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Back in 1980, the percentage of bilingual Americans was 10.68% whereas in 2016, the last ACS survey for which we have data, it was 20.14%. Even though this percentage has been steadily increasing, it is still low compared to traditionally multilingual countries (for example, in Switzerland some 42% of the population use two or more languages in everyday life) but pretty similar to that of other countries with a world language as a national one (for example, France with its 20%).

I lived in South Korea for three years, but I never learned too much of the language. A friend of mine is 100% Korean but is very tall and was educated in America and New Zealand so she has an American accent. Her co-teachers at her school all assumed she couldn’t speak Korean so they would talk s**t about her constantly while she would listen on and feel terrible. She said nothing for a whole year until she had to speak at the end of year ceremony. The school offered her someone to translate but she refused and in front of 800 or so students and faculty members she delivered her address in perfect Korean. She subtly called out the coworkers that had spent an entire year calling her a foreign pig. Apparently one started crying from the shame of it. I wish I had got to see that.

mattypatty88 Report

Final score:

352points

POST

Eli 5 years ago

Some people these days...

55points

The survey’s language data shows Spanish remained the largest non-English language spoken in 2016, as it was spoken at home by 40.5 million people, or 13.3 percent of the population age 5 and older. It was followed by Chinese with nearly 3.4 million speakers at home and Tagalog with 1.7 million speakers at home.

Several studies have revealed that early exposure to various languages boosts the communication skills of individuals, aside from the other established list of benefits of being bilingual. This includes delaying the onset of cognitive deficiencies, development of better working memory and increase in executive control, and so on.

My cousin is a big white guy who studied for 2 years in Japan during college. He worked for one of the head of Honda America for a few years. When the head guy learned that he spoke Japanese, he would make sure my cousin was in all the meetings and phone conferences with the Japanese branch. My cousin would listen to everything the Japanese would be saying to each other and report it to his boss during breaks. As such the boss looked like a psychic to the Japanese because after break he would address their concerns without being prompted. The boss made mad bonuses every quarter and always funneled a bunch of that to my cousin.

Atrus2k Report

Final score:

299points

POST

Pamela24 5 years ago

What a great boss. I'm glad your cousin got his share of the bonuses. :)

32points

While learning a language, people often mentally translate what they are learning in their native language (L1) before they can fully appreciate the other language (L2). But when a person is bilingual and use both languages everyday, they know the language they're speaking in "automatically" and they rarely need to translate L2 to L1 in their head.

Being bilingual provides different perspectives to the person. They become more open minded as well as more accepting of other cultures. Aside from gaining more opportunities to find a job, bilingualism offers them higher social mobility. Some studies have shown that they also might be more confident in communicating with other people.

I once interviewed for a part-time school holiday job, together with a good friend of mine. My friend is Chinese, the majority race of the country I live in. I, however, am quite clearly not.
The first thing the HR manager says when he sees me is "We need someone who speaks Mandarin", a criterion not stated anywhere in the employment ad, and which subtly translates to "Chinese candidates preferred".
My friend, while ethnically Chinese, speaks little to no Mandarin. I, on the other hand, speak it rather fluently.
Probably as a test, the HR manager decides to field us questions in Mandarin, clearly intent on cutting me out of the interview.
My friend turns pale, as he stumbles along to answer the question posed in whatever halting Mandarin he can scrape together.
The manager then turns to me, rather arrogantly, waiting for my reply.
It gave me great joy to tell him straight to his face "Thank you for the opportunity, but clearly I am not the right candidate you are looking for to fill this position since I am not Chinese" in crisp fluent Mandarin.
The look of bewilderment of his face was priceless.

Muizaz88 Report

Final score:

285points

POST

Dream Wolf 5 years ago

I'm going to clap and give you a cookie.

108points

I recently went to Japan for my first ever international trip and was totally prepared to have to struggle through all my day-to-day interactions in Japanese but was surprised at how widespread even a basic understanding of English is over there. Everyone assumes you won’t speak any Japanese at all so they stick to as much English as they’re comfortable with or you basically just play charades.
At a restaurant in Kobe, the waitress was practically fluent in English so we chatted a while and it came up that I’m studying Japanese so we had a little small talk and she was impressed. Then the owner came over to talk but wasn’t as confident in his English so he had the waitress translate. He was asking all these questions about where we’d been so far, where we were staying, how we liked everything, if we’d been down to Kobe Port yet, etc. It was simple enough that I understood 100% without her translation, and the waitress could tell. Finally, she says to him, in Japanese “By the way, he understands what you’re saying.” His eyes practically bugged out of his head and he got SUPER excited and asked if we wouldn’t mind waiting 30 minutes for him to close up and send everyone home.
So, I wait, he closes everything up and we all end up hanging out that night. He drove us around the city, bought us drinks, even drove back to the AirBNB. Japan is amazing.

Zhongguo Report

Final score:

272points

POST

Nicky Oriol 5 years ago

That's so cool and nice of him!

