Multilinguals, What Is Your "They Didn't Know I Understood Them" Story? (r/AskReddit)

multilingual redditors what is your they didn't realize I spoke their language story was on both ends as a deaf person myself on one side this one time the cashiers at a store realized I was deaf and so started talking to each other about me when they thought I wasn't looking they also didn't know I had my hearing aids and could lip read their comments weren't anything too negative it was mostly the typical comments about deaf people by people who were completely clueless about how deafness worked when I brought my stuff to the checkout I kindly reminded them that it's a pretty bad idea to talk about somebody thinking that they can't understand what you're talking about because the chances are that they do in fact understand what you're talking about the look on their faces were completely classic on the other side one time my best friend and I were people watching at them all and we randomly started rating the men around us in sign language of course there was this one dude sitting near us and we start rating his looks and his body I said that he looked like he had a nice butt and that his eyes were really beautiful with the colour of the deep ocean so I rated him a 10 stroke 10 then he came over to us and then told us in sign language thanks for the compliments ladies you really made my day haha we were both so shocked and embarrassed head that just made me realize that deaf people can't really quietly communicate things that's probably a bad way to put it but I just found it interesting I sort of have the reverse of this I am a white man from the UK and whilst visiting Berlin was sat on on the s-bahn facing elder also white lady on the other side of the carriage there were four gentlemen who were clearly Eastern European Middle Eastern I think they were speaking Turkish but I'm not sure the lady turns to me and says in German something along the lines of measurement in and which hland Sprachen wa Dortch shameful in Germany we speak German loud enough they were supposed to hear clearly looking for me to agree with her to which I replied in my very broken German it's been English my noise ist sehr schlecht or I'm English my German is very bad her face went bright red this happened to my brother and father while they were travelling some dude walks up to my brother thinking he is a local and starts talking to him in Farsi when he realized my brother didn't understand started saying really rude things about him and my dad being stupid my dad fluent in Farsi comes over and rips this butthole a second one the dude feigned being apologetic and made excuses for his attitude as he was walking away he started muttering more foul things about them but in Turkish this time dad speaks Turkish as well and proceeds to rip him a third butthole TL DR there is a man with three buttholes I love the TL DR I was honored to add vas with my grandmother going to a luau in Hawaii my grandmother spoke fluent Italian as both her parents were Italian immigrants to young women behind us was speaking to each other in Italian probably assuming none of the other tourists could understand them my grandmother told me I don't speak but a few words in Italian that they were insulting everyone on the bus she let it go on a well but just kept getting angrier and angrier as the ride went on finally she turned around and told them off telling them they should be ashamed of themselves for being so rude they looked so embarrassed and apologized to her profusely getting told off by a grandmother on a to a bus was not what they expected here in girl here I was looking for something in target and asked an employee for help she was busy stocking shelves and I kept trying to verbally get her attention when she finally noticed me she mouthed and death I set my stuff down to free up my hands introduced myself and asked her where what I was looking for was an American sign language her face completely lit up and I'll never forget it communication is major for deaf people because they are unfortunately often excluded from the hearing world which is probably why this lady reacted the way she did though this was minor it made a huge impact on me this instance made me fall in love with sign language all over again and realize how communication is a basic human right that many people do not have all have limited access to was in Germany and a middle school teacher asked me to come in as a guest for one of her English classes the teacher introduced me I said hello and that I was from the US and happy to be in their class the teacher said so do you have any questions in English for an American what do you think an American is like one of the kids near the front says in German kind of under his breath but definitely loud enough that most of the class can hear fat and stupid the kids laugh the teacher turns bright red I don't know what to do so I just say of course many Americans can speak German and German the kid almost crap himself he looked like a baby deer that had wandered on stage at a Beyonce concert I thought he was just being a dong and had intended me to understand what he was saying apparently though he actually hadn't thought through that an American in Germany and their language class might actually speak their language he looked like a baby deer that had wandered on stage at a Beyonce