Watch out! When you want to talk badly about someone in a different language, you might get humbled! If you’re multilingual, maybe you've been through this: you walked into a store and heard someone talking badly about you in a different language.
But what they didn’t know was that you fully understood them! This is about those kinds of stories: 40+ experiences that will make you feel sooo satisfied!
1. Humbled!
I live in England but I come from Poland and am fluent in Polish alongside English. A couple of days ago I was ordering at a Subway when two Polish employees started talking.
It went something along the lines of "This fatass wants chicken AND bacon" and they laughed (on a side note I feel like that's not that uncommon of an order, right?).
When it got to putting vegetables on the sub, I gave my order fully in Polish with a big smile on my face. The order cost me £4.80, but the looks on their faces were priceless.
Darkon224
2. I Don’t Want Your Son
I was solo traveling in Morocco. I'm 22/ female and speak Arabic enough to understand conversations, basic words and phrases, etc.
I was trying on clothes at a small shop and there were two women helping me choose what to try on.
They started talking about me in Arabic, saying how I would be a great wife to one of the lady's sons. They were going on and on, and as I was leaving I responded in Arabic, "No thank you, but I appreciate your help," and they were stunned.
mynameissarah
3. That’s Scary!
I was a high school student in Toronto, but I speak Slovak, which is similar to Czech and Polish. I was going to school on the subway in the morning and two good-looking women started to talk in Polish right next to me.
I usually like to strike up conversations with fellow Central/Eastern Europeans. Unfortunately, they started talking about how one of them had had a burning pee problem.
With nowhere to move on the packed subway and no headphones, it was an awkward thing for a 15-year-old to hear from 2 ladies. It got a little worse later when they started to talk about women's problems.
Now I have no issues with that convo nowadays of course, but 15-year-old virgin me was a bit mortified. A long 45 minutes.
svehlic25
4. They Weren’t Expecting That
I’m a black American. My dad was military and stationed in Korea from his late teens to mid-20s. He picked up on the language, and as a child, he taught me, that it was like our secret language to talk around my mom with, she hated it. Anyway.
I went to college with a large Asian population, while me and some friends were in a study room a group of students came and I asked us to leave so they could use the room (in English.)
There was no time limit, no sign-up, no nothing where they had that right. So I explained that we were here first and why they wanted this particular room.
Then they start speaking Korean and say something along the lines of “Ugh, of course, the black witch is being difficult, they’ve been here for a while they need to leave, maybe we can lie and say the professor reserved it”.
I responded, in Korean, “Call me a witch in English so I can punch you, and everyone in this room knows why”. Their faces turned bright red, they couldn’t say anything they just looked at me in shock and then left the room.
mongoosedog12
5. A Good Situation Turn
When I was doing my exchange studies in China (native Russian), I was riding a subway in Shanghai. At one of the stops, a mother and her daughter sat beside me.
The daughter was maybe 4 or 5 and she wouldn't stop looking at me, then without turning her head, she started asking her mom "Mommy why is Mister so strange? Why is his hair strange?" and so on.
I didn't react as if I didn't speak Chinese, and the mother patiently told her daughter "Mister isn't strange, he's just a foreigner, they look different".
I thought it was really sweet so I started talking to both of them in Chinese. They were very nice and I hope they're doing great now.
veekay45
6. Their Jaws Dropped!
Not me, but my dad. We are from South Africa. My dad speaks 5 (English, Afrikaans- similar to Dutch, French, Italian, and German).
He emigrated to the UK in early 1995 when a lot of other South Africans were doing the same due to the embedded racism of a fledgling nation... But I digress.
He was on the underground in London when he overheard two guys speaking about a pretty woman on the train in Afrikaans - my dad's native tongue.
According to Dad, they were incredibly rude and used quite graphic descriptions of what they wanted to do to her. My dad decided to speak up and told them to f*** off and to not speak to people that way, they don't know who is listening.
The two guys looked horror-struck and shut up immediately. The lady turned to my dad at her stop and said, in fluent Afrikaans "I bet they couldn't do half those things with their tiny privates".
My dad just laughed in shock and watched her get off the train. Pretty hilarious.
DarthPhranque
7. Take Care Next Time
Moved to Thailand and took extensive language training. I was drinking coffee in a quiet shop and the barista and the waitress started guessing my age, where I was from, and why I had come there three days in a row (lived close by).
