People Share Their “They Didn’t Know I Could Understand Their Language” Moment

Being able to speak more than one language is a great asset to have. The more languages you know, the more people you’re able to communicate with. Whether it be bonding and socializing with your beloved family members who don’t know your main language or giving directions to random foreigners lost on the streets. It’s a beautiful thing to be able to understand and speak to as many people as possible.

The bad news is, while knowing more than one language has its advantages, people often take this skill for granted. For example, bilingual or multilingual individuals may use their second or third language as a way to talk bad about someone in the same room, exclude others from their conversation, or secretly come up with a mean-spirited plan. While there’s no harm in talking in another language when you don’t want others to hear your private, personal conversation, it’s another thing to use your language with bad intentions in mind.
Regardless of your intentions for speaking in another language, there might be moments where someone nearby just so happens to know the language you’re speaking. This, of course, can easily become awkward, especially if you happen to be talking about them to someone else or engaging in an embarrassing conversation.

The reverse can also be true. The more languages you know, the more conversations you can eavesdrop on in public. This too can be a good thing or a bad thing. You may find yourself in a situation where you wish you weren’t able to comprehend what someone was saying, particularly if what they said was spiteful. Or, you may be glad you knew what someone speaking another language was saying, especially if it helped save you from an unwanted situation.
Either way, the following people share embarrassing, unpleasant, or even heartfelt moments where they heard someone speaking a foreign language they knew, who didn’t know anyone else in the room could understand their language.

Before reading the following stories, check out part one!

27. He Called My Great Aunt An Old Hag

Everyone needs an aunt like this woman!

“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 continued 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 a**,’ and walked out.

God, I loved that woman.” eureka123

26. I Found Out They Cheated On Their Assignment

“And this one isn’t because I speak the language but…
I’m a professor at a college, and I had some students from India who I suspected were cheating on their final project. They had sent their final programming project to India and outsourced it.

I found out because they used the same outsource firm I had been using for my contracting business, and I noticed the firm’s name in the source code. I confronted them, but they denied it up and down, even after I quizzed them on simple programming that they couldn’t answer.

This was a 3rd-year class, so they must’ve outsourced everything for years.
So, I left them alone in the class but left my phone there recording. They had a full conversation in Hindi. I sent the recording to the same outsource firm and had it translated: ‘Don’t worry, this guy can’t prove we did anything, and this school is so stupid. We’ve got this far; We just need to pass this to get our PR.’ (PR is a permanent residence, for immigration.)

They failed the class. About a year later, the student was my Uber driver. He fully regretted cheating, as they knew nothing.

Couldn’t get a job.” footose

25.  I Knew What He Was Up To, But I Decided To Play Along

“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

24. Be Careful Who You Talk Badly About…

“I’m African 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, it was like our secret language to talk around my mom with, she hated it.

I went to college with a large Asian population, when one day, my friends and I were in a study room. A  group of students came in 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, why do they want this particular room?

Then they start speaking Korean and say something along the lines of, ‘Ugh, of course, the black ***** 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 respond, in Korean, ‘Call me a ***** in English so I can punch you, and everyone in this room knows why.’ Their faces turned bright red. They couldn’t say anything, so they just looked at me in shock and then left the room.” mongoosedog12

23. We May Look European On the Outside, But We’re Actually Brazilian On The Inside

“I live in Austria, but my Dad is from Brazil, all my Austrian aunts and uncles married a Brazilian.

My grandparents from my mother’s side opened and lead a factory of our family company in Brazil, that’s why everyone was there, but some eventually came back to Austria, just like my mom with my dad. My siblings and I were raised multilingual but lived most of our lives in Austria.

So once when I was around 10 my Mom and I were on a tram in Vienna with my little brother, who was around 2 at the time, in a stroller. He starts crying, really loudly. Then one Brazilian lady starts speaking rover everyone and in an obnoxious tone something along the lines of: ‘Well, these European folks don’t know how to treat their children with love, how can someone be so cold and unaffectionate to a child as to let them scream without taking them out of the stroller and holding them?’ (We were standing btw, there was no seat big enough at the time where we could leave the stroller).

