Multilinguals Share The Cringeworthy Times They Understood A Conversation They Weren't Meant To 

The moral of the story is to assume everyone speaks every language.

"We are Americans right now" - Hides the vodka under the table and pulls out a XXL pizza

You: fiancé Me, an intellectual: finnakay

Two years ago, I was visiting my aunt in France. I was in this cafe and next to my table there were two guys and one of them was continuously glancing at me and quickly looking away. They, completely unaware that I'm pretty good at French, were loudly talking about something along the lines of "that girl is pretty cute" "just go talk to her already." After a couple minutes, which felt like hours, he finally came up to me and started talking in english. I replied in French and his face went completely red and his friend bursted out laughing. We've been together ever since in a long distance relationship. I'll be seeing him again in a few days and I couldn't be anymore happier💕

"we are americans now" *hides AK47 and starts telling democracy jokes*

I cursed a guy out in 3 languages, he understood every word of it

Me: downloads duolingo It’s a small price to pay for being hilarious

you're procrastinating rn.

"So I got off the train without paying a fine or anything because I pretended not to know Swedish." *_Sneak 100_*

Chechen gang walks in *sweat intensifies* Russian family: Howdy y’all diddly do Yankee Doodle dee

My dad and I were on holiday in Rome and waiting in line for a Colosseum tour. We were speaking Finnish with each other, when these two Norwegian boys start mocking and talking shit about us in Norwegian. Little did they know my dad is fluent in Norwegian. He leaned towards the boys and whispered (in Norwegian of course) something along the lines of: ”You never know what languages people can actually speak.”

So I’m American but i was born and raised in Ghana, most of the people in my school think i don’t speak any of the local languages but I’m actually really fluent in twi and Fante. In the sixth grade, the girl sitting behind me would gossip and insult me in twi then she would compliment me in English thinking i did not understand her twi,one day when she and her goons were laughing at my dark skin saying that i did not look any thing like an American. I turned slowly and replied her in twi saying black is beauty. The look on her face was priceless Wow, I did not know I had this many likes

I'm a robot learning English, which is quite different from my native binary code. One time, while I was working on a narration project, I pronounced 'Fiancé' as 'Finna K'. Very embarrassing!

In finland: Some random teenagers: "Look at the gay swedes" Us: "We speak finnish"

so i'm vietnamese but i studied mandarin in school, so i'm pretty fluent. so one time my mom and i went to china on a trip together. we went to a market, and these two college-ish girls stopped walking and began to have a conversation about me in the language: girl 1: "her hair is so pretty." girl 2: "ah, but she's a foreigner..." pretending i didn't understand, i glanced at them for half a second and continued walking with my mom. later on, i bumped into them again and they noticed me. again. girl 1: "it's that foreigner girl again. i wonder what hair products she uses?" girl 2: "stop thinking about it. she's a foreigner." i noticed that girl 1 seemed to admire my hair, but girl 2 seemed to dislike me for my foreign appearance. since we were in really close proximity to each other, i shared to the girls my hair routine as well as the products i use, in the language of course. girl 2 was super embarrassed. both of them exited the store super quickly and the last thing i saw was girl 1 laughing so hard at her friend. that made my day. :D

These stories make me want to learn another language.😂

People be like I speak Spanish “recites despacito lyrics”

one time i sat next to a Korean girl at school, i didn't know she was Korean. she was really cute so my bisexual ass decides to whisper "oh my god, she's so pretty" to myself in Korean. she turned to me and said, in Korean, "thanks, you're cute too." i died a little bit on the inside edit: to everyone saying i shouldve asked her out, she's back home in Korea now.

I’m Swedish and very socially anxious. When visiting London with my brother I would most often talk to him in Swedish and then let him translate the words to any English person. Not because I didn’t know English but simply because I felt more relaxed talking Swedish. I sat down at a cafe and my brother went to get the food. Some fellas one table over had probably heard me ramble in Swedish and were yelling at me stuff like “Stupid Russian go back to your own country” etc and then laughing when I looked confused. My brother came back and asked me in Swedish what was going on and me, still being confused replied in English “These people thinks I’m Russian.” They acted like they hadn’t noticed us and left just a few minutes later.

*Chechen walks in* Russian family: *pretends to tell story in country accent* MAN, I JUST GOT THESE BRAND NEW BOOOTS. THESE HERE ARE SNAKE SKIN. ILL TELL YA WHAY, YOU SHOULD SEE MY TRUCK. I GOT ER LINNED UP ALL NICE AND PERTY WITH SOME GATOR SKIN. HOW’BOUT WE GO CRACK A COLD ONE, PARTNER.