And I was thinking "Cool. They think I'm cute. How flattering" and then the barista said "But he is a little fat..." so when I left, I told her my age and hometown. When she brought the change back I told her “Yes. I am a little fat"
[deleted]
8. Saved By Knowing English
I’m born to Russian immigrants. Whenever my family and I travel abroad, we almost exclusively speak Russian and tend to get better attitudes from people when they don’t think we’re American tourists.
When I was 12 or so, we were in a cafe in Belgium and a large group of 20-something guys walked in. My dad gets a worried look on his face, drops his voice, and says “We are Americans right now”.
He explained to me later that they were Chechen gang members, at the time when Chechnya was at war with Russia and anti-Russian sentiments were extremely high.
AnemoneOfMyEnemy
9. Embarrassing
It happened to my wife when she worked at McDonald's. She looks a little on the Asian side but is from Guatemala. A Group of Spanish-speaking people pay at the drive-through and try short-changing her.
The driver says "Esa maldita China no save contar" (that damn Asian lady can't count). The wife takes the money and very politely says they are short in Spanish. The driver turned red while passengers couldn't stop laughing.
FJBRRT
10. I Made Him Treat Me As He Should
When I was in Romania (as a Hungarian). I went to buy some food in a small town. I didn't know people in the restaurant were ethnic Hungarians, so when I asked for my food in English, the guy shouted "A burger for this f*cker" in Hungarian to the kitchen.
I was curious how it would end, so I pretended I didn't understand. When he got me my food and asked for double the price, I said (now in Hungarian): "Look, dude, you can give me that for the normal price, or I'm leavin' it, but I sure as hell ain't coming back to you jerks ever again".
csiszi00
11. I’m Not Your Girlfriend!
I lived in Japan when I was little and retook Japanese in college so I didn't sound like a child when I spoke. To solidify my new language skills, I went to my "hometown" for about 6 weeks a summer in college.
It was a small town so most people remembered me or my family, but some people I stayed with (6 weeks, 11 families that at least wanted me to spend a night in their home) were new to the area since we left 15 years or so earlier.
One of these families had a high school-aged son who wanted to borrow me for his high school's International Festival. No problem. I'd go and let other high schoolers practice their English with me and do carnival games and stuff.
However, the guy apparently did not get the message that I spoke Japanese and proceeded to introduce me to all his friends as his girlfriend.
I let him have his moment for the night (without leading him on), but on the train ride back to his home, he was talking to his friend in Japanese and I joined in on the conversation. Also in Japanese.
The embarrassment on his face was worth knowing all his friends thought I was his girlfriend.
squiggledot
12. He Never Expected That
I was a Mexican living in Germany with a Chinese school-assigned roommate. He claimed to not speak any English and my German wasn’t good so we weren’t able to communicate.
My German roommates then claimed he told them he didn’t speak any German, so I gather he was antisocial. I took three years of Mandarin in high school, but I didn’t try using it on him.
About three months in, he and another Chinese student got off the bus at the same stop I did and we all walked “together” to our flat. I heard him talking about me and his friend laughing but held back.
Once we got to our flat, I opened the door and told them to “please enter in Chinese.” I still remember his shocked face.
His friend later complimented my Chinese, while a few weeks later my roommate claimed my Chinese was so bad that he couldn’t understand me. I seriously think he just wanted no contact with me. Possibly because he never followed the cleaning schedule.
Gusat1992
13. A Happy Ending, I Guess
My husband grew up in multiple countries and, though his English is pretty heavily accented, it's a sort of unidentifiable hybrid of all the countries where he learned it in school (he didn't move to the US until he was in his late 20s).
When we went for our wedding rings, in walked super-white me and my very Latino-looking (then) finacé. It's a tiny little shop and the two proprietors begin to talk amongst themselves in Hebrew (one of my husband's "first" languages) about how much they should charge.
The first says, "It should be at least $650," the second says, "Tell him it will be $700 at least", "Maybe, $750, I can try that." My husband says, in Hebrew (but with a smile), "I'll give you $500."
They just froze, and everyone laughed, and we went into a more open negotiation. We paid $600 and I think everyone was happy.
academiclady
14. Too Expensive
I was in New York and entered one of those electronic stores. I asked the price of an item in English. The guy at the counter turns to another guy who is on a ladder, stocking items and asks in Hebrew how much he should charge.
I speak Hebrew, so I'm following their dialogue. The guy on the ladder looks and me and notices that I am following them with my eyes, then he switches to Arabic. I don't speak Arabic. The counter guy tells me the price in English. I say "too expensive" in Hebrew and leave.
