People Who Speak A Second Language – What Have You Overheard People Saying About You When They Thought You Couldn’t Understand?

1: Racist Comments.

“I witness some serious shit go down. A black family was eating dinner in a restaurant. They kept looking 2 tables over at a Spanish table. The black mom looked more and more pissed. Finally, she walked over, got down on one knee and in a stern yet not loud voice, started going off a mile a minute in perfect Spanish.

She didn’t stop for a solid minute. The look on the Spanish family’s face was of absolutely shock and horror. Afterwards, nothing was said, and she went back to her table with a slight grin. Come to find out she was a college professor who taught Spanish, and the Spanish family kept making racist comments about their black sever, as well as the black family in question.” – Somedude456, Reddit User.

It’s either the Spanish family were so loud and expressive with their comments or the restaurant is a small one. That’s the only way the black family would have heard them. Either way, it doesn’t matter if they hear you or not, making nasty comments about people isn’t a nice thing. The Spanish family must have been really embarrassed, right?

2: Insults.

“One evening, I called an Uber driven by Abdel-Latif. Mr. Abdel-Latif, an Egyptian, was nice enough at the start, but then took a phone call from an Arabic-speaking friend of his and started complaining very colorfully about his day. He eventually finished his rant by stating that he would head home after he takes this one last ابن قحبه (bad Arabic slur) in his car home.

I, of course, didn’t drop the ruse and pretended that my Uber driver didn’t just loudly (and quite needlessly) insult me to this random person on the phone. When we finally arrived, he told me to “have a nice evening, sir.” I told him “تصبح علي خير يا روح امك” (the gist of which is: good night, asshat) and walked away, putting on my best display of being highly offended, even though I was dying from laughter on the inside after seeing the look on his face.

Weeks later, I took another Uber, driven by Mr. Badry, an Iraqi. He seemed like he had a lot of trouble with English over the phone, so I started the ride off by greeting him in Arabic. He was quickly at ease, and was surprised that I spoke Arabic so fluently for a white American. I explained I was only half Egyptian and that was probably why I didn’t look like your stereotypical Middle Easterner.

He laughed, and said it reminded him of a story his Egyptian friend – also an Uber driver – told him, about the time he picked up this white guy that turned out to speak perfect Arabic. I asked him his friends name.

It was Abdel-Latif.” – NCWarhammer, Reddit User.

This is a pure example of why you should never judge by looks. We always say looks are deceiving but only few people take it seriously. We can only all imagine how bad Abdel-Latif must have felt after this encounter.

3: Attempted Rip-Offs.

“Me and 2 other friends (one American, one German) were in rural town Philippines. We were getting out of a cab and unloading our bags when the cabbie’s buddy pulls over next to us and they start chatting in the local language.

Buddy: “Whoa – foreigners! How much did you get off them?”

Cabbie: “Usual 80 pesos”

Buddy: “No way! I would have charged them at least double!”

Me: “I think 80 pesos is quite fair, don’t you?”

His jaw dropped – and he awkwardly drove away.

I learned enough to get by, but I deliberately keep it to myself – just for moments like these.” – Its_meem_not_meh_meh, Reddit User.

A clear sign why learning the language [basics at least] of the city you’re visiting is important. Their cab’s buddy must have been making a lot of money off tourists using the language barrier to his advantage. Who knows? If they didn’t understand the language, their cab might have taken the advice and charged extra.

4: Thoughtful Comments.

“I’m from America but I live in Japan, and my friend came to visit last year. While we were sitting at a counter at a sushi restaurant this Japanese older couple came in and sat in the seats next to us. We were just looking at the menu and talking about what to order and I overhead the guy next to me talking to his wife saying “Oh, I wonder if they’re OK…they probably can’t read the menu…should we do something? Maybe we should help.” It was actually kind of cute. I just turned to them and politely said that there was no need but I appreciated the thought.” – Ghost_in_the_potato, Reddit User.

The couple must have come across other foreigners who needed help with reading the menu once. It could be that or they just concluded that being Americans, reading the menu will be a hard one. However, you’d agree that it’s always a nice feeling when you come across strangers that genuinely want to help you.

5: Shady Deals.

“I get to pull this one once a month, at least.

My favorite was when they brought along an interpreter to the meeting and were saying very different things among each other than the negotiation stance they were relaying in English.