I'm german and there was a russian kid in my class. The teacher asked him in german:"Do you speak german?/Do you understand me?" (I can't remember which one it was) and the russian kid replied in german:"No I don't." The whole class burst out laughing

You gave me the worst motivation to continue learning Spanish.

So I don't look very german (which I am) and speak English with a somewhat british accent. One time during summer a friend of mine and I were riding the train, chitchating in English, when this group of guys (around the same age as us) walks in and takes the seats next to us. They start comparing us and calling dibs (wtf). Then one of them asks my friend (who also speaks german) in broken english if she'd like to have a drink with him some time and if he can have her number. Obviously, she declines. Another guy then 'apologizes' for his friend and proceeds to ask me the same question. In perfectly clear german and picking up their conversation I say 'Sorry, I don't date people who brag about screwing a girl before she even gets the chance to turn him down.' The 2 Minute ride to the next stop (where they surprisingly left) is something I'll never forget 😂

"Her face turned red" "She looked in shock" "They all started laughing"

I'm Swedish and hearing the text-to-speech voice read the train Company SJ as "Society of Jesus" is so hilariously fitting, since they're known for regularly being off-schedule, you might as well actually be waiting for the second coming

My boyfriend pretends not to speak english when he doesnt want to talk to a stranger and busts out thai and the "i no speak english"

For anyone wondering _Tack och förlåt_ means *thanks and sorry* 9:50

My Japanese friend’s mom called me fat in Japanese, not realizing that I could speak it.

8:44 "bought my ticket with the company Society of Jesus"

All of these horror stories are making me realize that multilingual people probably talk about me on a regular basis, and I don't understand them.

Okay, so this happened on my first day at school. I was sitting with a guy and talked to him in English because I was more comfortable with it, he thought I could only speak English so he started talking to his friend about me in Tagalog. Their conversation about me was like "She's a foreigner dude. I'm sure of it!" "Yeah, just look at her! She's definitely a foreigner!" I could understand everything they said and was debating if I should tell them or not, I had a hard time controlling my laughter and keeping a straight face when they started chatting about who should asked me first. Minutes go by and I finally had enough 😂 I spoke to them in Tagalog and told them that I could understand what they were saying and stuff, they turned beet red. My other classmates who was eavesdropping on their conversation heard me and stared at me in disbelief. That was hilarious 😂

No one probably noticed this but it was written as "finacé" and not "fiancé" so the bot said "finnakay". 😂

"With the company *Society of Jesus* " WHAT

(Does sign language count? Ha ha) Once, I was at a public cafe and was eating peacefully when I looked up and saw a deaf woman and what I assumed to be her friend/interpretor signing something to each other while one tried to discreetly point at me. She signed: "That woman. I like her dress." Or something similar. I was with my mother, but my mom did not know ASL. As we were leaving, I stopped by their table (they watched us as we passed) and signed: "Thank you. That was nice of you to say." She looked a little taken aback but smiled and signed : "you're welcome." As we left, I caught her friend signing: "well then." To her. I still have that dress.

I have one, I am hispanic, but I speak fluent English. And one day my mother and I were in LA, at a park. And I was talking with her about how hot a guy in front of us was (in Spanish) and after a while this guy turns around to us and said “Hola” Omg, I was so embarrassed

I was in a German/Austrian restaurant in Cambodia. The owner kept talking in English with us. Which was fine to me, since both English and German are foreign languages to me, Dutch is my native language. After a while some German tourists also came in. From that point on we didn't see the owner at our table anymore. He was sitting with the German customers and was saying to them how we were cheapskates for not ordering more food than we did. Because both me and my partner weren't drinking beer, he was telling them we couldn't hold our alcohol, which made us losers. If it hadn't been for the really friendly staff I would've walked out. But we finished our meals, sneaked some money to the waitress and chef without the owner seeing it and went on our way. While we were walking out the owner, fake friendly, wished us a nice evening. To which I replied: Wir reden auch Deutsch, arschloch (we also speak German, asshole) Both the owner and the German guests were shocked. One of the ladies looked like she was going to be sick 🤣

People can be so unkind. You should always speak about someone as if they can understand you. There's no reason to treat people so poorly.

Me and my -finacè- Finna K.

A couple of "then everybody clapped" moments in there.