61points

American expat in Thailand.
I have a beard. On many occasions, people will say something like "Monkey! Monkey!" or "You want a banana?" or other similar comments. Most times, I just ignore it as I don't want people to know I speak some Thai. Once, after an excessive amount of monkey comments, I smiled at the people (two young girls, about 14 or so) and said "Monkeys don't have blue eyes. Monkeys have black eyes, just like you two." They were speechless.

AlreadyTaken001 Report

Final score:

271points

POST

Michelle Muirhead 5 years ago

Well done!!!

86points

I'm American, but can read and speak Russian on an intermediate level. A few years ago while visiting St. Petersburg, I was buying tickets for the hydrofoil to Peterhof. All the signs at the ticket booth were in Russian, and I could read the ticket prices. The ticket agent assumed I didn't know Russian, and tried to tell me the ticket cost three times more than the stated price. I looked her right in the eye and said in Russian, "I see on the board here that the ticket I want is (x) rubles." Her jaw dropped, and the ticket agent sitting next to her started laughing her ass off.

tuanomsok Report

Final score:

270points

POST

Kika González 5 years ago

Good for you!

71points

Flemish guy here. Working as safari guide in Kruger area, South Africa.
One time, my boss asks me to go pick a family of 4 up at the Klaserie reserve gate, do an afternoon game drive with them, and drop them off again afterwards. This was very uncommon; normally we only do game drives with people that book a room in our own lodge on the reserve.
So I pick them up, introduce myself and go over the rules, all in English. They reply in English, or at least: the dad does, and normally I can pick up straight away if it's someone from France, Belgium, Holland or Germany. But his English was Oxford English. So I thought; English people. Off we went!
10 minutes into the game drive I hear them speak in Flemish, and not only that, IN MY OWN DIALECT. Side note; every Flemish town has a dialect, we can hear what region/province other Flemish people are from, and if from the same region, we can often even pinpoint the exact little town or community they are from.
Oooh I was going to have fun with these folks! Found a few nice animal sightings, spoke English all the time, but then one sentence to the next, switched to their exact dialect. I thought; now they're going to be surprised! But nope... we all kept chatting in Flemish now. Only 20 minutes later, the daughter, maybe 10 years old, goes "wait a minute; he speaks Flemish!"
After all had a good laugh, I asked them where they were from. They literally lived one street away from me. It's a small world, folks!

TheAfricaBug Report

Final score:

240points

POST

Andrea Bueno 5 years ago

I've noticed that people in the Benelux are so bilingual they often don't realise if you (or them) suddenly switch into English or back 😄

70points

This happened to my brother and father while they were traveling. Some dude walks up to my brother, thinking he is a local, and starts talking to him in Farsi. When he realized my brother didn't understand, started saying really rude things, about him and my dad being stupid. My dad (fluent in Farsi) comes over, and rips this assh*le a second one. The dude feigned being apologetic, and made excuses for his attitude. As he was walking away, he started muttering more foul things about them, but in Turkish this time. Dad speaks Turkish as well, and proceeds to rip him a third assh*le.

imacrazyperson Report

Final score:

236points

POST

Dream Wolf 5 years ago

That is actually amazing. Hasn't this guy ever heard of "when you're in a hole just stop digging?"

133points

#10

Said something like "You need to be careful when talking s**t about someone in your native language, there might always be someone who understands you" in German while I was in Italy. A woman who was walking by responded "Like me for example".

cninamon Report

Final score:

210points

POST

JMQ 5 years ago

A++ response

97points

#11

My uncle has a good one. My family are originally from India/Pakistan and speak Urdu, but my mom's family moved to rural Arkansas in the late 70s. It was a really small town, like never seen brown people small, but they ended up living there for over 20 years.
Anyway, when my uncle was in high school, they had a math teacher from Japan. One day the teacher was berating my uncle for something (in English of course) and my uncle got mad and cursed him out in Urdu. The teacher replied very calmly, in Urdu: "don't ever use that sort of language in my class again, understand?" Pretty sure my uncle's jaw hit the floor. He didn't expect a Japanese guy living in a small town in Arkansas to speak Urdu.

kingoflint282 Report

Final score:

198points

POST

Just Curious 5 years ago

How’d the Japanese dude know Urdu?

34points

#12

Im swiss and peruvian and live in peru, so i don't look at all like a swiss guy.
There were two swiss girls sitting behind me on a bus talking about latino guys. Then one of them asked the other if she found me attractive. I turned around and said that I would love to know that too. The look of confusion and shame was priceless. Then we just all laughed. Now I've got two new friends!

F3NlX Report

Final score:

191points

POST

ADHORTATOR 5 years ago

Swiss and peruvian. that's exotic!