So, at one point I just switched to Japanese.” – Takatori, Reddit User.

Most business partners who speak a second language are fraudulent. They even seek to have more advantage if the interpreter is from their end. You can’t help but imagine how the look on their faces would have been after Takatori switched to their language. They haven’t only been found out, they’re likely to lose the contract if that’s what they were there for.

6: Side Talk.

“I live in China, and went to a remote city up on the North Korean border (had just got back from Pyongyang but that’s irrelevant). Went into a little corner shop and the Chinese people in there froze, then started talking about how rare it is to see foreigners come to the city but how none of them ever understand any Chinese.

The little grandma who ran the shop tried to stop them talking about me, but they just said “it doesn’t matter, she has no idea anyway”…Proceeded to chat with the cute grandma when I was paying, and got to listen to the dead silence as I left. Big up Chinese grandma.” – Suckmydickzhang, Reddit User.

Listen to the elderly, they always know better…at least in this context it’s true. It’s either the Chinese grandma probably knew better or had experienced something similar in the past. The grandma must have told them, “I told you so” in Chinese when she left.

7: Bad Mouthing.

“Kind of reversal here…ex-girlfriend (native Russian) and her sister were badmouthing a “fat American” for wearing pajama pants and slippers in the grocery store in Russian. As it turned out their Russian radar was a bit off that day, because she turned around and replied back in pure Russian the equivalent of “If you bitches aren’t paying for my clothes than shut your mouths”.

They did.” – Jeremymorgan, Reddit User.

It’s quite possible the American grew up in Russia or has been doing a lot of learning. Nevertheless, bad mouthing strangers is a bad thing as you don’t know if they’re dangerous or not. For crying out loud, you’re in Russia!

8: Rude Comments.

“I worked at a popular theme park in Florida at the international restaurant area. Everyday i would ride the bus and not hear a single English conversation. One day two French exchange workers sat on either side of me continuing their chat about their evening plans. I tried to ignore them but found myself ping ponging my glance to whichever one was talking, they apparently caught this:

Girl 1: Do you think he understands us.

Girl 2: No, he is an American worker (you can tell this from uniforms), they are too stupid.

Me: Yes, I am American but I’m not stupid.

Silence…” – Mastshin, Reddit User.

It’s not right to eavesdrop however that would be pretty difficult if you’re in the middle of the conversation. Besides that, calling someone stupid for not understanding your language is rude. They might understand you just like Mastshin did.

9: Flirty Discussions.

“I’m an EMT. I am by no means fluent, but I speak enough Spanish to get by.

A couple years ago I was transporting an elderly Latina woman to the ER and her two granddaughters came to keep her company. They had an entire discussion about how one of them should ask me out, how cute I was, etc.

When we got to the ER and we were registering their grandmother, I asked her to slide over into the hospital stretcher in Spanish. They both blushed and then hid until I left.” – Sam_neil, Reddit User.

It seems the girls were just young teens talking about a cute guy. That’s probably why they hid when he announced [by speaking Spanish] that he heard them. That’s a lot better though than horrible comments.

10: Sexual Remarks.

“This happened to my ex back in college. She was signing with some friends on an elevator. Meanwhile a couple guys were talking about all the things they’d like to do to her. She got off the elevator, turned back and said, “You wouldn’t last a minute,” and kept on walking.”- MaxwellMrdr, Reddit User.

The guys must have thought she was deaf too. It’s either they were joking over the fact that they could say nasty things and she couldn’t hear them or they’re sexual perverts. They must have been so embarrassed when she spoke back to them.

11: Name-calling.

“My mother was visiting hers in Prague, and walked to her car with German plates. Some idiots were standing next to her car, one said: “I can’t wait to see how that stupid cow is going to get out of that parking spot.” and my mother answered “Well, if the stupid cow got her car in there, she’s going to get it out of there too, right?” – T0xicati0N, Reddit User.

Czech is a very hard language to learn and is hardly used anywhere else. This must be why the guys were so confident about their speech. The car had German plates so they must have thought she couldn’t understand or speak Czech as well. Too bad.

12: Gossips.

“Two old Japanese ladies in a sauna were talking about their niece and how she was about to marry a “stupid American” and was making a huge mistake.

Finally, one of them said something like “There’s other people in here, maybe we should talk about this later”, to which the other responded: “What, those two white girls?