I was getting worried we were doing something wrong, I wanted to comfort my brother and get him out, but my Mom stopped me and really loudly said in Portuguese: ‘Leave him, it is too dangerous to take him out of the stroller while we are standing here and the tram is moving.’

You could see the women’s face go from red to white and back to red, get up and get out so fast at the next exit that we just started laughing and my brother ultimately calmed down.” FireShepherd29

22. Try To Use Me For My Money? I’ll Use You For A Little Fun!

“I lived in Riga, Latvia, for a short while and went out almost every Friday to meet girls.

Riga has a lot of visitors from the UK and I’ve spent a chunk of my time in the US, so I generally speak English in the center. I feel more comfortable using it. However, I also speak Russian perfectly well.

So I’m drinking a beer in a bar and all of a sudden some cute Russian girl comes up to me and starts speaking English to me. She invited me for a beer with her and her friend. I didn’t really have anything else going for me that night, so I agreed.

What followed is an hour of them trying to make me buy them a Dom Perignon bottle and some really dirty talking about what one of them would do to me if I agreed.

They also talked to the bartender (who knows me fairly well) how they’re gonna rip me off big time and that I’m a foreign idiot.

I ended up buying them 4 beers total out of decency. It was a lot of fun for a while, I’ll give them that. Eventually, I got really tired of it all, plus my friend hit me up, so I just switched to Russian, thanked them for a nice evening and left. Their faces were red from embarrassment and anger. Oh well. Don’t scam people.” bksbeat

21. He Didn’t Let On But He Knew What They Were Saying

“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 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 then it should have been.” kosmor

20. Looks Latino, Speaks Hebrew

“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 and in walks 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

19. I Was Going To Give Him The Ball Until I Heard What He Was Saying About Me

So much for his random act of kindness.

“I was at a Diamondbacks game, and a player threw a ball in my direction. I caught it and immediately turned to my wife and said, ‘I’m going to give it to this kid behind me. I’ve been to enough games, caught enough souvenirs… I don’t need another one.’

I then hear the dad say some pretty nasty things about me to his maybe 7-year-old son in Spanish. Then his son, in Spanish starts yelling, ‘Hey, you took my ball stupid! You took my ball! Give me my ball, stupid.’
I then turn around and in Spanish and say, ‘I just told my wife I was going to give you this ball, but thanks to your willingness to show how kind you guys are to strangers, I think I’m going to hold it for someone more deserving.’ This was directed towards the father, not the kid.

It just baffles me that parents let their kids talk like that to strangers or even at all…” morni33

18. She Was Able To Eavesdrop On Some Good News

“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 b*tching 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. Also, I’m also a chick so there’s an extra layer of positivity to this, as it can be really tough as a woman in the construction industry.

Those guys made us all proud.” moniboot

17. They Lied About What Happened To Their Phone To Get A Free Replacement

“I worked at Apple at the Genius Bar for a couple of years. I speak fluent Arabic but was born and raised in America. I was helping two Saudi customers who wanted a free replacement on a phone that was shutting down intermittently. They said to each other in Arabic very clearly, ‘Don’t tell him the iPhone was dropped in the toilet.’

I went in the repair room, and when I opened it, sure enough, there was still remnants of water all over the inside of the device.

When I came back, I told them the replacement would cost money since the device came into contact with liquid. They acted surprised and denied it ever came in contact with any liquid. They demanded a free replacement. I showed them pictures I took of the inside of their device covered in liquid. They accused me of pouring water in their phone.
At this point, I was a little offended, and they wanted to speak to my manager. I explained the situation to my manager and even told her about them saying not to tell me it fell into a toilet in Arabic.

