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30 Embarrassing And Funny Situations When Someone Didn’t Realize Their Language Was Understood, Shared By Folks In This Online Group
Knowing several languages does have its benefits. And I’m not talking about being able to travel the world, and speaking to people in their native tongue and understanding their cultures better. That’s all a given.
What I’m referring to is the fact that you can understand people when they think you can’t, most likely because you’re visiting their country, or they’re immigrants and whatnot, leading to a variety of situations.
People of Reddit have been sharing their “they didn't realize I spoke their language” stories in which they heard loads of things about them. Mostly negative, sometimes neutral and positive.
Check out our curated list of the best stories, and if that doesn’t sate your appetite, we have two other lists here and here on the same topic, so be sure to scroll back up here once you’re done reading! Oh, and vote, comment, all that jazz—tell us your stories, we’d love to hear them!
This is a list combined from several posts on Reddit: this one, this one, and this one.
This post may include affiliate links.
#1
I came to the US when I was 9 years old with my parents from the former USSR, and hence speak fluent Russian, however you would never know from speaking to me since my accent is practically nonexistent thanks in part to my being so young when we moved.
When I was 17 I got my first (official) job as a cashier at ShopRite. For those not on the east coast of the US, ShopRite is a supermarket chain here.
At some point this Russian woman and her 20ish year old son get in my lane. I finish ringing up the customer before them and the following conversation ensues.
Me: (To Russian woman, [in English]) Do you have a ShopRite card?
Woman: No.
Me: Do you have any coupons or rain checks?
Woman: No.
I then begin scanning her groceries.
Woman: (to her son, [in Russian]) Look at what this idiot is doing.
I glance up trying to find the idiot she is talking about. Perhaps something funny is going on?
Woman: [in Russian] Why is he even working here? God I hate idiots.
At this point I realize she is talking about me. Mind you, all I am doing at this point is taking her groceries, waving them over the scanner, and putting them aside to bag later.
I decide that it's best to just continue working and ignore the woman... for now. So I put on my best smile and keep scanning her s@#t.
Woman: [in Russian] How long is this going to take?
I finish ringing up all her stuff, punch up her total and begin bagging. Normally I would have asked how she would like to pay at this point, but I decided I would let her throw in a few more insults first.
Woman: [in Russian] He doesn't even know how to pack correctly. Oh, what an idiot.
I made sure to pack all of her things away with a smile, and then replied:
Me: [in Russian] How will you be paying for this?
The woman stops dead in her tracks, her eyes open wide in a moment of horror and for a brief moment our eyes lock. I smile an even bigger smile, as gentle as I can possibly muster, under the circumstances. Her son even took a step back. After what must have felt like an eternity for her, she hung her head in shame and handed me her credit card. I rang her up, handed her the credit card back, and handed her son the remaining groceries. Both of them are completely red in the face at this point and both refuse to say anything. Their eyes are firmly locked on to the floor. As they leave, I smile at them again and say:
Me: [in Russian] Thank you very much. Please come again.
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#2
My aunt had taken eight years of French in school, declaring that she was going to marry a Frenchman. She was working at the Epcot Emporium when a golfer and his caddie came in, chatting in French. The caddie looked over at her and said (still in French) "wow, she's cute. I'd like to ask her on a date." So she responded in perfect French "So why don't you?" They've now been married over 30 years!
#3
I was on holiday in Jordan and went to visit their "down town". This area is beautiful has all sorts of cultural bits and pieces and amazing food at great prices. If you go there you need to haggle every price, even the locals do.
So I enter this shop and the shopkeeper at the door tells his colleague "Oh yes European foreigner lets see how much we can overprice stuff" I kid you not he said that, but in Arabic (which I can speak fluently having an Arab father) (Note I'm very pale, with brown hair and blue eyes. Not typical in that region)
I ask about the cost of a beautiful Arabian plate (in English) and he gives me an insane price. I look him in the eye and say "now that you know I'm a local how much does it cost?" (In fluent Arabic) his eyes pop out of his head and then he starts laughing saying "You heard me at the door didn't you?" I smile and nod and then he says "I guess I deserve that, that plate isn't worth much I'll give it to you as a gift for giving me a good laugh"
#4
So my mom is Norwegian. My brother and I were raised in the US speaking Norwegian and English in the home.
One summer our family were visiting relatives in Norway and were browsing a little shop (I love a little shop!) in a very small village. We happened to be speaking English with one another at the time. My mom noticed (and got great pleasure from) hearing the two shopkeepers FREAKING out about having to speak English to us. They were late teens, early twenties and were likely very proficient in English, but nervous about having to use it on some American tourists.