Zbignich
15. My Little Secret
I've said this before. It happened a while ago. 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 understood 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 realizing 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 than it should have been.
kosmor
16. That’s Rude!
My wife is Indian and her family speaks Gujarati. I've spent many years trying to pick it up and have found it to be very difficult as there are no great resources that I am aware of to learn it. You just have to listen and try to guess the context.
Anyway, over the years, I've gotten pretty good, and when my wife's aunt was visiting from India she went right into my wife about how much weight I'd gained and how bad my diet must be.
I understood every word and stopped her about two minutes into her rant. Turns out it didn't stop her from continuing.
rekipsj
17. They Can’t Fool Me
Some workers at an airport restaurant were saying VERY inappropriate things about my sister in Spanish.
The women were criticizing her appearance (arguing with the men) who were saying VERY inappropriate observations about what she was wearing and what they would do to her.
I ordered in Spanish, workers all went silent and looked stunned. I asked detailed questions about the food/menu in Spanish so that they understood I knew everything they were saying.
I gave her my credit card, but she never swiped it, and a $40 (airport) meal was free. So at the end of the day, it was a win.
MountainLizard
18. Gotcha!
I only speak one language but was training this guy on a till a few years ago, and there were two French girls chatting in French, and suddenly he got a huge smile and said “Merci” to the girls.
One burst out laughing and the other one turned bright red. Turned out she was talking about how hot she found him.
Doogie34
19. True Consequences
Inverse. A long time ago, my brother had a habit of making remarks about people in Spanish whenever he got annoyed, frustrated, or just wanted to make fun of someone (kinda like a gossiping schoolgirl).
I told him it wasn't cool, not because he shouldn't be talking Spanish in public, but that he shouldn't be using it in such an underhanded way.
If he had a grievance that he needed to get off his chest, he should tell them in a language they are likely to understand where we live -- English. He kept doing it anyway.
One time, we were leaving a major retailer, and the store greeter asked to see his receipt before he could exit with the bagged merchandise in the cart. He had a hard time finding where he put his receipt and he got frustrated.
He switched to Spanish and said some variety of "this old witch" and the store greeter immediately called him out on it in Spanish. He was like a deer caught in the headlights. I was so happy she did it.
He made a weak attempt at re-asserting his right to be frustrated at the situation, but you could see he was very embarrassed at having been caught talking trash in Spanish. I love my brother, but I'm glad he stopped doing that soon after.
Gene_R
20. Don’t Mess With Romanians
I’m Romanian and an architect, and in Western Europe, a lot of construction workers come from Romania.
So a few colleagues of mine invited me to this party on a construction site (in Germany, we have a celebration once the structure stands) the Richtfest, asking me to basically eavesdrop on the Romanians to find out how work went and if they were complaining about the architects or whatnot.
Didn’t hear anything negative from the Romanians all night so as they were preparing to leave (early, right after dinner), I bummed a cigarette off one of them... in Romanian. They were thrilled!
Finally, someone could translate between them and the other workers and planners and they were SO proud of their work and so happy to be able to communicate with everyone so we all (architects, clients, workers, engineers) got hella drunk, smoked a million cigarettes and had the best time I’ve ever had on a construction site.
My colleagues then reported that the work continued with a lot of new motivation the following day and good times were had by all.
moniboot
21. Can’t Let That Slide
My neighbor went on holiday with her sister's family in Spain. The sister can speak fluent Spanish (they're Irish).
Apparently, a tour guide in Spain started talking about them referring to them as "those English sl*ts". They were never ones to let anything slide so an argument broke out very quickly.
Booper3
22. That’s Wholesome
My family is Italian, I don't speak the language but have a pretty good understanding after listening to my Dad and Nonna over the years.
We went to Italy to visit family and my great-aunt was talking about how she was so happy to meet us. She asked her son if we could understand her and when I said yes she broke into a huge smile and gave me a hug. It was so sweet.
mizerybiscuits
23. Good Things Happen To Good People
Native English speaker studying Japanese here. Before I moved to Japan, I used to work at my hometown’s international supermarket.
The Japanese customers (that I noticed, anyway) were usually very nice, and one time, there was a younger woman who brought in (presumably) her child, and the child said she was hungry and wanted ramune candy.