58points

#13

Me and my friend were sharing a cab with two girls we didn't know. Just decided to share a taxi with them, because it was a long way and we wanted to save some money. They started speaking Swedish not knowing my friend is also Finnish Swede (her mother language is Swedish, she has been in Swedish school, but is Finn and speaks Finnish fluently). I understand Swedish but I was too drunk to care. Suddenly she texts me: "They are planning to leave us with the bill." I texted that we should tell the driver so my friend just said: "These girls will pay half of this, before they leave." He got the hint and didn't open the doors before they paid. Also another time I was in an airport with my aunt. She had broken her leg so she was in a wheel chair, but because we were going to a beach holiday, we decided not to cancel it. Now my aunt has lived in Germany and speaks it fluently, I've lived there too so I understand it well, but I'm not fluent. We speak Finnish, something just to pass the time when flight attendant asks us to go on the plain first. This middle aged man turns to her wife and says in German: "I don't think disabled people should be allowed on planes." My aunt, who is a true badass, asks me to stop, I was pushing her wheelchair, turns to the man and says in perfect German: "I'm sorry sir, but I broke my leg and didn't want to cancel my holiday plans. You are being incredibly offensive towards handicapped people and I feel sorry for your wife. Have a nice flight." He turned red, couldn't even say anything to us and just looked away. His wife looked mortified.

itssmeagain Report

Final score:

178points

POST

Pamela24 5 years ago

Wow, what a b*tch. Who's mean to disabled people who already have it more difficult than able-bodied people?

87points

#14

I was in an elevator going back up to my apartment after working out some two years ago and I had a man bun at that time. There were 6 other guys in the elevator speaking Arabic so I just listened as I usually do. Then, one of the guys goes, "Haha. Look at this guys hair. It's ridiculous."
I turn around and respond, "You want to say that again?"
The five other dudes proceed to die of laughter with one of them screaming, "I knew you were Arab! I knew you were Arab!"
I ended up laughing along side them to their one friend who felt super awkward.

PrinceOfAmerica Report

Final score:

168points

POST

Daric Apai (Darquestar1) 5 years ago

Lets be fair, most man buns do look ridiculous unless you are a Japanese Samurai.

47points

#15

When I started working at McDonald's at 16, none of the other employees realized I could speak a fair amount of Spanish. A few of my coworkers would talk crap about me in Spanish and I pretended for a few weeks that I didn't know what they were saying.
Then one day a manager told me she was worth me than me because she was bilingual. So I told her (in Spanish) that I was actually trilingual. The looks on their faces when they realized I spoke Spanish all along was priceless.

gjkp2010 Report

Final score:

157points

POST

Andrew Wildman 5 years ago

Very nice... bad enough when it’s your peers but no use for a witch manager.

51points

#16

I'm from the US and when I was 11 my family went to France for a couple weeks. My dad was a very smart man. He graduated college when he was 18 and had a love for languages. He was fluent in French, Spanish, and German and he lived in France for a year or two. He came back to the US and taught French for a few years before getting his JD and PharmD, He was constantly trying to teach us French whenever he could when we were little. He kept in touch with his French professor from college and when we were in France we stayed with them in St. Hilaire de Riez. They had a small party with some of their friends and everyone sat around talking and drinking wine. As much as he tried to teach us French, we could only do as much as ordering food and reading restaurant menus and such, so everyone was talking in English except for one man's wife that was there and didn't speak English. The hosts were translating most things for her. At one point, the man says something in French like "Americans don't value things like learning foreign languages." Not knowing my dad spoke French. My dad looks at him and in French replies something along the lines of "You're right, lots of Americans aren't introduced to foreign languages until they are older and already out of the prime time of their life to start learning." And that this was why he started teaching his kids French as early as possible and even why he brought his kids to France, hoping that we'd gain an appreciation for another language and culture. I didn't know what the guy had said or what my dad had said until after we left, but I remember the look on the guys face and how he was clearly apologizing repeatedly. The host laughed too and explained my dads history with French and his education. To say the man was embarrassed would be an understatement. Friday will be 13 years since my dad passed away at 55 years old. He was such an awesome person and loved by everyone he met. He would never take offense to something even like that guy. He was from a tiny southern town in the middle of nowhere and grew up with nothing and worked his ass off to get where he was in life. Cancer is a b**ch:(

bipbopcosby Report

Final score:

155points

POST

Nikki D 5 years ago

What a lovely memory of your father!

69points

Dutch Swimmer Goes Viral For Super Revealing Trunks During 2024 Olympics: “Is This Legal?”

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#17

Some guys on the subway started talking about their 백마타는꿈 (Dream of Riding the White Horse aka fantasy about f***ing a white girl) right next to me (mixed Korean/American but totally white looking). I waited until I was about to exit, then tapped their shoulder and suggested a few clubs for them to go to and try out next time. Told them they better be good at English though because everyone knows, white girls can't speak Korean. I might have heard an old man laugh behind me as I exited the train.

starlightworld Report

Final score:

141points

POST

Michelle Muirhead 5 years ago

Well done

44points

#18

I was at a hotel bar in NY and a Russian couple were sitting a few chars down from me talking about what they should do for the evening. So I suggested that they go to Rockefeller center to see the tree (it was a couple days before Christmas) and try and find some carolers/christmas music performances to listen to.
They were shocked an American could speak Russian and they were super pleasant people. They bought me a drink and talked about their impressions of NY for 20 minutes or so before they went out for the night. I was able to give them some advice and they gave me an ego boost by complementing my Russian.