Short-straw shopkeeper approaches us, very red faced: Good afternoon. May I please help you find anything in our store?
My mom (in Norwegian): We're quite all right, thank you.
Her: OH THANK GOD. (and other flustered mutterings).
It was very cute.
#5
I was on the Greek island of Rhodes once. Rhodes gets a lot of tourists, particularly from Germany. I had a conversation with a Greek taxi driver. He said (in English): "You American? Good. American good. British good. German, not so much. German go to beautiful mountain, complain about toilets." I chuckled a bit at his stereotypes.
Two hours later, I was at the beautiful Mount Filerimos. Spectacular view, beautiful day, ancient sites, etc. And what do I overhear? A loud conversation in German complaining about the toilets.
#6
After high school, I took a solo trip to Europe before starting college. I was in Amsterdam, sitting alone at a restaurant, when I hear Hebrew (my native tongue, though I live in the US). A couple of people at the next table who I notice are looking in my direction, saying "It must really suck, eating at a restaurant alone." I responded in Hebrew saying "It's actually alright, I've got a book so I'm good." We ended up joining tables, and spent the next day hanging out in the city.
#7
I lived in China and being blond and white, people don't think I can understand Mandarin. I was walking into a coffee shop in Shanghai and I saw two old women look at me. They stared for a moment and said: "He has such a nice butt!"
It was hard not to laugh.
#8
Heard some [girls] in a bathroom discussing in detail my supposed personal hygiene, like how "those people" don't even wipe, etc., as I was meticulously washing my hands. I let it go on till one girl goes "Careful, she might understand Arabic." The main [girl] goes, "No way a [mentally handicapped person] would know something that's not her native language." Without even turning around or looking at them, I dry my hands, go "you sure?" in Arabic and walk off, savoring the looks of disbelief in the mirror.
I'm Arab myself. I probably don't look Arab enough to them, or something.
#9
My mom has the BEST story about this.
She was raised with French/English, and spent many years as a kid in Morocco.
On my parents honeymoon, they go to morocco, and go to a synagogue on a Saturday morning there (we're Jewish). My mom goes to sit with the other women, and they start making snide remarks "Americans...stupid Americans", and insulting her appearance. This went on and on for the duration of the service!
After the service, my mom gets to the exit before the other ladies, turns around to all of them, and in perfect French with a perfect accent tells them she "hopes they have a wonderful day, a pleasant Shabbat, and that she looks forward to coming back soon."
The women just were in complete awe, and didn't know what to do. Their jaws dropped, followed by complete science.
Glorious.
#10
I never have any good stories when these types of threads get posted. This is the best I've got:
Girl (in Chinese): They have papaya.
Me: LOUD GASP
Girl (in Chinese): She understands Chinese!
Me (in Chinese): THEY HAVE PAPAYA.
#11
I used to help with exchange students coming in from Japan. We'd pick them up at the airport, take them shopping to get some essentials (shampoo, bed sheets, etc) and then get them settled into their dorms. Doing this for a few years alongside taking several years of Japanese at the university meant I knew enough to know some of the dirty stuff.
Anyway, I remember these two guys that came one semester. They were friendly enough when talking in English but they got pretty filthy when they spoke in Japanese to each other. I got treated to a very awkward discussion they had on my [breasts]. I tired not to give away that I knew what they were saying but my Japanese friend that came along to help decided to be a brat and started talking to me in Japanese. The looks on those two boys' faces when I responded in kind said it all: "... [well, damn]."
#12
I'm Filipino, and I speak Tagalog. I was on the [Bay Area Rapid Transit] one day and there was a Filipino mother and her daughter sitting in front of me. the mother said in Tagalog, "I have to poop, oh, I should've pooped before we left the house." then she looks from side to side, giggles, and says, "it's good that no one understood that, huh?"
BUT SHE DIDN'T LOOK BEHIND HER.
Mary Rose Kent 2 years ago
I spent most of my life in SF and I would never, ever assume someone couldn’t understand me in one of the most diverse cities in the U.S., even if I were speaking Arapaho.
#13
Not me, but a girl I dated in college was fluent in three foreign languages. Specifically, three languages you would not expect a very pale redhead to speak. She worked with border patrol while still in school and frequently got useful intel from drug runners that were talking quietly to each other in Spanish. Apparently, she would regularly hear something along the lines of, "this stupid [girlie] doesn't know what we're saying." After college, she got a job with the FBI and basically disappeared from social media...that or she REALLY didn't want to stay friends after.