I didn’t want them to feel like I was eavesdropping so after I rang them up, I motioned to some ramune candies we had on sale that day which I had placed on my register.
Tried to make it seem nonchalant, and the woman decided to chip in and get some. And hey, the kid was happy, so I was happy too.
vermilithe
24. Such A Savage
Well, my great-aunt told a story of how she once went into a butcher shop. When she walked in, the butcher was talking with a customer in Russian (which she spoke).
The butcher saw my great aunt walk in and told the customer (in Russian) that he'd take care of this "old hag," and then continue the conversation.
So my great-aunt (in English) asked for pounds and pounds of cold cuts, all sliced and wrapped. When it was all ready, she told him (in Russian), to "shove it up your bum," and walked out. God, I loved that woman.
eureka123
25. Lovely Expressions
I am, a polish speaking mongolian, currently residing in London. Once I was in Kew Gardens enjoying a cuppa next to this lovely Polish couple, obviously tourists planning their route through the garden.
After a while, I noticed the guy left his hoodie behind, so I tracked them down to one of the places they were discussing earlier and casually handed him his hoodie back, with "I think this is yours..." in fluent Polish.
He was utterly flummoxed and just stood there with his mouth wide open for a minute or two. Forgot to thank me even. I love their expressions when that happens!
[deleted]
26. She Deserved It
My former in-laws speak Italian. I went into the marriage not knowing Italian, but I picked it up pretty well. My MIL had a bad habit of talking to her family in Italian while I was sitting right there.
Every one of them spoke English, so it wasn't as if she had to speak it to be understood. I put up with it, and it became interesting to hear what she had to say about me to the family while I was there.
I got out of the marriage due mostly to her son's treatment of me, but her actions didn't help. So one day she called me. She is going on about me being a terrible wife and mother.
So I remark "You know, I actually understand Italian. I understood everything you said about me when you thought I didn't know." She went quiet and cut the call short. It was wonderful.
[deleted]
27. A Funny Surprise
I was on the subway in NYC a few months ago when a family sitting across from me was playing I Spy in Hebrew with their kids. The parents went around describing each person they saw on the train, so when they got to me, I decided to play along.
I looked up from my book, made a funny face, and covered my face with the book before the kids could find me. The parents started laughing and said to their kids: “I spy someone who understands us!”
The parents and I shared a good laugh about it while their kids got really excited that someone else spoke Hebrew. They never figured out who it was, but it made my commute a lot more fun!
coffee-coffee_coffee
28. Not My Fault
My dad (from Tennessee) knows Chinese and goes to China often for work, etc. One time he was driving and hit a bird, getting it stuck in the front of his truck.
A Chinese man saw the bird and said to his friend (in Chinese): “He drove too fast”. To which my dad said: “No, he flew too slow”.
zac_shaffer
29. Shocking But Hilarious
African-American English speaker here. Married a Chinese woman who speaks Cantonese and Mandarin. However, we took a trip to Japan on our honeymoon. I speak fluent Japanese. She speaks none.
Went to a restaurant in Roppongi. The waitress approached us and began her evening script of the menu, specials, drinks, etc. However, she was speaking directly to my wife.
I guess thinking that since my wife was Asian, and I was not, she spoke the language. My wife was hella confused. When the waitress finished her speech with "What can I start you with today?", my wife had no reply.
The waitress began to look confused and ashamed as if she had done something wrong.
It wasn't until I chimed in with "My wife is Chinese, but I'd like to know what's on your wine menu tonight, please.", that everyone had a good laugh. Though both of them still had a confused/cautious look on their faces.
ToyDingo
30. It’s The Other Way Around
I’m a Chinese-American who doesn’t really speak Japanese, he’s a 6’7” lily white dude but speaks fluent Japanese.
We would walk into stores and the workers would blanche at the sight of him, look visibly relieved when they saw me enter behind him, and always address me instead of him.
We were in the south though so everyone was very sweet and got a kick out of it once he explained the situation to them.
[deleted]
31. My Apologies
I'm an extremely white American man. I was stationed in Korea, and a buddy and I went into a store that was slightly "off the beaten path". My buddy was in a different section of the store and found something he liked.
He asked the shopkeep how much it was, and the shopkeep said, in Korean "Well, you're an American, so $65" (translation and currency exchange provided for ease of reference).
I looked over and saw a sign on the wall that said the exact item he wanted was $40. I approached the shopkeeper and asked him, in Korean, how much it cost, to which he replied $40.