“Yeah sure, like they would understand.” My friend and I were only like 12 but were in a Japanese immersion program. When we left, I said “I hope you get the problems with your niece worked out.” – CatherineConstance, Reddit User.

Not everyone expects a foreigner to understand their language. The Japanese woman was pained and wanted to air out her emotions without caring if she was being racist or not. Her friend probably knew better and tried to warn her.

13: Impolite References.

“I was in a spa hotel with an all-you-can-eat dinner and got some vouchers for drinks. I did not use them the whole time and decided to use them all at once for some beers on our final night. I asked the staff in English whether I could use my already expired vouchers to get an extra beer. She excused herself and went to ask her supervisor.

I went to grab a tea in the meantime and overheard the conversation, where the staff called me “ano gaijin” which translates as “That foreigner” in a little bit impolite way. So, I said: “Kono gaijin ｗa nihongo wo wakarimasu yo”, or “This foreigner can understand Japanese”.

I used all my expired vouchers that night with no problem.” – Smartus, Reddit User.

Like the popular saying goes, “If you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say it in another language.” We hope that’s the right saying. The staff must have been so embarrassed and allowed Smartus use up the expired vouchers as compensation.

14: Intimate Confessions.

“I used to live in Taiwan and for some reason the locals always like to discuss what country they think my group of friends are from (we had a wide variety of English-speaking ex-pats). They really couldn’t seem to wrap their minds around the fact we weren’t all Americans.

But I also had the reverse experience…

My friend and I were on the bus standing in front of a seated elderly grandpa reading a Chinese newspaper and somehow my friend and I ended up talking very explicitly about our sexual history and background. Very graphic with personal preferences and that sort of thing. We weren’t too loud, but we were definitely talking detailed descriptions and experiences in earnest for the majority of the twenty-minute bus ride.

My friend gets off the bus and waves bye to me as I live a few stops after her. The second the bus starts moving again, the grandpa put down his newspaper and says in perfect English, “So, you two are both Americans?”

I was dying as I had to make polite small talk for the next ten minutes with an elderly grandpa who clearly understood every single word coming out of our mouths.” – Degliague, Reddit User.

Degliague and their group of friends are probably good with Chinese and no one thought they were Americans. They must have gotten used to this and felt more relaxed to discuss intimate matters in English. Lesson is if you want to discuss something secretive, don’t discuss in public.

15: Impolite Feedbacks.

“I speak fairly fluent Spanish and work as a lifeguard in England. While I was cleaning one of the changing rooms a bunch of Spanish guys got out of the pool and started getting changed, and one of them watched me saying something along the lines of: “Wow, this guy has no idea how to do his job.”

I walked near them and asked “Everything alright, gentlemen?” shortly afterwards and he swiftly shut up. Most satisfying exchange ever.” – Depthcon, Reddit User.

If the Spanish guy needed to give a feedback to make Depthcon improve his service, he should have done so politely. The lifeguard must have smiled to himself and waited for him to say all he needed to before approaching them. Since the Spanish guy couldn’t continue talking, his feedback was out of place.

16: Caught in The Act.

“My girlfriend worked in Japan for three years after college and is still fluent 25 years later. We were once together in a Japanese food store in town and two young men, maybe 16 or 17, said a couple of things back and forth in our aisle, and she turned and said something rapid-fire in Japanese at them, whereupon their mood changed and they said something back with some venom and went away.

She told me I really didn’t want to know what they had said or what she had said in return, but I pressed the matter and she said that one of them had said she had a blowjob mouth, to which she replied, “I certainly wouldn’t have any trouble handling your four inches.” – Kleptophobiac, Reddit User.

Three things happened here. First, the teenage boys were making sexual remarks in Japanese thinking she didn’t understand. Second, she got very angry and replied them which left them shocked. Finally, they had to retaliate after the shock recovery before taking the ‘Walk of Shame.’

17: Jumping into Conclusions.

“I am an American who at one point was fluent in French. I was chatting with a French klezmer band (yes… really) after a concert when one of them turned to the other said in French “Hey, isn’t she pretty?” The other band member looked me over, shrugged and simply said ‘meh’. – Blargblargityblarg, Reddit User.

The other band member already made it obvious that they were discussing her by his expressions. Asides that, they were being rude sizing her up in her presence whether she heard them or not. Also, never jump into conclusions that someone doesn’t understand you.

18: Dirty Business Secrets.