ForgotMyPWSendHelp 2 years ago (edited)
Maybe this was a long time ago, because it's not really that unusual for non-Hispanic people to know Spanish in the US anymore. The majority don't know it, but enough know it that it's better not to assume. Also, Hispanic people can be pale white redheads.
#14
Overheard a bunch of French tourists in Nepal discussing, in graphic detail, the diarrhea they'd been having for a few days (i.e. "I CAN'T TELL IF IT'S A FART OR IT'S [CRAP]"). After awhile they turned to me and my friends and asked, in English, where we are from. My friends answered, in French "we're from the same place you are, and he(me)'s from Quebec". Their look of embarrassment was just delectable; the awkwardness was palpable.
#15
Knowing a less-spoken language like Hebrew affords me some funny situations with Israelis in the US who think that nobody understands them. I was helping out with freshman move-in at my school, and caught a mother and daughter off-guard when they were complaining about the heat and the smell in the dorm, and i responded over my shoulder in an attempted native accent that it gets nicer once all the parents leave. The mother wasn't amused.
#16
I once lived in Holland. One day I was in the company of a friend (also American) and a few Dutch teenagers. Our Dutch was relatively good, but we'd only been in the country a couple months. The kids were speaking really fast and we were having a hard time understanding, but it was clear they were talking about us, and my friend was starting to get really frustrated. He knew that speaking English wouldn't fool them because Dutch kids learn English from a very young age. So he started speaking to me just like Boomhauer from King of the Hill, saying stuff like "thesedangkidsthinkthursogreatdurnkidswiththeircrazygelleduphair." They were all very confused and didn't understand a word of it.
#17
I'm fluent enough in Japanese, so I knew when people were talking about me. Usually people just stare at you when they notice you're a foreigner, but some people do talk. This one couple saw me, sat across from me on the bus (this was in a residential area, not a tourist spot), and started [complaining] about how, what, tourists will be bringing their 'loud American friends' around now? I let this go for about five minutes before getting sick of it and saying, "Are you sure you want to be talking about this in front of me? Because it's kind of rude, so please stop," and I think it scared the [guacamole] out of them. Some chick towards the back of the bus started cracking up.
That said, many of the other American students in the same program as me were always loud as [heck] on public transportation.
Pat Bond 2 years ago
The picture of Japanese tourists taking a photo in front of Windsor Castle is quite random to the story. That's the Statue of Queen Victoria on castle hill, looking down Peascod Street. Here's a pic from the proper angle. queen-vict...73feb8.jpg 
#18
Went to this humongous market in Turkey that was partially underground. It was cool.
My brother and I speak English to each other. One guy at a stall we were looking at told his friend that we were suckers and he was going to mark the scarf we were looking at 3x higher. We both just kinda stared at him for a moment and told him we understood him. He was so embarrassed. He watched us go to a neighboring stall that sold the same scarf.
Pink kitty 2 years ago
I like that he watched you buy the same scarf at the next stall. Serves him right for being an asshat
#19
At my college campus, I was eating at an Indian restaurant with friends and this Chinese couple comes in. It's buffet style but there is also a regular menu. They're obviously international students and they somewhat struggle with the menu. I overhear the girl telling her boyfriend in Cantonese, "I wanted KFC!! What is this place?" He says, "I don't think there is a KFC nearby, but look, that Asian girl (me) seems to be eating chicken!" They gesture to the buffet and the hostess collects their money. They go up to get their food and when they return, they start bickering. The girl says, "The rice is so strange. Why is it yellow? How do I eat this (referring to naan)?" He tells her, "Watch that girl's Indian friends. They appear to wrap it up." "How strange! I prefer to pretend this red chicken (tandoori) is KFC. Is this red because it's BBQ chicken like BBQ pork?" At this point, I step in and explain what they're eating in Cantonese. They're mildly embarrassed but thank me for my advice.
#20
Sitting in the back of a pickup truck in Northern Thailand. Little kid, maybe 5 years old looks up at his mom and says "Mom! Mom! That big foreigner has white eyes! Is he a ghost?"
I lean real close to him and point at my eyes and say in Thai "Actually, my eyes are blue, but ghosts can have blue eyes, right?"
He then buried his face in his mom's side trying to hide from me.
Mary Rose Kent 2 years ago
I loved being able to trot out my little bits of Thai when I lived in Bangkok. I still say Mai Pen Rai fairly regularly although I now live in a small coastal town on the Northern California coast and in five years have encountered only one Thai person.