mtthacke Report

Final score:

139points

POST

Michelle Muirhead 5 years ago

Well done, make visitors feel comfortable and they will go home with great memories

63points

Woman Put A Water Fountain With A Camera In Her Yard, Here Are 24 Photos Of Regular Visitors (New Pics)

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“Ma’am I Live Here”: Woman Refuses To Back Out Of Driveway, Learns A Lesson The Hard Way

#19

I went to a psychiatric emergency ward once and asked for help and if they were comfortable to speak English.
I understand Danish but have a hard time making myself understandable in it and didn't really feel like an idiot at a crucial time of my life.
I stayed there for 4 days without anyone realising I knew what they were saying about me right in front of me.
2 of the nurses thought I was cute.
1 doctor thought I was lying all the time.
A patient thought I was a spy for the staff.
A lot happened in those 4 days
It made my stay way more enjoyable then it should have been.

kosmor Report

Final score:

134points

POST

Michelle Muirhead 5 years ago

Hope you are well

78points

#20

My friend and I both come from Spanish speaking families, and we would speak in Spanish when we didn't want people to know what we were talking about. One time we were in my kitchen with my mom and my idiot friend started asking me in Spanish if I wanted to go outside and smoke weed.

emoandsweaty Report

Final score:

129points

POST

Bella-Dohna🇳🇴 5 years ago

HAHA 😭😭

56points

50 Of The Most Incredible Shots That Were Submitted To The Comedy Wildlife Photography Awards

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#21

While I'm Spanish, I don't quite look like the stereotypical Spaniard: light skin colour, blondeish, green eyes... When I was living in London I got into several situations like that. The top one was on the tube back home. I think there was a football game (Chelsea - Barcelona) and this couple was going to the stadium and I was standing just besides them. Tube had a hard stop and I accidentally fell a bit over one of them. I apologised in English as I didn't realise they were Spaniards too. They started talking to each other saying "this f***ing fat c**t nearly smashed in the ground" and things of the sort for almost 5 minutes. When they left the tube and he looked at me one last time laughing I told him in perfect Spanish "enjoy the game, you little piece of s**t". His face going pale as the doors were closing was enough satisfaction for a week.

Angry__Spaniard Report

Final score:

121points

POST

Dream Wolf 5 years ago

I just don't understand why some people have to be so rude all the time. It's really not necessary.

94points

#22

Oh I LOVE this one: So I was working at a dental clinic in Germany, and these 2 guys walk in and start speaking in arabic, not knowing that both I and my supervisor can understand it. The first guy (actual patient) is nervously telling his friend and this would never work, and his friend is telling him to shut up and play along, so the supervisor and I try to figure out what kinda game they're trying to play. Apparently, they were trying to lie about the patient's age to get his dental treatment done for free; (I dont know how that worked, I was just an intern) unlucky for him, his teeth told the truth (you cant fake being 16 when your wisdom teeth are ALL THE WAY out)
So me and my supervisor shut up about it, and I'm in actual pain trying to hold back from laughing as the friend is convincing the patient that we're idiots who dont speak arabic and cant understand their trick. Of course until i cant anymore and decide to discuss the case with my supervisor. Right there in front of them. In arabic.
I have never seen someone turn so many different colours so fast.

AgentBunBun Report

Final score:

119points

POST

hashwadoobies 5 years ago

I was born in 1981 but only have one wisdom tooth come all the way out. Does that mean that I'm actually only 15 years old?!

27points

Woman Moves Out Of Parents' Home After They Asked Her To Give Her Space To Brother, They Freak Out

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Mom Leaves $250k Inheritance To Son, Throws A Fit When Daughter Stops Looking After Her

#23

Famous story by my grandfather who spoke Arabic and French.
He was in Kuwait with his wife and 20 dollars to his name, applying for a job with a big hotel company I believe the Marriott. He interviews all in Arabic and he waits in the lobby to talk to the final guy for the job. Two of his previous interviewers walk past him and say in French “what’s he still doing here he didn’t get the job?” My grandfather then stands up and says “if I didn’t get the job why did you have me sit and wait here for no reason?” They look back at him and say “you speak French? You are hired”. One of my favorites!

Apostulation Report

Final score:

115points

POST

Kay Cee 5 years ago

Seems he wasn't valued. But took the job anyway

23points

#24

The people at the Chinese food place on my campus spoke Chinese to the door exchange students. But even tho I spoke Chinese I just always spoke English to them since I have an accent when I speak Chinese. But one day I got all meat no rice since I had a rice maker at home. And when I was paying the lady says to the person beside her "fat ass wants meat no rice". And I responded in Chinese, "actually I have rice at home". They didn't charge me for the order and started giving me a bit extra whenever I go there

NotA--ThrowAway Report

Final score:

110points

POST

Michelle Muirhead 5 years ago

Good!!

