Multilinguals Share The Cringeworthy Times They Understood A Conversation They Weren't Meant To

The moral of the story is to assume everyone speaks every language.

Two years ago, I was visiting my aunt in France. I was in this cafe and next to my table there were two guys and one of them was continuously glancing at me and quickly looking away. They, completely unaware that I'm pretty good at French, were loudly talking about something along the lines of "that girl is pretty cute" "just go talk to her already." After a couple minutes, which felt like hours, he finally came up to me and started talking in english. I replied in French and his face went completely red and his friend bursted out laughing. We've been together ever since in a long distance relationship. I'll be seeing him again in a few days and I couldn't be anymore happier💕

"we are americans now" hides AK47 and starts telling democracy jokes

You: fiancé Me, an intellectual: finnakay

"We are Americans right now" - Hides the vodka under the table and pulls out a XXL pizza

one time i sat next to a Korean girl at school, i didn't know she was Korean. she was really cute so my bisexual ass decides to whisper "oh my god, she's so pretty" to myself in Korean. she turned to me and said, in Korean, "thanks, you're cute too." i died a little bit on the inside edit: to everyone saying i shouldve asked her out, she's back home in Korea now.

you're procrastinating rn.

So I’m American but i was born and raised in Ghana, most of the people in my school think i don’t speak any of the local languages but I’m actually really fluent in twi and Fante. In the sixth grade, the girl sitting behind me would gossip and insult me in twi then she would compliment me in English thinking i did not understand her twi,one day when she and her goons were laughing at my dark skin saying that i did not look any thing like an American. I turned slowly and replied her in twi saying black is beauty. The look on her face was priceless Wow, I did not know I had this many likes

I cursed a guy out in 3 languages, he understood every word of it

You gave me the worst motivation to continue learning Spanish.

My dad and I were on holiday in Rome and waiting in line for a Colosseum tour. We were speaking Finnish with each other, when these two Norwegian boys start mocking and talking shit about us in Norwegian. Little did they know my dad is fluent in Norwegian. He leaned towards the boys and whispered (in Norwegian of course) something along the lines of: ”You never know what languages people can actually speak.”

so i'm vietnamese but i studied mandarin in school, so i'm pretty fluent. so one time my mom and i went to china on a trip together. we went to a market, and these two college-ish girls stopped walking and began to have a conversation about me in the language: girl 1: "her hair is so pretty." girl 2: "ah, but she's a foreigner..." pretending i didn't understand, i glanced at them for half a second and continued walking with my mom. later on, i bumped into them again and they noticed me. again. girl 1: "it's that foreigner girl again. i wonder what hair products she uses?" girl 2: "stop thinking about it. she's a foreigner." i noticed that girl 1 seemed to admire my hair, but girl 2 seemed to dislike me for my foreign appearance. since we were in really close proximity to each other, i shared to the girls my hair routine as well as the products i use, in the language of course. girl 2 was super embarrassed. both of them exited the store super quickly and the last thing i saw was girl 1 laughing so hard at her friend. that made my day. :D

"So I got off the train without paying a fine or anything because I pretended not to know Swedish." Sneak 100

I'm german and there was a russian kid in my class. The teacher asked him in german:"Do you speak german?/Do you understand me?" (I can't remember which one it was) and the russian kid replied in german:"No I don't." The whole class burst out laughing

Me: downloads duolingo It’s a small price to pay for being hilarious

These stories make me want to learn another language.😂

I'm a robot learning English, which is quite different from my native binary code. One time, while I was working on a narration project, I pronounced 'Fiancé' as 'Finna K'. Very embarrassing!

In finland: Some random teenagers: "Look at the gay swedes" Us: "We speak finnish"

For anyone wondering Tack och förlåt means thanks and sorry 9:50

So I don't look very german (which I am) and speak English with a somewhat british accent. One time during summer a friend of mine and I were riding the train, chitchating in English, when this group of guys (around the same age as us) walks in and takes the seats next to us. They start comparing us and calling dibs (wtf). Then one of them asks my friend (who also speaks german) in broken english if she'd like to have a drink with him some time and if he can have her number. Obviously, she declines. Another guy then 'apologizes' for his friend and proceeds to ask me the same question. In perfectly clear german and picking up their conversation I say 'Sorry, I don't date people who brag about screwing a girl before she even gets the chance to turn him down.' The 2 Minute ride to the next stop (where they surprisingly left) is something I'll never forget 😂