#21
I speak several languages, and this surprisingly came in handy when I was in London. Sitting on the metro (tube or whatever your Lordships call it), I hear two Swedish girls bad mouthing these two guys standing next to them, while the same two guys are talking about how beautiful and lovely the girls are in Arabic.
Other than that, I love walking around Stockholm speaking other languages than Swedish and English, pretending to be a tourist. There is a remarkable difference in how people treat you, and the things they say about you.
ForgotMyPWSendHelp 2 years ago
That guy is like "I see you taking pics of strangers in public!"
#22
I'm Russian, but spent a good chunk of my life growing up in Nigeria. The place where I live in Moscow is near this international institute place, and there's a lot of black people around there (a BIG rarity in Russia). In particular, there are a lot of Nigerians.
Now, in Nigeria, public schools are brutal. Cheating is not something you do there if you don't like getting your [butt] whooped by the teacher in front of the class. By comparison, Russian schools have essentially zero punishment for cheating. It's hard to explain to someone that hasn't experienced it, but its basically an activity for the whole class. Some kid will distract the teacher, and everyone else will pass around a sheet with people filling in answers along the way. We used to get creative with that.
So anyway, this one time after I'd moved back to Moscow, I was going somewhere on this weird minibus thing we have for public transport, when all of a sudden a bunch of Nigerians get on, talking to each other in English. From what I gathered, one of them had been at the university for a while, and the rest had just arrived. The guy that had been there for a while was explaining how stuff worked there.
Paraphrasing from memory:
Experienced Guy: "...and they have this thing here called "shpora" (Russian slang for cheat sheet). Everyone uses it, and even the stupidest people can pass the hardest tests"
Everyone: "Whoaaaaah"
Experienced Guy: "Yes! Even the most useless girl in my class got an A!"
Everyone: "Did she study?"
Experienced Guy: "Not at all!"
Everyone: "Nooooooo!"
They went on in this manner the entire time I was on the bus. The Nigerian accents and the fact that the new arrivals were genuinely horrified at the notion of cheating was hilarious and I could barely stop myself from laughing. As I was getting off I said "excuse me" in Hausa (one of the more popular languages in Nigeria) and got blank looks in return.
#23
I was doing my clinical rotation at a hospital that was predominately Japanese elderly. During one of my AM shifts, I was taking care of the cutest (and littlest) of the patients that needed help ambulating.
While taking her down one of the hallways, she shuffled over to one of the many seated patients in the hallway and began to speak about a particular nurse that had, "smelly hair" and "speaks stupid". As she continued to speak, her language became... more vulgar.
Now being of Pacific Islander descent mixed in with Japanese, I look more like a toasted/burnt peanut rather than someone who is/could speak Japanese. So I just sat there while this cute little old Japanese lady mouthed off words that would make a sailor cringe.
Helen Haley 2 years ago
Don't mess with old ladies man. They are warriors, they've dealt with more sht than you're currently handing them, and they will take you out.
#24
These two girls we were sent to pick up from the airport [ant take to the dorm]. We met them without a problem and then while escorting them down to the baggage claim, one of them turned to the other and murmured aloud in Japanese "wow... look at all the gaijin." Gaijin being "foreigner," but in their case, it really means "not Japanese." It struck me as ludicrous. You came to the United States to study English, and you're surprised by all the non-Japanese people? Maybe it was culture shock but we had a good laugh about it for weeks.
Rose Romano 2 years ago
I once met an American woman who had been living in Sicily for 30 years at the time. She kept referring to the Sicilians around her as "foreigners." She really couldn't understand that a Sicilian in Sicily is not a foreigner and that she was the foreigner.
#25
I was at an airport in the Philippines heading back to Canada. When I handed my Canadian passport to the men at the check in counter they started making jokes about Canadians in the local dialect, which I understand. I added a couple of jokes of my own and got some very embarrassed looks from the men.
The way they pronounce Canadian (kah nah dee an) here sounds like a phrase in Cebuano that translates as "you must". What they were saying was "magloto ka na dian" which means "You must cook" in Cebuano. I added a couple of my own - labanda ka na dian (you must wash) and lakaw ka na dian (you must walk).
#26
Slightly off-topic: As an Asian-American, I get introduced to my family friends as the American kid. I always love the look of surprise when people discover that I can understand what they're saying and that I can shout it right back at them.
Elizabeth Guss 2 years ago
Many people assume that Americans (whatever their apparent ethnicity) speak only English. It's a fairly safe assumption, but obviously, there are exceptions!