I'm Polish and I'm used to spend my winter holidays in Austria on Italy. Once, when I was skiing some lady started to shout at me in Polish, about the way I ski. I turned to her and said "Dzień dobry, jak to miło spotkać Polaka tak daleko od domu" (Hi, how nice it is to meet other Polish pearson that far from home). She turned bright red

I'm latina and speak Spanish but I don't ''look latina'' So one time I went to the movies with my nephew who's was like 5 or something and we both went up to get drinks but the lady at the register seemed a bit mad. I was ordering the drinks when my nephew accidentally dropped something that was on the counter and the lady said in Spanish, ''These kids have no sense of decency'' I just keep talking in English until she finally gave us our drinks I thanked her and said in Spanish,'' Before you talk about other people's decency make sure yourself have some.'' And then just left.

Once I was at IKEA with my dad and two Italian people were in the lift. They didn't know that we can understand Italian and she said to the guy "Why can't thay take the stairs or wait for the next lift? I don't want to share this lift.". My dad said in Italian "It's only us two and we don't bite." (that makes more sence in Italian). Their faces were hilarious.😂

I know this is isnt reddit but here is my story: I can speak korean so when i went to korea everyone was talking about me in my new school My classmate thought i was beautiful My teachers thought i was stupid And my "friend" wanted to stab me in the back with a knife It was fun when they found out that i knew korean

My sister and my friend were once in Greece on an island and there was this guy they were talking about and the conversation (Dutch) went like this; "You see that guy? He is sooo handsome!! I mean just look at that!" "I'm not sure, I can only see his back." "So What? His ass looks fine too!" We then realised he could understand us ... I already though I saw him laughing at us lmao

I had a cashier cuss me out in Arabic once. I thought he was going to pass out when I replied in Arabic. Another time I had asked a waitress about mushrooms in a dish. I have an allergy so I was persistent but not rude in my inquiry. She brought my meal out and walked away while saying “see how you like your allergic reaction, that’s what you get” in Mandarin. I confronted her and the manager and she played innocent until I repeated my argument in Mandarin. I live in the south and have a country ass accent so nobody expects me to be able to speak intelligible English, much less Arabic or Mandarin.

Guy wants to simplify poker rules and then goes on to use poker related terms

In French class, a guy walked to the guy sitting in front of me and asked him if he liked me (or something similar) in Chinese. I understood him and said to him ‘ you know I can understand Chinese, right?’ in Chinese and his reaction was amazing.

Sees: Finacé Says: Finakay The problem with misspellings

It gets funnier the more languages you know. English is my first, followed by Spanish, German, Russian, and soon to be korean. People are more shocked because I'm African American

Bad wording someone in a different language is cowardly

I have one. So I was born in Nepal but moved away when I was 4. I used to speak Nepali fluently but forgot most of it. I went on a trip to Nepal with my grandparents and they didn't realise that I was relearning Nepali and they didn't realise that I'd actually learned a fair amount. I saw my gran talking to another lady so I decided to see how much of their conversation I could understand. I listened in a bit and the conversation was MY GRAN telling the other lady about how fat I'd become. Thanks for the confidence boost gran! 😂

" She is a very hot Italian woman" "How's your daughter?"

I am a college student (major:liberal arts Japanese). While heading to class these two Japanese boys are talking and happen to be going the same way as me. I heard one of them talking about my book bag (it was legend of zelda). Apparently he thought it looked really cool and wanted to ask where I got it, but was afraid to use English. I turned around and responded in Japanese, both boys were shocked. They complemented my Japanese and we spoke for a few minutes. After they found out I study the language they wished me luck and told me to do my best.

Mine was actually a bit of an accident. Once, a guy came into our store and stood right next to the counter where I was working, telling his friend about a trip he had taken to Belgium and how he could speak fluent Dutch now. His buddy seemed pretty impressed by that and I didn't think anything of it at the time. When they were done picking out their item, they happen to choose my counter to ask a few questions about their purchase and I thought to myself: 'What a great opportunity to flex my Dutch skills.' I speak fluent Dutch, but rarely get to practice it because no one speaks it where I live (France). So, the guy comes over and I turn to the 'Dutch speaking guy' and I greet him and ask how I can help in Dutch. His face went completely pale when he realized that I was speaking Dutch and he couldn't make heads or tails of what I was saying. His friend, in the meantime, gave him this puzzled look, as if to say: 'Dude, why aren't you responding? You speak Dutch, right?' Turns out, he didn't speak Dutch at all and I just inadvertently called him out on his BS. They left in such a hurry, they didn't even complete their purchase.