33points

Woman Refuses To Chip In For Babysitting Because She Doesn’t Even Have Kids, Asks If She’s A Jerk

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“This Breaks My Heart”: People Stunned—And Angry—After Woman Buys Lost Luggage From Airport

#25

I'm a Mexican who speaks Hebrew fluently. I was actually in the US in a deli around the time when the World Cup was going on in 2014. I was wearing a National team jersey and had been watching with family. We usually paint the colors of our flag on our cheeks (tradition). The game was over and we were getting food. So my parents, brother and I walk into a booth. We sit and the people behind us (three middle aged women) start speaking in Hebrew saying: "look at these stupid Mexicans (which should have been a giveaway since the word for Mexicans in Hebrew is "mexicanim") being loud and thinking they own the place. Typical". Well, I turn around look at them and answer in Hebrew: "yes we are very proud of our country and the great job they are doing at the World Cup. If it bothers you, you can move". The look on their faces was priceless. I've never felt so empowered...until Mexico did a s**t job and got eliminated from the cup.

crazyhb4 Report

Final score:

110points

POST

ADHORTATOR 5 years ago

But you did a good job!

51points

"I Didn't Start The Dryer": Karen Gets Taught A Lesson After Throwing Out Neighbor's Wet Clothes

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#26

I'm half Chinese, quarter English, quarter Irish, and was born and raised in London - I don't look particularly British (or indeed Chinese), but I definitely look "foreign". In the wake of Brexit, I happened to be on the phone to my mother (Chinese) while on the train commuting into work, so I was speaking Mandarin. While on the phone to her, I overheard some little prick grumbling about "the f***ing Chinese in this country, Brexit borders immigrants Muslims Polish builders taking our jobs stealing our benefits rarararararagrgghhhh" or whatever - but the word chink came into it a couple times, too. Clearly this man had been emboldened by the vote to leave the EU and felt justified in airing his racism, feeling there were lots of like-minded others. English very much being my first language, I turned to him and just said, "you f***ing what mate?" in my clearly-from-south-London accent. At this point he immediately started to backpedal, and said I was "alright" because I was "one of us", whatever the f**k that meant. So I got called out for being a foreigner in my own country, which is both amusing and sad.

PadstheFish Report

Final score:

109points

POST

Talia Johnson 5 years ago

I'm so sorry that the Brexit madness has enboldened these racists to spread their bitter hate.

66points

“All Three Shot Out Pink”: Triplets' Baby Shower Turns Sour, Pregnant Wife Wants A Divorce

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#27

We had a large family reunion dinner at a restaurant and we were all sharing stories. My funny Uncle was telling us how he used to pretend he was deaf and his sister would translate. To prove it, he asked the waitress to get the manager. When he came over, my Uncle started signing to him...with made up and exaggerated gestures. My Aunt told him that the food was good and the server was excellent...all the while the manager just smiled and nodded. When they were done “talking”, the manager said in sign language, he spoke ASL and knew it was BS. We blew up laughing and my Uncles face turned beet red.

giffer44 Report

Final score:

102points

POST

Talia Johnson 5 years ago

This is...very weird.

57points

#28

My family and I went to Sri Lanka for two weeks to see where my mom grew up and general beach stuff. For some reason we were like the only people in the hotel we were staying at aside from a wedding party that left a day after we got there.
A few days in there was another family staying there, I believe from Suriname and we were all chilling at the pool and decided to play a game of water polo against each other. Things got exciting and one of the daughters yelled out something in Dutch like "go for the big fat guy!", my Dutch dad replied "what big fat guy?", And everybody laughed.
Just a simple story but it was pretty sweet.

lemonylol Report

Final score:

89points

POST

Kanishka Rajawansha 5 years ago

Sri Lanka has a lot of Dutch descendants too. But not sure whether they speak Dutch these days.

19points

#29

While sitting in a Starbucks in Brooklyn (not the trendy part of Brooklyn) a couple sitting next to me started saying pretty racist antisemitic comments ( i wear a yarmulke) in swiss german with a distinct lucerne region accent. The looks on their faces when I greeted them in the Lucerne dialect definitely made hearing their abuse so worth it :)

nachpen Report

Final score:

88points

POST

trinity davis 5 years ago

It’s an amazing coincidence with these specific dialects

25points

#30

I was in Paris and overheard these two women mocking me for being a "fat American pig." I turned to them & smiled sweetly & said " je parle français vous chattes" (i speak french you c***s). That shut them up.

lovenat Report

Final score:

83points

POST

ADHORTATOR 5 years ago

"vous chattes" n' est pas vraiment une Insulte....

38points

I'm a Visual Editor at Bored Panda since 2017. I've searched through a multitude of images to create over 2000 diverse posts on a wide range of topics. I love memes, funny, and cute stuff, but I'm also into social issues topics. Despite my background in communication, my heart belongs to visual media, especially photography. When I'm not at my desk, you're likely to find me in the streets with my camera, checking out cool exhibitions, watching a movie at the cinema or just chilling with a coffee in a cozy place

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What do you think ?