#27
I was in the Natural History Museum in London looking at dinosaurs and other related things when I heard some rather boisterous people from my home country (Finland) discussing the dinosaur skeletons. Some fat guy pointed at the massive dinosaur skeleton and then started to boast 'oh, maybe his [wing-dang-doodle] is as big as mine.' It made me laugh but then the group of them noticed me and started to talk about me, calling me [names].
#28
I work at a Starbucks and I was on drive through taking orders. A French family drove through and ordered their lattes and such. I handled their order the same as I handle all orders, I'm always very friendly and outgoing to customers. Anyways, as the mom drives away from the speaker box she tell her family in french that I was a cocky a-hole, obviously thinking I didn't speak French. So I make her drinks, decaf due to the remarks and when she drives up to the window I'm standing there with her drinks with a big smile on my face. When she gets within speaking range I say, very charismatically
"Bonjour, Madame! Ça va?!
She looks at me, completely shocked and embarrassed and replies
"comme ci comme ça" and that's the last thing anyone in the car said to me as I completed the order.
Ellie Rosser 2 years ago
You don't get to make them something they didn't order, that's totally inappropriate.
#29
I grew up in Geneva, Switzerland. Both of my parents were not Swiss however I went to public school (state school) for most of my time there, meaning french was essentially my first language. My family and I sat down in a restaurant one night, and the family next to us started [complaining] about how foreigners should all be forced to work in the fields. This was the point where I turned to them and went "hop suisse" (this is something Swiss people say during sports tournaments to support their team. Similar to "USA USA USA!")
Zedrapazia 2 years ago
Had the same experience in the German speaking part of Switzerland. I live there, and some people from the french part of Switzerland saw me eating in a restaurant. They were commenting i have big breasts in french, not knowing i understand french. When i heard their conversation, i replied to them in french that their brains were to little in comparison. Not the best comeback, i know, but the realisation i understood what they said gave them quite a shock.
#30
I went on a cruise that happened to have a bunch of Germans on it. A couple was sitting near us by the pool and the man was talking about how terrible American tourists are. I leaned over and said "Ja, die Amerikaner sind sehr dumm." [Translation: "Yeah, the Americans are very dumb"]. We had a good laugh and chatted for a bit.
Kaela Bennett 2 years ago
So... context? Are you American? Did he realize you were & you became buddies b/c you understood him or b/c you made him believe you weren't American & he was happy to have someone who shared his viewpoint? This story is dumb.
What do you think ?
Maroon 2 years ago
uhh i've got a fitting story! When I was 12, my family took a ferry from Italy to Greece. Somehow we got into an argument with another family regarding the seats (in English). When everything was settled, we sat there with the other family in a tense silence. Then they started speaking about us in Greek (the mother was Greek). My mom who has had Greek at school looked at them and told them that she understood what they were talking about. After some minutes, they started talking in Italian (the father was Italian). My brother and I told them in Italian that we understood them (our father being Italian as well). Then, they started speaking German (they apparently lived in Germany) and my brother and i laughed and responded to them in German "are you serious?" (us being from Austria). Afterwards, they shut up and didn't talk about us anymore. Fun memories!
Brian Michael 2 years ago
What I have gathered from this article is the world has one major thing in common...everyone talks trash if they think they can get away with it.
Jaguarundi 2 years ago
My first husband's family was from Quebec. The visiting relatives would talk about me and us in front of us very nastily and rudely commenting on our various imperfections. My husband didn't speak French and I didn't tell them that I did. Until that one Christmas...
Maroon 2 years ago
uhh i've got a fitting story! When I was 12, my family took a ferry from Italy to Greece. Somehow we got into an argument with another family regarding the seats (in English). When everything was settled, we sat there with the other family in a tense silence. Then they started speaking about us in Greek (the mother was Greek). My mom who has had Greek at school looked at them and told them that she understood what they were talking about. After some minutes, they started talking in Italian (the father was Italian). My brother and I told them in Italian that we understood them (our father being Italian as well). Then, they started speaking German (they apparently lived in Germany) and my brother and i laughed and responded to them in German "are you serious?" (us being from Austria). Afterwards, they shut up and didn't talk about us anymore. Fun memories!
Brian Michael 2 years ago
What I have gathered from this article is the world has one major thing in common...everyone talks trash if they think they can get away with it.
Jaguarundi 2 years ago
My first husband's family was from Quebec. The visiting relatives would talk about me and us in front of us very nastily and rudely commenting on our various imperfections. My husband didn't speak French and I didn't tell them that I did. Until that one Christmas...
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