world for Dole (the fruit company). Once he was in Morocco at a plant who were possible suppliers and they tried to deceive him. They showed him the safety guidelines that were written in Arabic, but were describing different standards in English. My dad doesn't look like a typical middle easterner and has a very non-descript accent, so they thought they could fleece him. After the dude was done talk my dad says "that's not what

8.

Text - DarthPhranque • ly Not me, but my dad. We are from South Africa My dad speaks 5 (English, Afrikaans (similar to Dutch), French, Italian, and German) He emigrated to the UK in early 1995 when alot of other South Africans were doing the same due to embedded racism of a fledgling nation... But I digress. He was on the underground in London when he overheard two guys speaking about a pretty woman on the train in Afrikaans - my dad's native tongue. According to dad they were being incredibly r

9.

Text - crawtators • 1y Moved to Thailand and took extenaive language training. Was drinking coffee in a quiet shop and the barista and the waitress started guessing my age... Where I was from... Why I came there three days in a row (lived close by). And I was thinking "cool... They think I'm cute... How flattering" and then the barista said "but he is a little fat..." so when I left I told her my age and home town. When she brought the change back I told her that yes.. I am a little fat"

10.

Text - eureka123 • 1y 3 1 Award Well my great aunt told a story of how she once went into a butcher shop. When she walked in, the butcher was talking with a customer in Russian (which she spoke). The butcher saw my great aunt walk in and told the costumer (in Russian) that he'd take care of this "old hag," and then continue the conversation. So my great aunt (in English) asked for pounds and pounds of cold cuts, all sliced and wrapped. When it was all ready, she told him (in Russian), to "shove

11.

Text - coffee-coffee_coffee • 1y 5 Awards I was on the subway in NYC a few months ago when a family sitting across from me was playing I Spy in Hebrew with their kids. The parents went around describing each person they saw on the train, so when they got to me I decided to play along. I looked up from my book, made a funny face, and covered my face with the book before the kids could find me. The parents started laughing and said to their kids: "I spy someone who understands us!" The parents and

12.

Text - P35-HiPower • 1y My late best friend, who was big tall and blond, was in Tim Hortons..he speaks fairly fluent Arabic, having spent 7 years working in Saudi Arabia. Three Arabic men were sitting at a table making very lewd comments about the women in the shop. My buddy turned to them and said in Arabic; "You need to shut up before someone kicks your ass....you never know who is listening" They got very confused, and left soon after.

13.

Text - h4k01n • 1y My SO is a tattoo artist who can speak Bulgarian, Turkish, English and German. One day we were queueing in the supermarket and two guys behind us were laughing and snickering. She turned around and said something to them. Afterwards she was laughing while one of the guys went bright red. Afterwards I asked her what that was about. The guys were like "look at her arm. Those tattoos. Disgusting. How can you tattoo a naked woman on yourself?" In Turkish. My SO turned around and s

14.

Text - kosmor • 1y 3 1 Award I've said this before. It happened a while ago. I went to a psychiatric emergency ward once and asked for help and if they were comfortable to speak English. I understand Danish but have a hard time making myself understandable in it and didn't really feel like an idiot at a crucial time of my life. I stayed there for 4 days without anyone realising | knew what they were saying about me right in front of me. 2 of the nurses thought I was cute. 1 doctor thought I was

15.

Text - candiice_xo • 1y I've posted this before but l'll post it again. My husband is the bilingual one, not me. He's from Colombia so he speaks Spanish fluently, but grew up in the U.S and has been here most of his life. He also has a really fair complexion. Most people think he's just Caucasian. Anyway, we were in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico looking for a place to eat. We get to a restaurant and he asks in English how much it would cost for all you can eat tacos. The guy at the door said it's $15.

16.

Text - arlondiluthel • 1y I'm an extremely white American man. I was stationed in Korea, and a buddy and I went into a store that was slightly "off the beaten path". My buddy was in a different section of the store and found something he liked. He asked the shop keep how much it was, the shop keep said, in Korean "well, you're an American, so $65" (translation and currency exchange provided for ease of reference). I looked over, and saw a sign on the wall that said the exact item he wanted was $

17.

Text - INTHEMIDSTOFLIONS • 1y Oh the cooks at my job still don't know I'm fluent in spanish lol. Yes, I know everything you're saying, Alejo.

18.

Text - I live in Austria, but my Dad is from Brazil, all my Austrian aunts and uncles married a brazilian. My grandparents from my mothers side opened and lead a factory of our family company in Brazil, that's why everyone was there, but some eventually came back to Austria, just like my mom with my dad. Me and my siblings were raised multilingual but lived most of our live in Austria. So once whenI was around 10 my Mom and me were on a tram in Vienna with my little brother, who was around 2 at

19.

Text - FJBRRT • 1y Happened to my wife when she worked at McDonald's. She looks a little on the Asian side but is from Guatemala. Group of Spanish speaking people pay at the drive through and try short changing her. Driver says "esa maldita China no save contar" (that damn Asian lady can't count). Wife takes the money and very politely says they are short in Spanish. Driver turns red while passengers couldn't stop laughing

20.

Text - rekipsj • 1y 1 Award My wife is Indian and her family speaks Gujarati. I've spent many years trying to pick it up and have found it to be very difficult as there are no great resources that I am aware of to learn it. You just have to listen and try to guess the context. Anyway, over the years l've gotten pretty good, and when my wife's aunt was visiting from Indian she went right in to my wife about how much weight l'd gained and how bad my diet must be. Tunderstood every word and stopped

21.

Text - 3 2 Awards I've posted this on other threads before but I think it fits here: I lived in Japan when I was little and retook Japanese in college so I didn't sound like a child when I spoke. To solidify my new language skills, I went to my "hometown" for about 6 weeks a summer in college. It was a small town so most people remembered me or my family, but some people I stayed with (6 weeks, 11 families that at least wanted me to spend a night in their home) were new to the area since we left

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