concert that is an amazing description I'm fluent in Spanish and was in a bank line in Lima the capital of a South American city in these two early middle age women were in front of me have a mostly quiet chat one was telling the other about this new young guy at work she was banging and describing all the crazy lovemaking they were having going into detail about all sorts of stuff the other wanted to know what he looked like and she was kind of describing him badly and she kinda did a slough look around the bank waited a few seconds and said in Spanish he looks like this guy behind us but with blonde hair much better-looking and a much better dresser she did a good job of not gesturing towards me when she said it but he didn't stop me from hearing it so she goes back to discussing details about hooking up with him at work and they don't notice the line has moved and so without a warning throat clear I just say we all love the details back here but can you move forward she went white as a ghost and they didn't really talk for the rest of the wait it was hilarious the people at the Chinese food place on my campus spoke Chinese to the door exchange students but even though I spoke Chinese I just always spoke English to them since I have an accent when I speak Chinese but day I got all meat no rice since I had a rice maker at home and when I was paying the lady says to the person beside her fat but once meat no rice and I responded in Chinese actually I have rice at home they didn't charge me for the order and started giving me a bit extra whenever I go there half my family is Chinese regardless you mentioned an accent my dad learned Mandarin by tape online video the rest of my family hates his Chinese accent because he apparently picked up the equivalent of a hillbilly accent online 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 four days without anyone realizing I knew what they were saying about me right in front of me two of the nurses thought I was cute one doctor thought I was lying all the time a patient thought I was a spy for the staff a lot happened in those four days it made my stay way more enjoyable than it should have been a lady on the bus was being a bee and slagging people off in greek until she got to me she was being excessively nasty about my chipped nail varnish I don't know either maybe she was having a bad day as soon as I clocked at I turned around and looked her dead in the eye with my very Greek face and she stopped she then sat in the seat in front of me where I sat and called my mum also Greek who I had a conversation with for the duration of the bus journey about the rude lady who slag my nails off because she thought I couldn't understand in Greek it was delicious we had a large family reunion dinner at a restaurant and we were all sharing stories my funny uncle was telling us how he used to pretend he was deaf and his sister would translate but to prove it he asked the waitress to get the manager when he came over my uncle started signing to him with made-up and exaggerated gestures my aunt told him back the food was good in the server was excellent all the while the manager just smiled and nodded when they were done talking the manager said in sign language he spoke ASL and knew it was Boris we blew up laughing my uncle's face turned beet red as someone who is fluent in ASL I don't know that I could have kept a straight face props to that manager I was in a hotel elevator with my wife in Osaka Japan the Miyako mariette to exact it is a popular hotel for tourists we were going up the elevator to our room on the 54th floor it's a high hotel in the elevator with us is a Chinese family that speaks Cantonese they must have assumed we were Japanese or some other type of Asian because they started to tease their preteen daughter about how badly she need to take a crap they were laughing and the mother was teasing her about how I can almost see it coming out our floor came first and when it did I turn to them and said goodnight in Cantonese their face was priceless and we got out of the elevator my wife called me a jackass while laughing her butt off then we got back to our rooms and took a crap too I used to live in an apartment building full of Chinese grad students and their families and everyday in the elevator was like this by the time I moved out I knew all kinds of juicy gossip my girlfriend and I live in Ottawa Canada I grew up speaking French my whole life and she knows enough to understand others speaking we were in a restaurant which was relatively empty except for us and another very French couple at a table nearby close enough to hear their conversation eventually the other girl started talking about my girlfriend's clothing saying things like more vase choice bad choice I suspect they were visiting from Quebec and just didn't realize that most people here speak a bit of French because we were leaving I turned to them and said born journey good day the look on her face still pops into my head occasionally and it makes everything feel right in the world Cable Guy here being a white guy most people don't realize that I know how to speak and write in Spanish I run into so many situations where I can run under the radar and just do my job without someone knowing that I can understand them completely every once in a while I subtly let them know that I can understand them I was doing an installation