Anyway, as they were leaving I said goodbye to them in Arabic, and the look on their faces was absolutely priceless.” MufasaMedic

16. She Tried To Accuse Me Of Theft

“Visiting my parents in Quebec, I didn’t have a credit card at the time so used a friend’s credit card to reserve a hotel room (even checked with hotel, all’s good). Fast forward to check-in, my ex-boyfriend (ON born, English speaking only) and I (QC born, bilingual) show up, say a cheerful hello and wait to go through the check-in procedure.
Instead, a lady with nasty scowl mumbles, ‘Bonjour,’ furiously types my name into the computer and scoffs.

Gives me a dirty look and in a very thick French accent, says one moment in French. She calls over her manager and the two start whispering loudly in French, and I hear bits of, ‘Girl trying to pull a fast one’ and ‘Do they think we’re stupid?’ and ‘English are the stupid ones.’

They turn, I’m sure to smugly ‘confront’ us, and I lose it. I switch to French, and in this calm yet no business tone, I proceed to tell them I understood everything they said and if disrespecting guests and accusing them of theft was what they did, then I would not stay AND make sure to tell everyone else how awful the hotel was… yada yada yada.

Let’s just say the a**-kissing and upgrades were super satisfying.” Bitersnbrains
15. They Tried To Make Him Pay More

“My uncle lives in Arizona and while born into an English-speaking home, he is also a fluent Spanish speaker. I will note that he looks like a run-of-the-mill Caucasian male (important for context).
One day, he ordered movers to his house, and when they showed up he greeted them in English. He noticed they spoke broken English, but they greeted him kindly and got to work. They moved all of his stuff and at the end of the interaction as they were unloading the last few boxes, the lot of them were discussing in Spanish ‘how much they were going to up-charge this <insert expletive>’
He let them talk for 5 or so minutes, not giving any hint that he knew what they were saying.

Then when the main guy gave him the total, my uncle responded in Spanish, ‘Are you offering any discounts right now?’ The guy absolutely **** himself.” woodr1km

14. He Talked Trash About Me, Then We Became Friends

At least there’s a happy ending!

“I was in high school. My school was fairly diverse. I’m a fat white guy, and I always have been. Anyways I had a gym class with a group of four or five Hispanic guys. We were playing American flag football indoors on a rainy day. My team won and they were talking a bunch of trash in Spanish, mostly bullying me about my weight.

Whatever. Didn’t really care.
Fast forward a few hours and saw one of them walking home in the rain. This was a downpour, and it was cold, so I pulled over, and speaking to him in Spanish, I offered him a ride, which he rejected due to what I imagine to be something to do with pride. I told him. ‘Just get in the ******* car,’ and he does.

Turns out, he lives a solid five miles away. We’re talking the whole time end up being cool. Next day, I walk into gym class and he’s there with his friends. They start talking **** again, and he tells them, ‘That’s my friend’ and nothing else.

They shut up. Gym class goes on as per usual.” puttingmyfaithindog
13. He Wanted To Charge Me $500 To Get My Radiator Fixed

“Korean descendant born and raised in South America living in Los Angeles. Problem with radiator leaking goes to a mechanic, said in English, ‘I have a problem with my car,’ guy looks under the hood, says, ‘One moment,’ shouts at manager in Spanish, ‘EY! Tiene problema con el radiador. Cuanto le cobro?’ (Trans: ‘HEY! This guy has a problem with his radiator. How much do I charge?’)

Manager looks at me then shouts back at his co-worker in Spanish, ‘Estos chinos tienen un chingo de feria! Cobrale un chingo!’ (Trans: ‘Chinese people are rich! Charge him a lot!’) coworker tells me $500 to fix.

I go (In Spanish), ‘Number one, I ain’t Chinese. Number two, I ain’t rich.’
Co-worker looks at me for about five secs dumbfounded and yells the manager, ‘Come here quick!’ Manager comes, co-worker tells him, ‘This guy speaks Spanish” very quietly for some reason. The manager goes, ‘OH ****. I’M SO SORRY. I will give you a really good price” and so on and so on.

I said, ‘Stop, I’ll go somewhere else,’ hop in my car, drive off while both of them stood there both with the same dumbfounded expression until I was gone.
I have so many stories like these. Don’t judge by the looks, people!” GeeEmWhyEE

12. They Tried To Sue Me For Something I Didn’t Do

Talk about low!