So I responded, in Korean, "Why are you charging him $65?". He got rather embarrassed and apologetic, offered to sell the item for $35, and gave us each a soft drink for free.
arlondiluthel
32. Happy Ending
I don't know if this is cool, but I live in India and I don't really look too much like the people in my home state, so people always assume I'm from another state or another country and don't really understand "their" language (Tamil, for those curious), despite it being my mother tongue since I was BORN there.
Here, the transport buses have a 'conductor' dude from whom you buy a ticket. So I was traveling in one such bus and I was approached by the conductor to buy a ticket.
Seeing me, he assumed I didn't know Tamil and tried his best to ask me to purchase a ticket in what little English he knew. He could've just said "Ticket" and I would have got it, but instead he tried to form a sentence along the lines of...
"Ticket... You can... have..?". I just smiled and told him that I'd like to buy a ticket for the place I was going to in regular Tamil with the appropriate slang.
All of a sudden, he had this huge smile on his face and handed me the ticket. He then asked me where I was from, in Tamil this time, to which I responded that I'm from this state.
He did a double take, but then nodded happily and went on to the next passenger. Not gonna lie, it felt pretty cool to me.
Balaguru_BR5
33. She Had No Idea
I took 5 years of French in school then went on a trip to France a while back, some woman was talking about me in French at a restaurant after she'd heard me attempting to order by sounding out stuff on the menu.
I'm not great at understanding French, but I could make out things like "Stupid American" and stuff. I don't think she had a favorable view of Americans.
[deleted]
34. Why Would They Do That?
My husband is the bilingual one, not me. He’s from Colombia so he speaks Spanish fluently, but grew up in the U.S. and has been here most of his life. He also has a really fair complexion.
Most people think he’s just Caucasian. Anyway, we were in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico looking for a place to eat. We get to a restaurant and he asks in English how much it would cost for all-you-can-eat tacos.
The guy at the door said it’s $15. His friend next to him said to the guy in Spanish, “I thought it was $12?” And the first guy responded, “Yeah, but they don’t know that.” My husband of course understood everything.
He told them in Spanish that they were lying rip-offs and we’d be going somewhere else. The guy’s expression was priceless.
candiice_xo
35. Awkward Situation
To be fair to the people involved here, the odds of me understanding them were small. When I was in an Arabic-speaking country for a language immersion program, I and one of the other people attached to the group ended up in a business run by Chinese immigrants to this Middle Eastern country.
Now, before I started studying Arabic, I took a few years of Chinese, and in fact, my Arabic was worse than my Chinese.
So I could barely talk to them in Arabic but could understand the discussion about how they just wanted us to buy our stuff and get out that they had in Chinese. Awkward.
[deleted]
36. That’s… Not What I Said
The other way around, Belgian in the USA during Halloween. Some guy comes trick or treating at the restaurant where we're sitting, and a girl from our group (we were all 16-18) says in Dutch to us that he is cute.
The guy's face turns from happy and flirty to pissed. He turns to the girl and shouts "I'm not gay you damn bi**h, yea that's right, I understand German!"; "Aaaaand he's not cute anymore".
[deleted]
37. Wholesome Memories
I must have been about 8-9, and we were returning from a vacation in Agra. We were traveling by train and there was this lovely family seated in front of us (they were British, I think).
My mom was asleep and I was reading Champak (A kids' story magazine in India that used to be very popular in the 90s). They were talking amongst themselves and suddenly one of the girls looked at me and said "She's so adorable."
So instead of doing the proper thing i.e. saying thank you, I blushed hard and pretended to go to sleep. If, by chance, you guys are reading this, Thank you, that memory still brings a smile to my face.
iknowthisischeesy
38. They Don’t Have The Right To Say That
My late best friend, who was big, tall, and blonde, was in Tim Hortons. He speaks fairly fluent Arabic, having spent 7 years working in Saudi Arabia.
Three Arabic men were sitting at a table making very lewd comments about the women in the shop. My buddy turned to them and said in Arabic: "You need to shut up before someone kicks your bum. You never know who is listening". They got very confused and left soon after.
P35-HiPower
39. Thanks For Your Unwanted Opinion
My SO is a tattoo artist who can speak Bulgarian, Turkish, English, and German.
One day, we were queueing in the supermarket and two guys behind us were laughing and snickering. She turned around and said something to them. Afterward, she was laughing while one of the guys went bright red.