“At a blackjack table in an Indian Casino two Mexican dudes were kind of drunk and talking business. Big business. Of the Breaking Bad variety. I kept my head down and mouth shut and pretended I didn’t hear a god damn word.” – BallardLockHemlock, Reddit User.

People talk freely and with abandon when they’re in high spirits. Those men must have concluded that being in an Indian casino would mean no one understands Mexican. It’s either you’re Indian or speak English. Unknown to them, someone else now has all the intel on them.

19: Playing Along.

“Many things overheard. But my favorite moment was early on when I firs1t moved to Japan in 1994…

Waiting on the train platform in a rural village when a mother and her young son come through the gate. Immediately the son grabs her mother’s hand and tells her in Japanese that they have to be careful of me – that I’m a dangerous foreigner. He promised to protect her but he was hiding behind her.

We had a long wait. Eventually he decided he could creep closer. Still muttering under his breath about the foreigner. So, I muttered back, “I love Japanese children. They’re delicious.”

He ran screaming. I did not feel bad about it.” – TokyoCalling, Reddit User.

The little boy must have heard tales or seen movies of foreigners that are dangerous. The mom was probably too absentminded to correct him or keep him quiet. TokyoCalling just played along to scare the child.

20: Jests.

“I lived in Japan for two years and went to the doctor to get a medical certificate for the flu. He stuck a swab up my nose, turned to his colleague and said “He’s got a big nose, doesn’t he?”

I called him out and said (in Japanese) “Oh, my nose is big is it?” and he calmly turned back to me and said “Sou desu ne” (“yes, it is” in this context.) Ice cold doc talking ’bout my schnoz.” – Riddley_Walker, Reddit User.

He was probably trying to make a joke out of his patient’s nose with his colleague. Which we think is rude and unprofessional. However, it seems Riddley was unoffended and just wanted to make them know he understood them.

21: Unkind Words.

“My long-haired uncle was standing in line to pay for his groceries when he overheard two women speaking German behind him. “Long haired pig, he should get his hair cut.” Without missing a beat, he turned around, and asked, in German, “Do you have scissors?” – Prettyreckless01, Reddit User.

Whether they can hear you or not, unkind words don’t go well with strangers. Besides that, everyone can style their hair however they want to, that doesn’t make them dirty. He intentionally asked for scissors not because he needed them but to let them know he heard them.

22: Assumptions.

“I have the opposite problem. Everyone assume I speak their language. In New York I have been asked for directions in Korean, Chinese, Japanese and Spanish. Korean grocers and 7-11 Pakistanis all assume I speak their language for some reason. I guess my slightly dark average Asian look blend in everywhere (maybe not northern Europe).” – Strangedigital, Reddit User.

It’s either people think they can speak their language because they don’t look American. Or they were hoping he would understand them. Either way, it’s better to not assume someone can speak your language because they look like it.

23: Compliments.

“I speak some Spanish, and in college, most of the staff working in the cafeteria was Hispanic.

I was at the salad bar while two women were restocking it, and I heard them talking about my friend. “She’s so pretty,” one said. The other said, “Yes, great tits too.”

Not gonna lie, they were right on the money.” – InvisibleInkling, Reddit User.

They had no plans of being heard, which is why they switched languages. This could be as a result of them not wanting InvisibleInkling to hear their remarks about their friend. Well, let’s just say it was an honest compliment.

24: In-house Talks.

“I was at McDonalds, so they could be forgiven for thinking I’m a tourist:

Man: Hey, look, there’s a foreigner. You like foreigners, write your number on this.

Woman [looks]: I like handsome foreigners.

Man: Ha-ha, his hair looks like a helmet, right?

Laughed my ass off.” – THIS_IS_CHARR, Reddit User.

They must have taught Charr couldn’t speak English. This conclusion they must have drawn could be from his looks. They were just too quick to judge that he couldn’t hear them.

25: Eavesdropping Conversations.

“I’ve never heard someone talking about me, but I overheard an awkward conversation in a gas station between two Hispanic guys. It went like this…

“Hey man! How are you doing?”

“Oh…Hey…yeah, I’m good”.

“What are you doing?”

“Oh, nothing really”

“Wanna go hang out”

“Oh…I can’t…um I’ve got plans”

“Oh, what are you doing?”

“I’m…um…going to my grandma’s house”.

