Bilinguals Share Overhearing In Different Languages (r/AskReddit Top Posts | Reddit Stories)

dealing will redditors have you ever heard someone talk about you secretly in another language that didn't think you understood living in Germany for a few years I could understand German traveling in a barn somewhere near Augsburg little girl around the age of five or six with her mother sat opposite and pointed at me as asked why I am so black mother patiently explains about afro-americans and slavery and freedom girl waves me while leaving diamonds yet PS thanks for the wedding gold kind stranger incidentally tomorrow is my wedding day I worked as an English teacher in a Japanese high school I wanted my students to use only English in class so I never let them know I understood and spoke Japanese for a year I ever heard them talk about how long they thought my big did was whether I had a Japanese girlfriend and so on at the end of the school year with all the students gathered in the gym the principal asked me to make a farewell speech as I was returning to my home country so I stepped up to the mic and delivered my speech in fluent Japanese ever see eight hundred joules drop at the same time it was glorious I'm American I was in Paris on the metro and I heard these drunk American girls talking about me I glanced at them and had one say do you think he's listening and her friend said no we're speaking English he probably only understands French comma right don't even speak French must have been pretty drunk since like 40% of France speaks English I think there were more American than drunk I spent a few years in Seoul ingane near fluency after about a year of immersion most days on the street I'd hear something about the size of my nose or my blue eyes usually it was satisfying enough to look right at the speaker until they pause then I'd just introduce myself and ask them about their day met a lot of cool people in some situations it was a game one of my Korean friends was fluent in English we used to take the bus together and talk about whatever just to see what happened with the crowd he spoke English and I replied in Korean really messed with the other passengers heads good times my uncle was on the other side of this my family is Dutch and when my aunt and uncle were living in London she taught him the phrase in Dutch for something along the lines of the fat woman is a rig which they could employ easily without anyone knowing what they were talking about at least until they went to Amsterdam and the tour guide at the Anne Frank House Museum got a bit surly and he momentarily forgot which country he was in Telia my uncle called the tour guide at the Anne Frank House a fattish in her first language backpacking in China a little girl near me asks our dad what kind of person is that I answered in Chinese I'm an American I get this from kids all the time in Korea usually they point and yell hey I knew him it's a foreigner mom starts laughing instead of smacking their kid for being rude in response my boyfriend look at each other in horror than yell in Korean one it's a Korean person usually the mum and kid go wide-eyed and are shocked once on the subway in New York this young guy tells his friend in French who would wear red pants I turned to him and say you better watch out you are not the only one that speaks French his friend then gets extremely embarrassed and says I told ya so every day at work I work in a manufacturing facility with many Hispanic immigrants who like to gossip constantly they assume that due to the fact that I am white I have no understanding of Spanish but what they don't know is that I went to a school system which required us to take four years of a language where I reluctantly learn Spanish for three years now I've been working there listening to their gossip about me I haven't said anything because I like being able to hear what they really think and find it kind of amusing at times it has been quite difficult to pretend like I can't understand but I've managed to pull it off I'm really looking forward to my last day when I bust out my Spanish and teach them a lesson about being judgmental and shallow I can speak Polish by speaking polish you can in varying degrees understand Ukrainian Czech Slovakia and to a small degree Russian I've heard a few things directed to me once or twice on one particular occasion - Ukrainian girls were talking about me on the subway but not letting them know I understood when I had to get off the train I simply smiled at them and said I understood everything you two were talking about and left their faces dropped I have a good one I'm a gringa but I speak fluent Spanish at an after-hours nightclub in Miami I took a break from dancing to go to the ladies room while I'm washing my hands to Venezuelan girls come in they look me over in the first says in Spanish not so kindly check out this white girl she hasn't stopped dancing all morning her friend shrugs and says for a white girl she can move I turn around with a big grin and say to the first one in Spanish I can teach you my moves if you want all three of us bust out laughing they bought me a couple rounds and we danced together for a few hours fun times in Miami it's probably not a good idea to assume someone doesn't speak Spanish as a major city based where it is yup all the time I don't really look Hispanic so other people think I'm a different ethnicity and start talking about me and Spanish it's usually older women about how my shirts are way too low-cut and how my Bob's are out on display the guys just usually comment on how big they are and call me chiona a girl with big bones I'm a high school English teacher with mostly Hispanic students and you'd never know it by looking at me but I also speak Spanish I never advertised this to my classes until something like this comes up I've caught students talking trash about other teachers about me trying to cheat on tests and papers all kinds of stuff one time that stands out was when a student warned another one not to try cheating and she responded with ease ambarita no save nada he's a little white boy he doesn't know anything I looked at her and responded saves guessed agarrado and cinta tool oak dices you know this white boy understands everything you say there was a moment of stunned silence followed by some kid in the back going oh sheet and then the whole class erupting I was hiking at the Grand Canyon with my friend and my brother a few years back and there was a small group of young Japanese girls high school-aged hiking behind us on the way down I hear them talking about how attractive my brother is and giggling I find it funny but I didn't say anything they keep talking about him and then later my friend and chatting about it gets ooh and still I say nothing we get to a small overlook with the rock ledge sticking out that sort of hard to access and my daredevil brother manages to climb around the backside