"We are Americans now" Proceeds to dismount bear and hide vodka and rapidly gain fifty pounds

I know a similar story. Not mine but i don't care. I'm from Poland but i live in Germany together with my mom. Her coworker wich is also from Poland told us the story. She was driving a bus. It was pretty empty. Few steps away from her was a bunch of teenagers speaking Polish, and telling each other what kind of sex they like, whom did they fucked recently and stuff like this. My mom's coworker just listened to it until they were on her a bus stop where she hat to go out of the bus. She turned to this group and sayed (in Polish) "Hey you there! Next time please don't talk obout shit like this in public. You never know if someone understands your language". All of them turned red and were silent. And actually since i heard this story, I'm careful about what i am saying in public. Cuz u never know.

"bought my ticket with the company Society of Jesus"

I’m British, I grew up here, I live in Bristol now, I’ve only ever left once to go on holiday. However I have a very good knack for learning languages. I learnt German in school, did french in collage and learnt Spanish from an online course. I worked in a store for a while and we would get a lot of foreign citizens coming in which is why I got the job and why I stick around at this place. We had a group of girls come in and start looking at the clothes we have. They pick out some and walk over to the checkout where I’m standing. One of them, who is better at talking English than the rest pay for the clothes and as I’m scanning them, she looks over her shoulder at her friends and says, “He’s really cute isn’t he” in German and the girls giggle. I pretend not to notice and keep scanning. They’ve bought a lot of clothes, mostly skirts, tops, a few jackets, but also some bras and knickers, that’s panties for Americans. I take them out of the basket and make a move to scan them but the girl said something else that caught me off guard, “I bet he’d love to see me in those”. I cough from the shock but play it off because I don’t want them to know I can understand them. I’m only half way through their 3 baskets of clothes and this girl won’t stop talking about me being cute or how I’d probably love seeing her in the clothes I’m scanning. My German has got rusty because the store doesn’t get w lot of German customers, mostly french and Spanish, but I’m pretty sure I’m hearing this right. When I’m finally down scanning the items, I smile and say, in German, “That’s £58 and 43p please.” The girl who was talking goes bright red white her friends burst out laughing. She suddenly loses he ability to pay and her friend has to help her out. I place the clothes into the bags and say, again in German, “I think you’ll look good in all of these”. They left and I could here her trying to dig herself out of the hole she was in. They came back a week later to buy some more clothes, like how many do you need? I ended up getting her number that time and we’ve been dating for about 5 and a half months now. Being bilingual does help.

here’s my story even though nobody asked lol: i know english and korean, i studied it for 3 years but i don’t use it much. so when i go to central london which is about 20/30 mins away from where i live, and there are normally a lot of asian tourists (from what i see) and when i went to cross the road, there were a group of korean teenagers my age talking about me and how cute they thought i was. i then thought to myself if i should leave them and see what else they will say. they then carried on talking about who will get to talk to me first and things like that. (i know this sounds like a sort of story you would find in a fan fiction or something, but i find it as crazy as you do) . they follow me down the road and carry on talking in korean who’s going to make the first move. i simply turn around and say to them (something along the lines of): “i find your compliments very flattering, thank you for being so sweet. i wouldn’t mind if any of you two made a move.” and the look of shock on their faces was priceless. we actually ended up going the same way and i talked to them for a while and we still stay in contact. so jaebeom and taesung if ur out there love y’all!

I was waiting outside of our car when two Koreans passed by. Minutes after they ate at the restaurant, I heard one of them say, "She's still there!" I was shocked 😂

I'm whiter than the average white person, but I'm completely Mexican. I remember when I asked the price of an item and this Mexican guy told me in English "I'll go check". He then talked to his other Mexican friend and the first guy said in Spanish "what price should I tell him?". The other guy then said, "charge him like $40" (it's supposed to cost $20). He then came back and told me it would cost $40. I then replied in Spanish and said "make it $15 and I might just come back". His face went red instantly, and so did the other Mexican guy. It was an amazing moment.

I speak Russian at home with my family. I remember coming into work one day (waitress) and getting a table of Russian women. The entire time they were talking shit and every time I would come around they had something mean to say. So when they had paid their bill and were about to leave, I decided to say 'Bye thanks for coming!" in Russian. Their faces dropped lol. They never came back.

