29 Bilingual People Reveal The Worst Thing They Accidentally Overheard
To be able to speak and understand more than just your native language opens up many doors of possibilities.
Whether it be culturally; being able to explore and chat with the locals in a foreign land, generationally; hearing about those stories straight from nonna about the obstacles she overcame and what life was like back in the old country, or professionally; speaking another language can look really good on a resumé.
Opportunities abound, plus the ability to eavesdrop on conversations provides endless entertainment.
What would you do if you overheard some tourists talking about you? How would you act if that random guy understood what you said about him? How would you respond to rude or offensive remarks made about a stranger? It can be tricky water to navigate.
To confront or not to confront, that is the question. Here are 28 stories shared by Redditors about times they either overheard and understood conversations in a foreign language, or were the ones having those conversations.
29. Not Completely Useless After All
Myself and my family speak fluent Irish, a talent that is for around 50 weeks of the year completely useless—until we go on holiday! Not even all Irish people can speak Irish so it’s highly unlikely that you will be eavesdropped on in a foreign country.
I was visiting my cousin in Prague and we started talking about the people in our carriage in Irish. Naturally we noticed the cute guy sitting across from us and started to discuss his hotness. Ten minutes go by and he gets up to get off the train. Just before the doors close, he turns, winks and says "go raibh míle cailiní" ( thanks a million girls in Irish) in what sounded like a Czech accent. I’m still confused…
28. Seagulls Crack Me Up Too
I speak fluent English and German, plus a few other languages where I can speak the basics.
I was sitting in a hot tub while on vacation in California. These two German girls came a little while later and got in the hot tub. The hot tub overlooks the pool and the public beach since the hotel was on the water.
I made some small chat in English when they got in and they assumed I only spoke English. So they started talking among themselves in German, they started commenting on people that would walk by with all sorts of things "I bet she has breast implants, he is probably her b---, etc," I was just listening and holding anything back, then they started narrating this seagull who kept asking for scraps and were making some horrible remarks "Hey you fat c---, you're already fat enough! Throw me some food you fatty!"
They cracked a few good jokes (considering they were German humor I still found them really funny), before I knew it I lost my shit and started cracking up.
They knew instantly, their faces turned bright red from shame. I just laughed even harder. I then said "Thanks for the laughs, I'll leave you two. Have a good day." In perfect German.
27. Good Bartering Trick
Ohhh the fun I've had being able to speak Indonesian. My family and I, like most Australians, go to Bali in Indonesia quite a bit. I learnt the language for 12 years, and was fluent enough to pass tertiary entrance exams. The Indonesians just aren't used to tourists making much of an effort to speak their language so, as a consequence, they say a LOT.
My two favourite moments would be from my first trip. We were being driven from our hotel to a really popular restaurant. We were being driven by three young guys. They were happily chatting away, blissfully unaware that I understood every word. One of them cracked a joke about taking my mother home (they were very much just cracking a joke, no real ill-intent) and when they all laughed I laughed REALLY LOUDLY. They stopped immediately and said in Indo "How long have you been learning Indonesian?" Was a pretty quiet car ride after that. The other time would be at the markets. I was buying some crappy jewellery from a small stall by the side of the road and I made a point of bartering in English for a change. In the middle of our transaction she turns to her daughter, who was sitting next to her in the stall, and says "Make sure you never barter much when the young ones are alone. They're easier to make more money." To which I said "Could you please repeat yourself, but slower?" And her face!! It was magical! I had never seen someone so shocked. Her daughter ended up giving me the things for their cost price and we chatted and hung out quite a bit too. All in all, victories all around.
26. She was NOT. HAVING. IT.
Oooh.. I have a good one.
I'm Asian and I live in France so my French is pretty fluent, spoken at least. I was visiting some friends in London last summer and on the tube, there were a group of five French tourists standing around and pretty much complaining about EVERYONE else in the tube... saying that Brits are so ugly, dissing how they dressed, really petty shit. I was already side-eyeing the crap outta this group but pretty much kept to myself and my friends.
Then the tube started getting really crowded, and we had to move in nearer to said French group. I accidentally bumped shoulders with one of the guys in the group and he proceeded to groan loudly then turn to his friends and say "All these f---- Asians, they're everywhere... Go back to China, what a b---." His group started laughing and looking at me. At that point I saw white and COMPLETELY LOST IT.
I turned around and addressed his whole group calling them out on their ignorance and racist bullshit, telling them off for being the exact stereotype of French tourists that ruin the reputations of the decent French people out there, and assuming that no one else can speak their language while travelling around in EUROPE ffs. Ended by saying if you don't want to see any other races or ethnicity you should probably stay in that hole you call a home and not travel abroad if you're gonna act like a massive douche.
Everyone was looking at me at this point, my friends were like wtf and trying to get me to stop. I just said loudly in English to everyone else that this group of French people were making racist statements and deserved to be called out. They all pretty much turned red and one of the other people in the group mumbled a quick apology and they got off the tube at the next stop.
AAaaaaaaah that felt good to finally share.