POST

misteriosa 5 years ago

Dear BP, if you already decide to cut down an article, at least have the decency to leave the original long version somewhere for us who want to to read it. I am dead serious, I found deep stash of rage I didn't know existed every time you pull up sh*t like this. Really trashy of you. Thank you for reading.

19points

Madb vonMesser 5 years ago

Agreed. I want to see all of the article.

8points

Just saying 5 years ago

What really comes out of these posts is what a nasty, critical judgemental bunch we are when we think no-one can hear.

14points

Jace 5 years ago

It’s not just because “no one can hear”. It’s xenophobia. Proximity breeds contempt. We are tribally-organized social animals, and we are crammed into some places like cattle. We get sick of each other and the most common outlet for the impotent rage is verbally attacking those who seem like they’re not part of our tribe. The “safest” way to do it is with anonymity. I’ve been trash talking my neighbors (and other drivers), when they cannot hear what I’m saying. I wasn’t like this before living here! I’m clearly starting to lose myself to misanthropy, due to being stuck living next to loud a******s who chain-smoke (can’t open my windows, can’t go out in my yard, and it’s seeping into my house through the walls). F*****g row houses; utter savagery. Urban life sucks. I’m a nice, ethical, empathetic person, but being trapped in a place I hate is corrupting me.

5points

Queen MT [lol nope] 5 years ago

lmao, this happened to me all the time when I didn't wear hijab there is this one time in particular, so there is the one grocery store that literally every brown person goes to (Indian, Bengali, Pakistani, etc. I'm Pakistani but look like I am Hispanic according to everyone and their mom) so I was around 12-13 ish and can speak fluent Urdu (native language for Pakistanis) I was wearing short sleeves and some skinny jeans as I was walking down the snack aisle there were two Pakistani middle-aged women that were talking trash thinking that I was Hispanic they said, "look at this s**t wearing such tight clothing" and her friend responded, "yes you are right Hispanics these days don't know how to dress" this was all said in Urdu so I turn around and say, "yes what a shame that even though these are the only clothes that are being provided for girls WE can't dress properly" I say this in fluent Urdu, with a smile, grab my instant maggie noodles and go the look on their faces was priecless

9points

Merlyn Emrys 5 years ago

My family (Native americans) were vacationing in Barcelona, in Spain, where the language is Catalan, with Spanish as well, and among throngs of other tourists we were taking pictures at a famous cathedral. A group of South Korean girls near us were trying to take a picture and I could see they were discussing, in Korean, who ought to take it and who ought to be in it, and distressed they couldn't all fit in easily. Then my huge, tan, blue eyed, silver haired Dad waves at them and says, in Pusan dialect Korean, "Excuse me, but I could help take your picture for you if you all want to be in the shot. It's no trouble." The looks on their faces!! Once they got over the shock, they were delighted to all pose together for their picture and thanked my Dad. He lived for two years in Korea, and so did his brother, and has been back to do work there often, so he's kept up his language skills- and his Pusan accent.

7points

Pixxie Guppy 5 years ago

I'm hungarian and I've been working all around Europe for a few years and the first thing I told my colleagues is that they should really watch what they are saying because you can never know... One time we were walking in Belguim, Kortrijk and I saw a nice looking girl in front of us. I turned to my friend and said: "See, we're here for 6 weeks now and she's the first pretty girl I saw." all in hungarian. She turned to me and thanked me also in hungarian. Thank God I didn't say anything else :D

7points

Kitty Jayne 5 years ago (edited)

This happened to me 2 days ago... my brother and I went in to a shop in Edinburgh, i'd just been to the cash machine and only had a £20, I just wanted a drink (£1) so the shop keeper must have been annoyed at the fact I had no change...he called me a bhenchod ( sister f####r in Urdu) obviously not thinking for a second that I would understand, 6' 4 white guy with blonde hair and white girl, i politely said kadafiz ( bye in Urdu)...he hung his head and didn't even look up to pass me my change...you just never know who knows.

6points

Nadine 5 years ago

My grandfather was lucky enough to have a job during the Depression as a chauffeur for a very wealthy family. He was never educated but very smart and knew a lot of french. He was driving the lady of the house and her mother, who said in french "your chauffeur is wearing his hat at a jaunty angle" and my grandfather immediately straightened his hat. There was just silence from the backseat. We always loved that story.

5points

Hope 5 years ago

This whole article pains me inside that I'm not bilingual! I wish I could learn another language, any language, but there aren't many options for me to learn one and the classes/programs I've tried only taught me bits. It sounds soo cool to know more than one language fluently :((

5points

Suluhu 5 years ago

Pick a language. Find TV shows in said language. Watch them with subtitles at first, then without. Then go online and find websites of stuff that interests you in that language, preferably with community engagement. That is how I learned English and Polish. Classes taught me nothing.