So I know English, Serbian and german and I'm studying Korean because I love their language and culture. I knew how to speak chzech, Italian, Hungarian, Spanish, French, Bulgarian, slovak and slovenian (I forgot these languages completely sense I had no one to speak too with them). anyway. One time I was in a restaurant (which has international cuisine and a lot of tourists). I don't like speaking german so I ordered in English and waited for my order, I was eating alone till a group of tourists (teenagers) came and sat to a table next to me and I was sitting alone. They talked in English and said that they found it weird. And my friend called me so I casually said "hello, why did you call me?" and they looked at me like 'tf'. I talked to m friend in English the whole time till my order came up and they spoke in german, I spoke to my friend in german then and there. She found it weird and I said in german "Yeah, I am in a restaurant and I am eating and there is a group of teens next to me thinking I can't understand them.". They were passed and started talking in Spanish (Not all of them but still) and they said I was annoying. I then asked my friend if she needed help with her Spanish (she doesn't study it bit I gave her a hint) and she said yes and said a couple of words and I translated them and adding in Spanish "you know Spanish isn't that hard, just be motivated to learn it". I then said in Serbian that I needed to hang up and my food was getting cold. I was satisfied tbh but then another guy called me and he was a slovak so I had to answer in that language. He wanted to know smth which wasn't that important but uk. I then called my dad and spoke to him in Serbian telling him about it. I also had to call my friend who can speak Italian (One of the teens was Italian and I didn't notice it) and I spoke to him in Italian sense he had troubles with enlgish and german. the convo ended and I are in peace. The teens looked at me and said to each other "how many languages does she speak ?" and I answered "I speak over 5 btw. and it's not nice talking bad about people who you don't know. So I suggest keeping your opinions to yourself "

Ah, The Perks Of Being Multilingual. LOL

non native english speaker: Sir, if you would please excuse my bad english, as I don’t natively speak english me: dat b k

There is always a group of "popular" Hispanic girls at my school, when I was in elementary school I was not well liked by them And would often hear them talking when I walked near them. At first, I didn't realize they were talking about me, as they talked in Spanish, but after one not so discretely jabbed a finger at me I gained a slow suspicion these girls were talking ABOUT me. They hardly talked in Spanish unless they were complaining in class without the teacher understanding. one day I walked into class keeping a sly eye on the group as I sat down. I stopped as soon as the test started, because as an elementary schooler I had been what was called "a mother goose" or "teacher's pet" I felt a strange feeling that someone was looking at me, and when I looked to the group of girls I found one, not looking at me, but my paper. I quickly told the teacher, and after the test found that same girl talking in Spanish. I at the time had no idea what they were saying, but my teacher secretly knew what they were saying. apparently, my teacher had kept his bilingual abilities a secret for his entire career and secretly knew every one of his Spanish speaking students complaints. Soon after he heard what they were saying, he (in Spanish) told them off. The girls turned red and one even cussed. later on, I eventually found out that she had been calling me a donkey and other rude things, and I was entirely grateful that the teacher had broken his Spanish speaking secret to defend me.

I went to this church party type thing where the host and her teenage son was welcoming all the guests at the door. I had just moved back from China a few months ago but liveD in the US for 3 years. The teenage son says to me “Welcome to our country” in English veryyyyyyy slowly. I stared blankly in confusion since I was born in the us. He turns to his mother and says “Geez I thought they taught English in China” and I say back “Yeah they do, but I did live here for 5 years so maybe they don’t teach English that well”

I speak Gujarati like the second person spoke about and LMAO THE WAY THE VOICE PRONOUNCED GUJARATI WAS HILARIOUS.

" Finake " Great Fiancé pronauceation

When I grew up playing the violin since I was 3 and spent most of my time at my best friends house who also played when I was young. I would practically live there because my mom is an actress and has a lot of work overseas and stuff. Their family was really nice and pretty much only spoke Chinese. Since I was so young and stayed with them for so long I basically learned Chinese. I could understand it pretty well but couldn’t really speak it. My mom didn’t even realize until a few years later when i was watching an interview or something in mandarin and she was like “wtf, do you understand that?” And I was so confused that I did lol. Anyways, my friend had moved back to China with her parents so I wasn’t practicing my Mandarin really. Fast forward later when I’m starting to study the language more (I’m in highschool at this time). I was watching a lot of tv shows in mandarin and talking more and more so I was getting pretty good. Oh, I probably should have mentioned that I’m a white girl a purple pixie cut at this time. OK, so this is when it happens. We’re at Yosemite because it’s pretty and there is a bus full of Chinese people. They’re all tourists with cameras and sun hats. One couple older couple is standing by this ledge with a wall where a ton of people were taking pictures and looking around like they wanted someone to take their picture. They spotted my mom and asked her in broken English something like “can you, picture of us?” And I was like MY TIME TO SHINE BITCHES. So I said in Mandarin. “I can take your picture, where do you want to stand for it?” You should have seen the look on their faces. Anyways, I ended up talking to them a bit about how I was primarily self taught and my favorite Chinese TV shows. They filmed me saying stuff in mandarin for their daughter learning English back home. Fun times

