garykung

This happened to me in Honolulu, HI.

I went to an IHOP for breakfast during a vacation. My server greeted me in Japanese, which I was able to understand. I responded in English.

BTW - I am a Chinese American with no tier to Japan. The server was a Native Hawaiian.

travelinmanS

The lady next to me at a restaurant in Shanghai a few nights ago pulled the waitress over and asked her "Why do you allow foreigners into the restaurant now? Don't you know they are dangerous?". I looked the lady in her eyes and winked.

stimpy

While I am fluent in French, I don't recall any good stories. When people in France, usually Paris, start speaking to me in English I just reply in French. No big deal. And I tend not to listen to other conversations around me. I hear lots of French conversations in Manhattan, but I mostly ignore it.

However I speak bits of two dozen other languages. So I can catch a word or two here and there and sometimes my eyes give it away. Or I will offer up a phrase at the right time. Like if I am in an elevator with Japanese tourists in any other country, and we arrive at our floor, I may say "douzo" and gesture for them to step off before me. That always elicits a bit of shock and an arigato.

miamiflyer8

https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/undefinedOnce when de planing an AY flight from HEL at ARN, a route that is very heavy sometimes with Japanese tourists. Sometimes they even have a Japanese speaking FA onboard. On the jet bridge, a couple in their 50's with large fanny packs and backpacks were walking so they were blocking the way. They saw me walk quickly behind them so they let me get by, I responded with "Arigato!" which both let out a collective gasp.

Error 601

One of my friends from college is a British Hong Konger who speaks perfect Cantonese and reasonable Mandarin.

Once riding the train a Chinese man across from him was telling somebody on the phone that he had left their money in a newspaper on the seat of the second car across from a European with sideburns.

Whoever was going to pickup that money never got it.

Teasip82

Sort of along these lines: One of my grandmothers was fluent in Spanish (gringo, but grew up in Laredo), and I had a fair amount just from being around her growing up, supplemented by classes in high school and college. A girlfriend when I was in college was minoring in Spanish, and was taking an intensive Spanish course one summer in Monterey, Mexico. During her week-long semester break, I left may car at an aunt's house in Laredo and rode the bus (the Estrella Blanca line, fare was $5!) down to Monterey, and we went with some of her friends to Guadalajara for most of the week. When I got back, I stayed at my aunt's house for a couple of days as we really got along. She remarked on the second day that I was finally back to speaking mostly english, apparently I had been mostly speaking spanish to her as we were all speaking spanish down in Mexico. Fortunately she was completely fluent, as most people are who grew up in Laredo.

mglvrug

I climbed Kilimanjaro 47 years ago (it was much taller back then). I'd been in Kenya for 3 weeks and had picked up a few words of Swahili. One of the other climbers put into our group was a middle aged yoga instructor. During our first rest stop (and during many others), she stood on her head with her legs up against a tree. Our head guide had climbed the mountain 700 times, but I'm pretty sure he'd never seen anything like that. He and the other guide and porters were obviously amused and pointed and talked. I'm sure the guides talked about us a lot during our five days on the mountain. On the final day, as we descended and it got near lunchtime, I heard the guides behind me mention the word for food (which I've forgotten) and then in the same sentence they said "sasa," which means "now," and "alafu," which I believe means "then" or "later." Without thinking, I turned and, because I was hungry, I said to them simply, "Sasa." The Tanzanians looked stunned and they all instantly stopped talking and never said another word for the rest of the day. I finally realized that they were assuming I'd understood everything they'd said about us for the previous five days. When we reached the lodge at the bottom of the mountain, I saw the guides go directly to the manager and start berating her. I figured they were upset that she hadn't told them I spoke Swahili. I saw her laugh and she walked over to me. She came right up to my face and started speaking Swahili, probably insulting my mother or some such. I didn't respond, and she kept looking at the guides, as if to say, "See, I told you." But it was clear they weren't buying it. I hope my good tip reassured them.

Ford Fairlane

I work in Seattle for a corporation that employs lots of software engineers who are here on H1-B visas from countries in Asia. I suppose I look like a generic run-of-the-mill senior-level white guy. Not sure how else to phrase that. But what I don't tell most people is that I lived for several years in one of those Asian countries and am fluent in its main dialect and understand and speak a bit in the next two most common.