Afterward, I asked her what that was about. The guys were like "Look at her arm. Those tattoos. Disgusting. How can you tattoo a naked woman on yourself?" In Turkish.
My SO turned around and said, "Thanks bro". At first, the guy asked her to repeat because he didn't even register that she could be speaking Turkish and assumed he misheard English. That's when she said, "For the tattoo opinion".
It was funny from there. The guy apologized and said he had never felt so much shame in his life. His friend was saying at least buy them (my SO and I) some beers.
This was in a small town outside of Dublin City, so I can understand why they didn't think there would be any Turkish speakers around.
h4k01n
40. Cool Shoes, Dude!
I have another story, but this one is about my ex-girlfriend. She was fluent in English, Japanese, and Mandarin, but she looked like a typical white girl so no one ever expected her to be fluent in those languages.
One Halloween, I went as Bender from Futurama. I made the entire costume using cardboard and silver spray paint. For the feet I didn't really know what to do, so I just duct-taped a pair of boots I had.
The next day I was too lazy and hungover to take the duct tape off, so when we went to brunch at the cafeteria, I just left them.
My girlfriend and I were walking back to my dorm room, and we passed a couple of Chinese exchange students who said something to each other as we passed.
When we got out of earshot, my girlfriend burst out laughing. She said they commented on my boots, which they thought were made entirely of duct tape, and how cool they were.
I started laughing too and then we started joking around about how funny it would be if we started to see all the exchange students walking around campus wearing shoes and boots made from duct tape.
-eDgAR-
41. I Can At Least Act Like It
My friends and I were in Thailand last winter and would always start the day off with either a back massage or a foot massage. Massages were only like $5 for an hour over there so it wasn’t a big deal to get one every day.
None of us knew how to speak Thai but we always had a sneaking suspicion that the ladies were making fun of us while they massaged our feet.
So one day while they were talking and all laughing about something I casually said “Hey, you know I can understand everything you’re saying right?”
This was obviously complete crap. But the look on her face. I still remember it so clearly. This great mixture of shock and embarrassment that you only get the privilege of seeing a few times in your life.
The best part was that she didn’t speak English well enough to try and call me out on my bluff.
She then said something in Thai to the other ladies giving us massages and I got to witness a chain reaction of the same embarrassed face three more times in a row. To this day I have no idea what they were saying.
ScrunchJeans
42. You Don’t Have To Bring That Up
I speak both German and Norwegian. While I lived in Berlin, I was once waiting for the city train, and a group of young Swedish tourists were next to me and talked about their thoughts on Berlin.
Since Norwegian and Swedish are fairly similar I understood the whole conversation. They mainly talked about nazi stuff and how Berlin was a greater place back in the Hitler days.
It was quite annoying to listen to, so out of the blue asked them (in Norwegian) if they had already been to Sachsenhausen. (The concentration camp closest to Berlin). I was met with an "Uhhm, not yet haha".
bertram_sonnenblume
43. That Must’ve Took Him By Surprise
I’m half French half Irish, lived in France most of my life, and went to the fan zone for the game (France vs Ireland euro 2016).
I was wearing my Irish scarf (I also look Irish), France won and at the end of the game, a Frenchman taunted me with terrible English saying something like "Haha loser“, I just answered in French “Hm I’m French dude”. The look of stupidity and confusion on his face... priceless.
Johnnyjazz92
44. Well, That Took A Turn
This was during the Christmas season. I was walking with my friend to a local bar. A few Russians were standing outside their homes, smoking, and one or two had a drink in their hand. As we walk passed a gentleman says, “What are you looking at handsome guys,” in Russian.
It’s meant to come off like what are you looking at. I turn around and say, “I completely understand Russian.” Suddenly they get cheerful. The gentleman gives me a hug/handshake. I was then offered a drink and cigarettes. It was hilarious, especially to my friend who didn’t understand Russian.
DanielYankee710
45. Don’t Act Like That
At my old job, a couple of Mexican dudes came in with a fuel injector but they didn’t know what it was called in English or Spanish.
I asked them what it was for (as in what car it was for) and they looked at each other and spoke in Spanish saying "This little black kid doesn't know anything about cars dammit, ask him if he can speak to a manager" to which I promptly replied to them in Spanish "I am the manager and I was asking what car is it for".
Then back to English, I said "That's called a fuel injector sir" and they were all surprised and trying to be chummy with me. I gave them that nice smug "Screw you" smile back.
redditorsins