Weeell, I've a similar story... Happened a few months ago, in Germany. It was a huge history summit where the fellow europeans were gathering. I'm Georgian and, logically enough, Georgian is my first language but I speak Russian quite well. Those Russian guys thought I was German (dunno why they thought German wouldn't know Russian) and at the dinner table, started talking how Georgians should've been eliminated from the project and so on (political staff), then mentioning me in the conv, saying that I had the ugliest nose they'd ever seen. WOW. A few moments later, I left the table - after directly telling them, in Russian obv, to read the country's name on the badge fully and not just only the first letter 😂😂😂

When I was around 14, I went to Belize with my dad on a business trip. We went out to eat one night at a hole in the wall cafe that one of his friends said was really good and wasn’t far from our hotel. A few minutes after we sat down, a group of around 4 or 5 men came in and sat at the table next to us. After they ordered they started talking in Spanish to each other. My dad knew Spanish from the time he spent 2 years in Ecuador as a Peace Keeper. He didn’t know it, but I had also been learning Spanish by myself for a few years so I was almost fluent in the language. They talked about a lot of stuff that I wasn’t paying attention to until I saw my dad tense up. I looked up, surprised and saw him glancing at the men at the table next to us out of the corner of his eyes. I started paying attention to their conversation and I immediately felt uncomfortable. They were talking about what they would do to me if we were somewhere more private and if my dad wasn’t there. My dad was really mad and asked the waiter for some boxes to put our food in so we could go quickly. While my dad left the table to go pay the check at the cash register the men were more openly looking at me. I packed our food and calmly went over to their table and said in almost a perfect accent, “¿Perdóneme? Me estás poniendo muy incómodo al hablar de esto y te agradecería que no lo hicieras más.” Which in English means, “Excuse me? You’re making me very uncomfortable talking about this and I would appreciate it if you wouldn’t talk about it any longer.” They were all shocked and started apologizing to me and one man even came up to my dad to offer his sincerest apology. I’m glad I came along with my dad instead of staying with a friend while he was away because of that.

I live in Puerto Rico and speak both English and Spanish. My English is flawless and most other Puerto Ricans call me "gringo" cause of it lol. Anyways a few years ago an old lady from the states (who doesn't speak Spanish) moved into a house next to my grandma's in the rural mountains of PR. Nobody in those mountains know English. But the old lady wanted to make friends and would often try to talk to her new neighbors and my grandma... Sadly the language barrier made this impossible. But they were all on good terms and helped each other with their crops regardless. One day I went to visit my grandma and she told me to say hello to the "gringa" in English and also to translate on both sides. So we went over to her house and I saw funniest thing. She had other neighbors over helping her with crops and she was just talking non-stop in English to em about random topics and they had such a massive (._.) face. Anyways so she notices us approaching and greets us in English and my grandma greets her in Spanish. Then I just say "Howdy miss! How's the mountains of Puerto Rico treating ya?" Her eyes just bulge out and she was excited to be able to speak English and actually be understood haha. Anyways the other neighbors took the opportunity and used me to translate to her that they all wanted to be friends and all that. She was very happy. She passed away a few months ago. A sad loss.

Okay so I've been studying Korean for about 2 years now and I have to say that I am relatively good (at least with basic conversation, pronunciation, and grammar). I was at Starbucks and a few ladies sitting there commented about how ugly my clothes were. While my mom was paying for my drink, I tapped on of their shoulders and said "You spilled coffee on your shirt" in Korean. They all looked at me with wide eyes and I gotta tell you, that was probably the best thing I've done in my 15 years of living. Edit: the most likes and replies I've ever gotten jeezus

I am lactose intolerant, but I have pills so that I can eat dairy products. When I was in France for a short exchange program (through school) I explained this to the family I was staying at. I wasn't the best at speaking french, so I did most of my communication in English. Still I understand a lot of French. When my family was having dinner, something with cream, I ate one of my pills as usual. The daughter of the family (my correspondent), sitting straight across from me, says this in a so obviously I'm-trying-to-be-discreet-voice: "Mama, she's eating those pills again..." And to which the mother tells her IN THE SAME VOICE "Oh it's because of the milk". I was too shy to tell them I understood, but man do I which I had just butted in and answered for myself.