8points

Milena 5 years ago

There are free courses available at https://www.futurelearn.com/, and many free apps for your cell phone! You can always listen to music in other languages, and maybe watch subtitled films. Go for the language that speaks to your heart, <3 Good luck!

3points

Monika Soffronow 5 years ago

Go to memrise.com. I love this site! You can learn more languages than you even knew existed, and for free if you do not want the whole package.

2points

Random Panda 5 years ago

Duolingo is also a good option for learning foreign languages.

1point

Monika Soffronow 4 years ago

Let me recommend memrise.com! It is an awesome site for language learning, free if you do not want to pay a little for the extras.

0points

Loki’s Lil Butter Knife 5 years ago

If you have access to Netflix in your country, you can watch a lot of your favourite shows dubbed into the language you are trying to learn. When you are first learning you can put the subtitles on in English and then when you feel more comfortable you can watch the dubbed shows with subtitles in the language you are learning. There is also a wealth of resources online for accessing music, newspapers, and television shows in other languages. Your local library may also have language learning resources. Sometimes, libraries or local Universities will offer language exchange programs: I quite like the Duolingo app. for learning grammar and terminology. The app is especially neat since it a way for people to learn and teach minority and dying languages. The one downside is that it isn't the best for learning how to actually speak the language.

0points

JV 5 years ago

Understanding several languages is such an asset. I wish I could speak all of them.

5points

Lulik 5 years ago

I am from Poland. Once my English teacher (who is also Pole) told us the history of his friend. He was in Germany and some group of Germans heard that he spoke polish, they started to offend him, but he was pretending that he doesn't understand anything. When they finished, he just smiled politely and with perfect German accent told them that he is the professor of German philology...

4points

Daria B 5 years ago

I'm often in the opposite situation: Russians think I speak Russian. Guess It's time to learn it. ♥

4points

Jace 5 years ago

Why is it expected?

2points

Giovanni V 5 years ago

My mom is from China and moved here when she was 3 or 4....my dad is from Italy. My parents have been married for 30+ years. And all of my dads friends and relatives only speak Italian. Holidays, phone conversations, hanging out is all in Italian......one day my mother my brother and myself went to an Italian bakery, my mother asked for a sfogliatella. It’s a tough word to say for anyone. But my mom nailed the word....the guys behind the counter said some garbage in broken slag dialect Italian “what do Chinese know about pastry’s”. what they didn’t know is my mom understands Italian and probably 5-6 different dialects of the language as Well. She calmly answers back.....hey you two! You don’t need to be Italian to like a pastry. Now go get me Napoleon pastry too..I died laughing. It was amazing they turned pale. I think they closed for the day early.

3points

Leodavinci 5 years ago

This goes to show that a lot of traits Americans are routinely shamed for by non-Americans are actually not exclusive to the U.S.

3points

Jace 5 years ago

Nope. Not exclusive at all. Americans are just more human beings. These issues are human issues. Xenophobia is a human instinct. Bad behavior when there’s a perception of no consequences is a human problem.

0points

Jace 5 years ago

I have flirted with learning French and Japanese, but cannot speak either. I feel like a dumb American monolingual. I wish we had been taught other languages from day one, not at grade 8 (and definitely not the stupid vocabulary memorizing method, which is s**t; needs to be immersion). Too frelling late at that age to benefit from natural language acquisition features of the brain.

2points

Karen Klinck 4 years ago

We should be started in kindergarten, no dissenting. I got fed up with French (everybody in school wanted to learn it , and I'm too close to Quebec and Quebecoise (they *will* not speak English (even though they speak it fluently) to a bewildered 10 year old American who just wants a souveneer but I didn't start to try (and I stress that word!) to learn Japanese until after 30--much too late.

0points

Snowy Tundra 4 years ago

It's 7 months after your comment, Jace, but I have to throw in my 2 cents, because we picked the same 2 languages to try to learn. Like you, I wish our American schools had started 2nd language education early. I started French in 8th grade, studied it all through high school, got a 3 on the Advanced Placement test, and minored in it in college. I was probably 3 months of immersion from being fluent. Now, 30 years later, I understand phrases here and there, but I've essentially lost it. Japanese, I studied for 1 year at age 37. I can only recognize a dozen or so words/phrases and some of the Hiragana and Katakana characters. After that year, I was laid off from the job where it was used. Use it or lose it!

0points

Disgruntled 5 years ago

It's never to late to learn. French is pretty easy: you should be fluent in a year if you learn and practice daily.

0points

athornedrose 5 years ago

in the US, I was at a restaurant with friends when I hear a nearby table speaking in my father's Sicilian dialect. They were mostly talking about how stupid/awful Americans are, while at the same time being super excited to be here. I laughed at their contradictions, and they spun around, realizing I'd heard them. Instead of being shocked or embarrassed, they were thrilled! Started speaking to me in rapid dialect, complementing my pronunciation and asking where we were from. apparently they have their summer home in my dad's hometown rofl!