One of my favorite pastimes: Finding myself in an elevator with a couple unsuspecting young speakers of that language who are discussing (better if they are complaining) this or that work- or company-related thing, and then at the end of the ride, casually saying something to them in said language in response to their conversation. Never-ending source of amusement for me.

nrr

About 10 years ago I was visiting LA and was staying in the Macarthur Park area (nearly all people in the area speak Spanish--it seemed to me). I frequented a supermarket, the check-out people spoke ONLY English to their clientele.

tmiw

Here in San Diego, I too run into people on occasion who assume I'm fluent in Spanish and try to talk to me in it, especially closer to the Mexican border. I wouldn't call myself fluent, though, but I did take HS Spanish and started using Duolingo a couple of years ago to pick it back up. Fortunately people realize quickly and repeat what they were saying in English.

Anyway, it's always been interesting how Italian and (to a lesser extent) Portuguese are similar, likely due to historical connections and geography.

stimpy

Well they are not only similar, but in the same language family along with French and descended from Latin. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romance_languages

Once I learned French, Spanish, Italian and Portuguese were easy.

teddybear99

Just like Tagalog and Spanish are similar because Spain occupied the Philippines for a long time. My Filipino wife hears Spanish words and tells me it's Tagalog. Over my 25+ years I keep explaining that many Tagalog words are derived from Spanish, but she just doesn't seem to get it.

OccasionalFlyerPerson

I was a foreign student in Japan. After I learned the language, this happened a lot. It's perhaps one of my 'parlour tricks' to speak it outside Japan. It has been exceptionally rare for someone to talk about me in front of me in Japanese. But, over the decades since then it has happened occasionally.

I did once get on a tube train in London to go to a Japanese bookshop in Colindale. I sat on one of the available seats, near to two Japanese women. They both looked at me in a worried fashion. But, they continued their own conversation that I didn't listen to. When I stood up in Colindale, one said to the other ”あ、無事に終わった” or "it finished without incident/anything happening". I got off the train and walked to the bookshop, not realising that they got off too. I went to the bookshop and was browsing the books. Then, the two women walked into the shop. They then shouted quite loudly ”何で彼がいるの？！？！？” or "WHAT IS HE DOING HERE!?!?". So, I went to the person behind the counter and asked her in Japanese if she could find a book for me. The woman behind the counter was laughing as she did so, as I was explaining that while I'd probably be able to find it myself, it would be quicker if she helped. The two women were just looking at the floor. I bought my book and left.

In other Japanese bookshop in North London (forgotten exactly where.) I was in the back room where the Japanese language books were. There was a mother and small child there. Suddenly the child said in Japanese "母さん、どうして外人がここにいる？” or "Mum, why is there a gaijin/foreigner here?" His mother shushed the boy with something like an embarrassed "Don't say that!" I probably should have talked to them, but just smiled.

I do remember another time when I was sitting on a seat in a London tube station and a group of Japanese people came along. One woman sat on the seat next to me. I sort of turned my head to see who was sitting next to me then returned to my reading. However, in the conversation I heard them say something like "でも、座った時は見た”。or "But, he looked when you sat down." Not knowing what this was I was looking at them mystified. I can't remember more of the conversation but it was definitely about me and then they realised I was looking at them. So we had a bit of a 'what is this all about' thing when they realised I was looking at them now and I was wondering what this was about. It didn't resolve, and either me or them left.

Nowadays I sometimes pre-empt this by introducing myself. When I travelled to Iraqi Kurdistan the first other tourist I met and spoke to (I did meet foreign visitors who were working there and a UN working group) was a Japanese woman at the front desk of a hotel in Slemani. I asked her (in English) if she was Japanese, and then we had a nice conversation.

I've had positive responses too. E.g. I was at the British Museum with a Japanese Speaking English friend, and a Japanese couple who heard us speaking were surprised and impressed. We had a short chat with them.

Note: all Japanese from my memory which may have modified it in the interim.

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.

StartinSanDiego

This type of thing is a great reminder. We should always behave like our mothers are in the room.