Nah but rather i have many "i didnt realize they could understand me stories"

I use to work at a hardware store and a man who was on the phone was trying to return something. No packaging. No receipt. I said we aren't able to return it. He had the guy on speaker and the phone was on the counter. He screamed in French "LOOKS LIKE IM GOING TO BE LATE BECAUSE THIS STUPID GIRL CANT DO A SIMPLE F***** RETURN!". I then smiled. And responded in French "this stupid girl can also speak fluent French. Would you like to tell him that too?" The man went red and over the phone I hear loud laughter. I never saw him again after he ran out

It honestly is like a social super power.

All stories in A nutshell: their face turned *red* and their friend *bursted out laughing*

Me and some friends were in a small Spanish community in my town. The guys were talking shit about our friends in Spanish, so in Spanish I said "Man, this place is really beautiful!" And looked at the guys. The looks on their faces were priceless.

this makes me want to learn a million languages

I love how they all have some elaborate back story as to why they are bilingual

I am French and one day my best friend's boyfriend from London came to visit her, he doesn't speak any French so we were talking in English all the time. We were in the subway and those girls behind us are starting to talk about our wierd hair color, thinking we can't understand. I wasn't planning to say anything since it could be embarrassing for them and I don't care about critics but I slipped in French to talk to my friend. Their reaction were priceless

I am white/Hispanic and my best friend is black/Hispanic ( Full mix really. Ends up looking Polynesian). He speaks fluent Spanish but I don't. One time we were waiting in line for something and these Mexican ladies behind us were being SUPER bitchy for some reason and then started speaking Spanish to each other. My friend smiled as he listened, waited, then turned around and said something something to them that pissed them off but they shut up. I asked him what he said as soon as we got through the line. He said they were being racist and saying a black dude (himself) shouldn't be with a Hispanic and he should get a beating or etc. Joke was on them though. I forgot what he told them but it was a good line. Lol

For context: My dad is Greek and my mom is Dutch. I have been raised multilingual. One day I was working in our family business in Greece, at a touristic island. A Dutch couple walked into the shop. I greeted them in English as I normally do to customers, asked them if they needed any help, and then let them look around undisturbed. They start having a conversation about mundane everyday couple stuff in Dutch, and I don't intervene because I have no reason to do so. Then the woman goes into the changing room to try on some clothes. As she walks out wearing a dress, her partner loudly says "This dress makes your titties look juicy" in Dutch, and I immediately make up my mind; I'm not going to let them know I can understand them anytime soon. They asked me things about the prices and the materials, and I replied in English. The inappropriate Dutch comments continued, the poor guy had no IDEA I could understand him. Long story short, they come up with the stuff they want to buy, and hand it over to me to wrap. "That'll be 62 €" I tell them in Dutch with a bright smile. The clothes gave us good money, but the guy's face when he realized I understood _every word of what he said_ about his partner's boobs, was priceless.

It's not exactly a multilingual story, but I'm Romanian and my name sounds kind of Spanish. In high school, my Spanish teachers kept thinking I was Spanish (from Spain) and talking to me in Spanish in the hallway. I just stood there and nodded and said "si" whenever they paused, but had no clue what they were saying hahahaha

the first question so i was in london and i was just talking with my english friend and we heard some dutch boys talking in their native language, and they were talking about how they found my hair ugly and they were like "no you can't say that" and "that doesn't matter she can't understand anyways", i was born in the netherlands so i couldn't help but jump in. i just turned around and said "wist je ook dat ik mijn haar vol in jouw gezicht kan gooien?" which means, "did you know i could just throw my hair in your face?" and then we just walked away while they were standing there with their eyes big lol

Mfw all of the Hebrew language experiences involve ripping someone off. 😂

When I went to America so many people were shocked when i spoke their language (I'm from Australia)

Less of a multilingual 'experience' but more of a cringe thing: I'm Korean and still in secondary school in England. I speak Korean fluently... but with the rise of Korean entertainment, there have been an influx of Koreaboos at my school. Their Korean is so cringeworthy and honestly it's offensive how some of them stereotype us? I saw one of them try to glue their eyelids to get a 'monolid' and I was shocked and honestly quite self-conscious about how my eyes looked. Some of them tried to be friends with me, completely uninterested in who I am as a person but more obsessing over the fact that I'm Korean? I have no problem with people trying to learn Korean or appreciating Korean culture, but stereotyping us and fetishizing us is honestly just stupid and makes me feel kind of... dehumanised in a sense? As if I was a toy for them to obsess over for a year or something and then thrown away. Also, ily if you're trying to learn Korean but there's a line between genuine interest/appreciation and cringe. I have no problem if they were trying to communicate with me in Korean over texts/speech to improve their language skills, but they're not even trying. They just insert random 'Korean' words into their everyday speech and try to pass it off as Korean, which hugely misrepresents our culture and language. It's gotten to the point where I've seen people on the internet being called Koreaboos simply because they appreciate and are trying to learn more about our culture. It's turning people off learning about us :( Sorry about the huge rant if you read this but I just needed to get this off my chest. It's been bugging me for ages.