“EMT here.

One time, I picked up a gentleman going to a hospital, and his wife came along on the ambulance with him. Shortly thereafter, I realized when they were speaking to each other they were speaking Russian, which I understand and read perfectly well.
About three minutes into the transport, they started talking about how they plan to sue me as a healthcare provider. I wish I was kidding, but the plan they had was to say that the bruise and the bleeding on the side of the head that the patient had was actually my fault due to me and my partner using improper carrying and lifting techniques.

I let them go on for about three minutes, just quietly taking my vitals signs, doing my regular assessment and stopping the bleeding, until I literally snuck a Russian word into one of the sentences when I was asking for his medical history. The look on their faces was priceless.” popcorniusss
11. I Found Out The Real Reason He Wanted To Go On A Date With Me

“I’m of Scottish and Dutch descent with green eyes, red hair and pasty skin. I was on a date in Miami, FL with a Cuban guy who asked me out at the hospital where I worked.

He initially asked me if I was a nurse, and when I corrected him that I was a doctor, he sheepishly apologized and eventually asked me out.

At dinner, the waiter asked [in Spanish] if he thought it was going to work out and that I was pretty and seemed smart. He told the waiter that it didn’t matter if it worked out or not because he was g***oin*g to******** either way. I told him [in Spanish], ‘Thanks for dinner. Have fun ****** your hand!'” kinenchen
10. They Attempted To Cut In Line

“We are Russian Americans and usually speak Russian or English to our children.

But my wife grew up in Israel and speaks fluent Hebrew. We were in line at Disney, and there was an Israeli family behind us. The Israeli kids were trying to jump the line, and my wife was prepared for this behavior and was blocking them. We were speaking Russian and some English and look very eastern European.

The Israeli kids were bad-mouthing my wife saying how they are going to get around us and how my wife is such and such for blocking them. This goes on for about 45 minutes, and the Israeli kids are getting really p*ssed off and really pushy.

Finally, my wife turns to them and tells them in Hebrew what she thinks of their antics. They practically jumped out their skin, it was absolutely hilarious!” realvvk
9. I Reported Them To Corporate And Got Them Fired

“I’m white, and in Southern California less than an hour away from the Mexican border, someone tried it on me. It was employees at a fast-food restaurant. First, they talked *** about how I looked while I was walking in (which I pretended to not understand), then they lied about my total/change while a guy from the back area laughed and talked in Spanish about how easy it is to steal from dumb, white pigs.

I called corporate and told them in Spanish what just happened and asked what they intended to do about it. The employees started staring at me with fear in their eyes. Next month, there was a rule that they can’t speak Spanish in customer service positions at the entire chain unless the customer speaks it to them first. Plus I got a ton of free coffees. (Yeah, I know they’re valueless/cheap, but it was a nice gesture.) The employees from that day were no longer employed there.
One of their friends who were on a different shift tried to guilt me about it and about how one of them was going to lose his apartment.

I replied that I’d happily get dumb, racist pigs fired anywhere I go without remorse because I believe racists don’t deserve to be able to support themselves.” Ryugi

8. They Said How Lonely They Were, So I Asked Them To Play Soccer

It’s the little things.

“I’m not anywhere near fluent in Spanish, but I understand it well enough to follow along when I overhear. When I was about 12 or 13, a few Mexican kids transferred to my middle school, and they hardly spoke English. They kind of kept to themselves, and nobody really wanted to hang out with them and make them feel welcome because nobody could understand them.

