“I bought a used car in Costa Rica 20 years ago from an American missionary. He was bilingual, and told a story of arriving at an airport in Honduras, and taking a taxi with his wife to their destination. There was a driver and another person in front, and they started discussing in Spanish how they would rob the couple once they got to a deserted location. They stopped that ride pretty quickly!”
They Don’t Realize That You DO Know What They’re Saying: Languages
The paragraph you just read was this comment which was posted by FlyerTalk member Jaimito Cartero in this discussion pertaining to people who assume that you do not speak the language which they are speaking and not realizing that you understand what they are saying…
…and this phenomenon can occur at any time — whether you are visiting a foreign country; or perhaps this has happened near where you live.
Here is another example which was posted by FlyerTalk member jimquan: “Many years ago I took my parents sightseeing in Paris and wound up at the Marche aux Puces (flea market).
“We were walking along and my high school French language skills alerted me to the fact two guys were about to snatch my mother’s purse.
“I stepped in as they started the distraction of wiping something off her coat, gave the hitter/lifter a shove and ruined their heist.”
If English is your native language, having the reverse happen — in which you speak English and assume the people around you will not understand you — is more difficult, as with greater than one billion people, English is arguably the most widely spoken language on the planet in terms of area coverage and the combination of both native and non-native speakers…
…but in terms of the number of people who speak a language, that is debatable: some sources cite English; while others cite Mandarin Chinese as the language which is most spoken by native speakers. The difference of speakers between the two languages is a paltry 100 million people — give or take a few million.
Here is one more experience as imparted by FlyerTalk member powerlifter: “I have a friend who speaks perfect Arabic. He was having a meeting in Dubai when someone walked in, and said why are we doing business with this filthy American in Arabic. The other person said in Arabic ask him yourself as he speaks Arabic. The person was embarrassed and turned a bright red.”
Summary
For some additional fun, please read this article pertaining to which languages place as second or third most popular in each country — and what stories they reveal about the diversity, history, and deep roots of each country.
My experiences were rather boring and uneventful as stories: basically, I would be in an elevator or some other enclosed place where two people would be speaking French to each other; and I would just simply greet them in French before either they departed or I departed. Sometimes that action would spark a friendly conversation in French…
…so I will ask you: have you ever had an experience in which people spoke a language in your presence — automatically believing that you will not understand anything that they say when you actually do understand them?
If so, please impart your experience in the Comments section below.
Photograph ©2018 by Brian Cohen.