at a house where the family only spoke Spanish in the order requested for a spanish-speaking tech I showed up to the door the husband opened the door and automatically assumed that I couldn't speak Spanish his English was near-perfect and he greeted me showed me around and where he wanted everything he let me do my work as he walked into the other room where his buddy was an automatically started talking crap about me I can't believe they sent a freaking white guy who can't speak Spanish I specifically told them to send someone who can speak Spanish so I didn't have to deal with his Bulls but he's going to be lazy as Frick and not do the job right I bet a butt hole is going to expect a tip after doing a crappy job and I'll have to fix it myself the dude went on and on the entire time I was there talking crap the entire time at the end of the appointment I was pee I didn't show it Billy thought it was funny to talk crap in front of me smile on his face while acting like he wasn't saying anything about me so I looked at him tailed him and Spanish your installation is done if you have any questions you can call the company yourself and they'll be able to get someone who speaks Spanish to help you he looked at me with a shocked expression so I continued next time you should ask if the person can speak Spanish before talking crap his body hit the floor laughing as I left the customer standing there feeling like a jackass fellow cable guy never fails that I get the spanish-speaking tech requested jobs we have no spanish-speaking tech seer can follow along in Spanish for the most part cannot speak it so well when I was teaching kids in Japan I would only respond with English only to their Japanese I did this for a few reasons one to make them think I didn't speak Japanese two to make them use English more three so I could scare the crap out of them once I decided to speak Japanese some kid in English school didn't do his homework when I asked him for it he told me in English that he forgot his book he then turns to his classmate and says in Japanese that his book is in his bag and he didn't do his homework because he couldn't be bothered I said nothing come the end of the class his mother is waiting in the reception along with my Japanese manager so I told the manager in English that he didn't do his homework I hear the conversation between kid and mom with him giving the same for God balls but so I just say in perfect Japanese why are you saying you forgot the book when I asked you in the class you told the other student that it's in your bag and you didn't do the homework because he couldn't be bothered I'm sorry didn't you know that I could understand Japanese mom opens the bag finds the book smacks the kid in the head with the book and tells him to sit in the reception doing his homework kid cries all is good kid cries all is good confirmed actual teacher source and teacher nice story I am 100% white and look very European and was traveling south korea with my also very european looking spanish friend but we both speak conversational level korean as we were walking around a park and ebu fairly large city south of seoul a bunch of seniors in the park were talking about how pretty we were we turned around and thanked them in korean and they were very taken aback and then asked us where we were from after telling then they said if everyone is as pretty you too I want to go there made our day as there were so sweet funny story I went to an Asian dollar store in Jeju South Korea all my friends checked out first but they were all East Asian looking the cash is dealt with them as normal when I get to the till the guy noticeably pales and then turns to his coworker in panic dude I don't speak English what do I do coworker just deal with it guy I don't speak English but I can speak Chinese coworker you speak Chinese I didn't know that guy hey third person opposite the taels do you speak English help me guy three do just deal with it me it's okay I speak Korean the look on his face was hilarious I also have a lot of stories of Koreans crap talking me but weirdly enough most of them are from here in Canada the cashier story made me delight laugh love the dude that was like I don't speak English but what about Chinese like that's going to help when I was stationed in Korea I was getting a haircut the hairdresser had like an assistant or a new person helping her get me seated and prepared he says to the main girl he looks like a baby I have a baby face and was like 22 at the time I responded in Korean with I look like a baby she was really startled and embarrassed and noped out of there for the rest of the haircut the main hairdresser took advantage of being able to talk with me in Korean though I was in an elevator going back up to my apartment after working out some two years ago and I had a man bun at a time there were six other guys in the elevator speaking Arabic so I just listened as I usually do then one of the guys goes haha look at this guy's hair it's ridiculous I turn around and respond you want to say that again the five other dudes proceeded to dialed laughter with one of them screaming I knew you were Eric I knew you were Eric I ended up laughing alongside them to their one friend who felt super awkward my family and I went to Sri Lanka for two weeks to see where my mom grew up in general beach staff for some reason we were like