(Well, except me, but I was too shy to actually say anything…)
Anyway, I had gym class with two of them, and during one free period, I overheard them talking about how lonely it was not being able to talk to anyone but each other. That was enough for me to muster up my courage and go over to them to say (in heavily broken Spanish), that although I couldn’t speak it very well, I could sort of understand them an asked them if they want to play soccer with me and my friends. Their faces lit up, and we spent every free period in gym class playing soccer together after that.” Iximaz
7. He Tried To Overcharge My Buddy

“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. 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 shop keeper 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
6. She Didn’t Mind That Her Daughter Was Terrorizing The Cats

“Once I was in a cat cafe in Seoul with my girlfriend, and there was a Russian mom there with her daughter. The mom wasn’t paying attention while her daughter terrorized the cats. Finally, the girl ended up cornering a cat hiding in a little tent and started shaking the whole tent to get it out. I’d been watching this unfold for a while, and when it became clear that the mom wasn’t going to step in and do anything, I told the little girl (in Russian) to stop and that the kitty didn’t like it.

I don’t think the mom expected to encounter any Russian-speakers there, and the moment she heard someone else telling her kid to knock it off, she immediately called her daughter over and left looking mortified. I still find it pretty funny that after almost 4 years of living in Russian-speaking countries, my biggest victory with the language was in Korea.” Jimftw

5. She Slammed A Bottle Of Syrup On Their Table

Actions speak louder than words!

“Happened to my sister, and in this case, she was embarrassed as heck. In Washington DC, there is a very large deaf community on account of having the world’s only deaf University.

My sister was a student and took the metro back towards her University, and all of her friends were chatting and noticed a person staring, which is super annoying, so they decided to talk *** about this person and discuss how similar they looked to the Aunt Jemima bottle of syrup.
Later, they get back to the university, and there is a deaf event, and they sit down to eat and chat, and the same person walks up and slams down a bottle of Aunt Jemima syrup on the table and walks away.” socktines

4. They Talked Smack About My Girl’s Tattoos

“My significant other 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 significant other turned around and said, ‘Thanks, bro.’ So, 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 has never felt so much shame in his life. His friend was saying at least buy them (my significant other 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
3. They Tried To Change The Safety Procedures

“My dad grew up in Egypt and now travels the world for Dole (the fruit company). Once, he was in Morocco at a plant who were possible suppliers, and they tried to deceive him. They showed him the safety guidelines that were written in Arabic but were describing different standards in English.

My dad doesn’t look like a typical Middle Easterner and has a very non-descript accent, so they thought they could fleece him.

After the dude was done talking, my dad says, ‘That’s not what it says,’ and the guy says, ‘What do you mean?’ My dad repeats the statement but in Arabic. The guy apparently dropped his jaw, and all he could say was, ‘You speak Arabic?’ Needless to say, that Moroccan plant did not get the gig.” GodsGift420
2. An Old Man Started Recording Me

“I was in San Francisco at the Golden Gate Bridge, and my friend was taking my picture. Two old men (60’s) stood nearby speaking in Arabic.

One of the men was taking a video and trying to make it seem like it was out of the view, but I noticed that his camera kept panning at me. I then heard him say, ‘Now look at the beautiful girl we have here. Let’s get a better look at her,’ as he got closer to me with the camera pointed at me.

I hate confrontation, but there are few things that make me madder than an invasion of privacy and perverted men. I went off on him in English, so everyone around us could hear, and he got so embarrassed, and they both ran off.

My friend captured some artsy photos of me mid-yelling, and they’re pretty funny.” jonahc5718
1. They Were Saying ******** Explicit Things About Me

“Once when I was about 15, I was walking into Walmart when these two Hispanic guys started saying ******** explicit things about me. I’m Cuban, mostly of Spanish descent, so my skin is very white. I felt gross but kept walking. Then suddenly, my mom called my phone, and I looked at the two men directly as I answered and said, ‘Hola mami, como estas?’ And one of the dudes BOLTED out of the store as quickly as possible while the other just stood there with his jaw open.

I feel their reactions were a bit extra, but I thought it was hilarious.” villainouskim
Seeing how many of these stories played out, these act as a good reminder to use our second language with good intentions while out in public. Whether you’re trying to scam a foreign customer at your place of work or talk about how attractive a stranger across the way is, know that there’s always a chance that, that person, or someone else within the proximity, may comprehend and speak out.

If you loved part one and part two of these stories, share them both on social media!