1point

Siana Ananta Dayo 5 years ago

Was in Vegas on a business trip, sitting in casino waiting for my cooworkers after a conference we attended. Three guys approached to me and said in my native eastern european language: You are a little whore, aren’t you?

1point

Jace 5 years ago

Vegas sounds awful. I hope you reported this behavior to management.

0points

kytetiger 5 years ago

What's common to all these stories is that it all starts with prejudice ans discrimination. A lot of people dont have such talkback, and have to suffer, bow the head and stay silent 😢

1point

Jace 5 years ago

Not all. Go back and look again. Many of them are actually nice stories.

0points

未周陸 5 years ago

Hilarious ... Or ... Emotional with Mixed Feelings ......

1point

just a thought! 5 years ago

It's fascinating to me as an Indian cause most Indians can speak multiple languages ...I speak and understand 4 languages and that's really common here. So yeah it's hard to fool people in my country lmao ...

0points

pusheen buttercup 5 years ago

I replied "si," to a friend of mine, and someone else told me to go back to mexico. First of all, not everyone from Mexico speaks Spanish. Second, I'm part Asian and part Caucasian with a hint of Cherokee thrown in. Third, I also understand a decent amount of Russian. But that doesn't make me Russian. It does make me very handy in customer service though. Lastly: "Si," means yes, or something to that effect in at least three different languages, not just Spanish! Is olive garden the closest thing people have to understanding Italy?

0points

Karen Klinck 4 years ago

For a lot of them, yes.

0points

Catherine Spencer-Mills 5 years ago

I am a native English (US) speaker L1, but have a smattering of Italian L2, not much German L3, and am fluent in Mexican restaurant Spanish. My only funny story is taking first year German in college. I was also taking second year Italian the same semester. My instructor asked a question in German, and I responded in Italian. The funniest part was what went on in my brain. Instead of translating his question into L1, then L3, I went directly to L2. Huh, must have learned more Italian than I thought.

0points

Red Ruffensor 5 years ago

My sister had a friend of Japanese extraction who she took on a trip to Japan. Unfortunately, he couldn't speak a word of Japanese. So many people would talk to him, then think he was mute or something, that he spent most of the time hiding in the hotel room.

0points

Drien Hiue 5 years ago

When my friends (some Canadian born and some from Japan but all look ethnically Japanese) and I were snowboarding, our group got split up somehow but when we joined up again at the bottom of the hill, both groups had met different Caucasian people that spoke Japanese on the same run!

0points

POST

misteriosa 5 years ago

19points

Madb vonMesser 5 years ago

Agreed. I want to see all of the article.

8points

Just saying 5 years ago

What really comes out of these posts is what a nasty, critical judgemental bunch we are when we think no-one can hear.

14points

Jace 5 years ago

5points

Queen MT [lol nope] 5 years ago

9points

Merlyn Emrys 5 years ago

7points

Pixxie Guppy 5 years ago

7points

Kitty Jayne 5 years ago (edited)

6points

Nadine 5 years ago

5points

Hope 5 years ago

5points

Suluhu 5 years ago

8points

Milena 5 years ago

3points

Monika Soffronow 5 years ago

Go to memrise.com. I love this site! You can learn more languages than you even knew existed, and for free if you do not want the whole package.

2points

Random Panda 5 years ago

Duolingo is also a good option for learning foreign languages.

1point

Monika Soffronow 4 years ago

Let me recommend memrise.com! It is an awesome site for language learning, free if you do not want to pay a little for the extras.

0points

Loki’s Lil Butter Knife 5 years ago

0points

JV 5 years ago

Understanding several languages is such an asset. I wish I could speak all of them.

5points

Lulik 5 years ago

4points

Daria B 5 years ago

I'm often in the opposite situation: Russians think I speak Russian. Guess It's time to learn it. ♥

4points

Jace 5 years ago

Why is it expected?

2points

Giovanni V 5 years ago

3points

Leodavinci 5 years ago

This goes to show that a lot of traits Americans are routinely shamed for by non-Americans are actually not exclusive to the U.S.

3points

Jace 5 years ago

0points

Jace 5 years ago

2points

Karen Klinck 4 years ago

0points

Snowy Tundra 4 years ago

0points

Disgruntled 5 years ago

It's never to late to learn. French is pretty easy: you should be fluent in a year if you learn and practice daily.

0points

athornedrose 5 years ago

1point

Siana Ananta Dayo 5 years ago

1point

Jace 5 years ago

Vegas sounds awful. I hope you reported this behavior to management.

0points

kytetiger 5 years ago

What's common to all these stories is that it all starts with prejudice ans discrimination. A lot of people dont have such talkback, and have to suffer, bow the head and stay silent 😢

1point

Jace 5 years ago

Not all. Go back and look again. Many of them are actually nice stories.

0points

未周陸 5 years ago

Hilarious ... Or ... Emotional with Mixed Feelings ......

1point

just a thought! 5 years ago

0points

pusheen buttercup 5 years ago

0points

Karen Klinck 4 years ago

For a lot of them, yes.

0points