the only people in the hotel we were staying at aside from a wedding party that left a day after we got there a few days and there was another family staying there I believe from Suriname and we were all chilling at the pool and decided to play a game of water polo against each other things got exciting and one of the daughters yelled out something in Dutch like go for the big fat guy my dutch dad replied what big fat guy and everybody laughed just a simple story but it was pretty sweet most of these stories are a bit negative here's a lighter one my mum's a linguist and speaks about 15 languages fluently and as such I picked up a couple along the way most of my childhood was spent in Germany so I have a firm grasp over language which doesn't really seem to match my appearance I'm a 653 220 pounds black man who speaks German now this isn't too uncommon a site in Germany it's in North America I'm a freaking unicorn so I was standing at the bus stop one day in the heart of downtown Toronto and there were these two 60 something-year-old German ladies who were not having a good time they were trying to find the Art Gallery in fed up with the fact that they were having such a crappy time navigating because their english-speaking children had left them alone for the day I didn't have anything particularly important planned for that day so I turned to them and said something to the effect of you know our city has a lot to offer if you know where to look would you two like me to show you where the gallery is and a couple places you can get lunch along the way well they nearly fainted they were Tsuru happy that they found someone who spoke German and couldn't stop taking pictures with me to show their family the guy that saved their day I walked them to the gallery and gave them a bit of an impromptu walking bus to her along the way that was the day I gained two omus comma that was the day I gained two omus the most valuable currency in the world right there I once interviewed for a part-time school holiday job together with a good friend of mine my friend is Chinese the majority race of the country I live in I however am quite clearly not the first thing the HR manager says when he sees me as we need someone who speaks Mandarin a criterion not stated anywhere in the employment ad and which subtly translates to Chinese candidates preferred my friend while ethnically Chinese speaks little to no Mandarin I on the other hand speak it rather fluently probably as a test the HR manager decides to field us questions in Mandarin clearly intent on cutting me out of the interview my friend turns pale as he stumbles along to answer the question posed in whatever halting Mandarin he can scrape together the manager then turns to me rather arrogantly waiting for my reply it gave me great joy to tell him straight to his face thank you for the opportunity but clearly I am not the right candidate you are looking for to fill this position since I am NOT Chinese in crisp fluent Mandarin the look of bewilderment of his face was priceless confirm Singapore though we need people who speak Chinese but really we just don't want Malays and Indians is so aggravating my family and I were flying to Greece from Houston to visit family and two groups are also on this 10 hours flight student ambassador middle high schoolers mostly girls from the US and a youth male Greek soccer team and of course they were all sitting by us with their chaperones at the other end of the plane and the boys are hitting on and flirting with these girls about 2-4 years younger than them all over each other they moved seats so they can sit with the girls and they were so loud AMD obnoxious the whole plane was piaf except the crew who did freak all about it apparently the boys were also talking amongst themselves in Greek my mother speaks fluently from years of Greek school and many a summer raised in the Peloponnese hillside at some point while all three of us are just sitting there reading sleeping trying to watch the tiny TV at the front of the plane and listen over this kids constantly talking my mother jumps up and goes over to the group and says these boys are calling you fat and stupid they also think American girls are so easy by the way he she points at the one guy who was the most all over this one girl is a team they have girlfriends waiting for them in the terminal now shut up so I can't sleep they all shuffled back to their appropriate seats silent best flight ever after that I love my mom you have been visited by the romantic girl comment love is magic so you never fall in the friendzone if you are new to the channel you can subscribe I publish new videos every day until then check another video or don't either way have a great day you magnificent people

Channel: Updoot Everything

Views: 47,501

Rating: 4.9111109 out of 5

Keywords: #updootst, updoot, reddit, r/askreddit, askreddit, ask reddit, r/, \r, r\, best of reddit, reddit stories, reddit story, top posts, funniest posts, funny, funny posts, funny reddit stories, funny askreddit, reddit funny, askreddit funny, askreddit stories, reddit stories 2019, people of reddit, sub, reddit cringe, memes, toadfilms, updoot everything, updoot reddit, story, stories, rslash, comedy, fresh, reddit multilingual, reddit they didnt know i spoke their language

Id: DM883eR3o-k

Length: 21min 24sec (1284 seconds)

Published: Tue Jan 07 2020