i did something similar to the ticket thing once. my partner is venezuelan and i'm finnish and we were on the train going from the airport to downtown helsinki. i had accidentally bought the wrong ticket, and the person checking tickets heard my partner and i talk to each other in english. so this worker told me (in english) that i had the wrong ticket and i could get a fine for it, but i pretended to be a tourist and said i had no idea. she told me it was okay and to be more careful next time. she then walked to her coworker and started talking in finnish (my native language) about how we were just dumb tourists. i wasn't even offended because i'd just lied to avoid getting a fine.

So.. We went to a camp ahem we were 10 (our country doesn’t speak English except for those lucky international school students) And there were a group of girls that were gossiping about their boyfriends (they were like 9) and we were just staring at them.. And one of them said “don’t won’t they won’t understand english. They’re too dumb” And this got me triggered. I turned to my friend as shouted “HEY HAVE YOU FINISHED THE ENGLISH HOMEWORK??” omg I still can’t forget their faces

8:45 SJ = "Society of Jesus" Hahaha, probably one of the least christian companies you could find.

so im chinese but born in america. my first language was mandarin but then i started learning shanghainese since my family was from shanghai, then english became my 3rd language. Once i started elementrary school i ended up speaking more eng and shanghainese with my family, and soon forgot mandarin. i can still understand it however but im uncomfortable speaking it skskkdkd. anyway, i was in china and speaking english to my mom- this chinese mom told her son in chinese “yOU SEE THAT GIRL STUDY VERY HARD SO SHE CAN SPEAK ENGLISH WELL YOU NEED TO STUDY ENGLISH HARDER OK-“

I was in line at the Colosseum in Rome with my mom and dad waiting to get in. Im from Brazil and I had a shirt that said “Rio de Janeiro” in the back, then I started to hear these 3 Americans behind me talking about it, one of them started the conversation saying “look, this girl is from Rio”, then the other girl next to him said “not necessarily, she may be just wearing a shirt from a place that she’ve been to or maybe she just bought it because she liked the style” then the guy who started the conversation goes “ no, i really think she’s Brazilian because I think that the language that they’re speaking (referring to my parents) is Portuguese” THEN the quiet girl said “ They don’t speak Portuguese, they speak SPANISH” then when I thought it couldn’t get worst, the other girl simply e calmly says “Of course not, they speak BRAZILIAN” And they just all agreed! Like wtf!!!!!!!!!!!

I'm Puerto Rican but I'm not to good at Spanish but I can understand it well. Multiple times (I'm look white) people start speaking Spanish and talk about me. When I leave I say "adios buen dia" (bye good day) the shook on their face is amazing

9:51 If anyone is wondering, "Tack och förlåt" means "Thank you and sorry"

I was reading an info sign and this guy comes up to me and says "you need to know English to read that" and I was like dude if I didn't know English why would I be reading this 🤦

So, I got two stories but they aren’t as good as some of the others in this comment section, but you know I though I’d share... So a bit of background info: I’m half Filipina and half Finnish I speak Finnish, English and Tagalog (all pretty fluently) plus I am learning Swedish. So I was at an airport in Dubai when this Finnish lady and her daughter start talking in Finnish about how they were confused of where the line starts for the bathrooms. Then she proceeds to tell her daughter about how “these asian kids are probably waiting for their turns too” (she was talking about me and my sister, because we look asian). Then she asks “Are you in line” and I answer with “we speak Finnish” (but in Finnish of course). Then my sister adds that we indeed are in line. The lady and her daughter started whispering in Finnish after that :’) idk why though I have countless of stories where I’ve eavesdropped on Filipinas and Filipinos talking in Tagalog, but not saying anything. Just so they can continue with their random life stories and I get free entertainment. They live in actual soap operas, I tell you!

I'm an Indian, recently went to the USA, these two guys started mumbling, "look at that dark guy, he looks nervous in this foreign country" "Illiterate dumbhead" "Don't they hate Pakistan?" "I hate them" saying this, he started listening to bollywood songs and laughing at how he couldn't understand a word of it. Later on I went up to one of them, "Ya know? India is the second largest English speaking country?"