“Oh. Okay. Hey did you change your phone number? i keep trying to call you.”

“Oh…yeah…uhhhh my phone has been acting up…hey I gotta go”.

It was painfully obvious that the second guy didn’t want to be friends with the first guy. But guy 1 wasn’t picking up any hints.” – AdmiralRabbit, Reddit User.

There must be a reason why guy 2 didn’t want to hang out with guy 1. Whatever it was, we’re not saying it’s right to eavesdrop on other people’s conversations. Admiral might have been unable to avoid listening in if he was really close to where they were.

26: Cheating Plans.

“I am a native Polish speaker living in Australia.

It was Christmas Eve and I had not yet bought my girlfriend a present. I went to one of our malls which is open 24 hours on Christmas Eve and decided to do some shopping.

The queues were ridiculous everywhere but I decided to go to the Tiffany & co. store as I had little idea what to buy my SO.

I was in line to ask for assistance with an item, it was a pen that was on display.

I was in line for a good ten minutes when a, yuppie, posh expensively-dressed, entitled Polish speaking couple are within earshot and I overheard this:

“Honey, let’s not wait in this queue and cut in front of this guy (referring to me)” and slowly they inched closer and closer in front of me and sort of merged with the queue.

I thought I’d let them wait with me for a bit before I said anything, especially because they were praising themselves on how clever they are for jumping the queue. After about 5-10 minutes when they were well and truly in front of me, I thought back to my old days, living in the grey communist flats/blocks of 90’s Poland and thought of how I would have reacted to this situation back then.

I put on my Warsaw ghetto attitude and said “A wy co, kurwa mać?”

Translating roughly to “And what the fuck do you suppose this is?”

They looked at me with shock as I directed them to the back of the queue.

I’ve always hated the wealthy Polish migrants. They have weak souls.” – Kubahabas, Reddit User.

The Polish couple must have gotten away with this a lot. They communicated in their language so they won’t be heard. They would have really felt embarrassed when Kubahabas told them to get behind him in their language. Foiled plans.

27: Ignorant Comments.

“Sat across from two German girls on a train. They said I was “7/10, maybe 8/10 if he smiled more. Looks like his mother died or something. Smells nice though”. I told them my mother was fine.” – Robemmy, Reddit User.

They were probably sizing up every guy they saw for fun. He might have let it pass if they didn’t bring his mother into it. Most people are touchy about their family members.

28: Game Hacks.

“Not in real life, but I was once playing Stronghold 2 online (2v2). Apparently pretty much everyone on there was German. Anyway, I’d greeted them in English, so I guess they assumed I only spoke that, and so even though there’s no Allies-Only Chat, they felt comfortable talking about their plans with each other.

They discussed their strategies in German. I understand German. I did well that game.” – Naelavok, Reddit User.

He probably did that intentionally to keep getting their strategies to winning them. It’s either they thought he was a game lord or might have figured later that he understood them. He might be justified if he claims they were forming allies to win the game against him too.

29: Nasty Remarks.

“Go out for beers with my half Iranian friend (who doesn’t look Iranian weirdly) and we always end up going to different food places. A couple of times we left the place and he’s said “Those two guys behind the counter were Iranian, and they we’re complementing the girl’s tits in front of us, and how they’d fuck her if she didn’t look like a horse”

Couple of times later we go back to the same place and I was having a shitty day and the same two guys are there.

Turns out they were talking bad shit about us this time and my friend collects our order and says “Thank you” in Iranian and these two guys shit themselves and we complained to the manager. Haven’t seen them since.” – Electricshock88, Reddit User.

We’ve already established why talking about people because they can’t hear you is bad. It’s even more unacceptable when they’re your customers. They probably got fired or suspended.

30: Judging Comments.

“I’m Middle Eastern, and look particularly Caucasian. I was at a Mediterranean restaurant when two older men began speaking Arabic to one another. If I remember correctly, they said, “look at this fucker, eating our food as if he knew what it meant to be like us”.

I then replied to the men in Arabic suggesting they should learn a thing or two about being middle eastern considering our culture involves loving one another. They ended up paying my bill at the restaurant, great experience overall.” – Iswearimhuman_, Reddit User.

They were probably being hateful or feeling Iswearimhuman was trying to be like them. Whatever their reasons, they shouldn’t have been so judging and rude. They must have felt sorry and paid for his food as ‘peace offering’.