to get a better picture one of the Japanese girls sees him and says she wants to go over there too but she looks like she is going to jump to it which seemed dangerous so I told her in Japanese that she should go to the other side to climb up those girls were absolutely stunned and looked beyond embarrassed they knew I'd understood everything I'll never forget it Mandarin speaker it happens all the time the weirdest time though I was in a clothing store in Tokyo and a family came up and asked me a question in Japanese I had no idea what they were saying and then they started talking amongst themselves in Chinese about how I could possibly get by in Tokyo without understanding Japanese yeah I hear ya I picked up a summer job at a local fast-food joint this summer while on break from college I'm a white guy from Southern California and while not fluently bilingual I speak a fair bit of Spanish during my first day the rest of the workers as I found out later thought I was the owner's son and treated me like I was the king which really confused me at the time after they came to the realization I was just a normal guy at a part-time job the chitter-chatter started and some began to complain to each other that I shouldn't be there get in territorial as if I were intruding because I wasn't like them one woman in particular really didn't like me about a week into the job I overheard her saying something about me being an [ __ ] and getting in her way later on that day she told me to helped her with bringing something to the kitchen from the freezer downstairs because she was busy to which I responded in Spanish but you called me an [ __ ] why should I help you do your job she was taken aback and kind of stammered off embarrassed and muttering under her breath felt good to confront her and watch her get all red in the face after that happened people didn't seem to mind me that much somewhat related I went to get some breakfast tacos and while I was in line one female employee asked another tell Olympius tant is Deveny I busted out laughing and their jaws literally dropped she was asking jokingly if the other girl had washed her before coming into work as a brown guy living in japan most people assumed I was a tourist and didn't speak Japanese I used to overhear all kinds of weird interesting conversations on the train my favorite would have to be overhearing two Japanese school girls about how hairy my legs are and wondering if it would be possible to make a carpet out of it I didn't know if I should be flattered or offended gave them a wink as I walked out at my start felt pretty badass I hear this a lot in Germany from English speakers they talk amongst themselves assuming English is their secret language then turn around to ask people something in English assuming to be understood what's the thought process there the best word to German girls though I was with a Scottish friend sitting down opposite of them in the subway they immediately switched their conversation sexual topics to atrocious English it got cringe-worthy really fast so we missed the chance to let them know that we understood to avoid embarrassing them we kept quiet till they got off the subway just raising the occasional eyebrow my husband and I he speaks French and I speak Spanish we both speak English were vacationing in France and while visiting this castle town some years back stopped for lunch the waiter thought we were Americans and decided to call Mia who are in French when we complained we had been waiting for 1.5 hours for our food to come out and said we were going to leave anta please give us the check for what we had consumed I think the waiter was fired that same day when my husband gave the restaurant manager a piece of his mind in French I am Hispanic and fluent in both English and Spanish and people often think I don't speak Spanish so there was this one time I was at a laundromat folding clothes while these two Hispanic leaders are at a table across from me folding their clothes both of them are speaking loudly in Spanish so I couldn't help but overhear what they were talking about they start talking about alcohol one of them said ever since she got married and had a kid she stopped drinking the other chick was saying that she loved getting drunk and could not live without alcohol that she wanted a boyfriend so he could buy her alcohol and take care of her kid then they both start talking about their rightio boyfriend one of them says that she is lucky to have found her husband because he has everything she wanted in a guy the other chick was listing off a huge checklist of her perfect guy hot guy must worship her by her everything amazing job clean cook take care of kids et Cie she then is interrupted by her friend saying that she was never going to find her perfect guy with her list being so long she then turns and Lux towards me saying what about a guy like him her friend immediately rejected that idea she then began to make fun of my clothes her glasses everything I'm a pretty nerdy looking dude she says how I look like a loser who is doing nothing in life probably that I'm poor and won't be able to buy her things and more I think to myself that this chick is quite rude and loudly replying Spanish I wouldn't be into a chick like yourself because I wouldn't want a lazy drum for a girlfriend she got silent and just stared at me her friend began to laugh uncontrollably Mexican here I was on a bus stop once and there were a couple of white Mormons next to me for what I heard the tallest one was starting out and was nervous about talking to strangers about religion the other guy wanted to give him confidence and told him look he seems tough why don't you practice with him or something like that then Alberto approached me and asked me if I wanted to hear about Nostra Sena Y Salvador Jessa Cristo I immediately answered in English I am sorry but I believe you might want to execute your learning with a more short minded individual Elda short went pale as a sheet and when the bus arrived the only three seats were together that was an awkward trip for them I mean the other side is true as a sassy teenager I was conversationally adept in French and I knew all the bad words so when summer shot will cut me off while I was riding my bike Metabo cane naturellement they would get a torrent of french cuss words while made me feel great until araga large hillbilly stopped his pickup and yelled back at me in fluent French I wrote far and fast to get away nope but once I was talking over the phone with a managing director of my company and they didn't know that I could understand some German and he started talking about some secret event that was going to take place in German I just typed in Google Translate as they spoke and found out about the whole story [Music] you

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Id: Fpt2-qAoohM

Length: 15min 49sec (949 seconds)

Published: Sun Jan 19 2020