Multilingual People Share The Juciest Things They've Overheard That They Shouldn't Have

When traveling internationally, we often find ourselves wishing we spoke the language of where we're visiting.

Sometimes, we are well aware that a few people are having a laugh at our expense, since they know that we don't understand what they're saying.

However, even when a language clearly isn't someone's native tongue, it's never a wise decision to assume they don't speak it.

As they may have inadvertently heard far more than they were ever supposed to.

Redditor thievesshouldeatpoop was eager to hear the funniest and most scintillating cases of when things were unexpectedly NOT lost in translation, leading them to ask:

"Multilingual people of Reddit, what have you heard in a meeting that you weren’t supposed to, because the participants didn’t know you speak their language?"

Vous comprenez?

"Working in a Toronto bank, we were interviewing a contract firm from Montreal."

"The two parties start talking sh*t about us in French."

"My boss, who knew I spoke the language, kicks me under the table, with a very subtle head shake."

"After giving the potential firm's employees enough rope to hang themselves, I let them know the meeting was over and wished them a safe trip home...in perfect Montreal French."

"Salut la visite!"- Faster_Rat

Nice Try

"End of a taxi ride in the Middle East."

"The driver called over a passer-by to translate Arabic to English for me (I'm a White European)."

"They were talking across me, so I could hear everything they were saying."

In Arabic the driver said the journey cost 10, the passer-by instantly translated this into english as 20."

"I retorted in Arabic that he said it was 10."

"They both pulled back a little, laughed, and accepted 10."

"Am guessing there were bits that I didn't understand where they both agreed to up the price."- Schmicarus

It's Never Safe To Assume

"I was the one talking when I didn't expect it."

"I was security at an airport, and someone from my staff asked me about some random passenger's flight time."

"That passenger was walking very wobbly, and it looked like he was wasted, which I also said to my coworker, assuming with his non-local passport he doesn't speak our language."

"Then the person answered in my language that he's not drunk, he's just handicapped and that he knows it can seem suspicious that way."

"I apologized and never assumed someone didn't speak my language ever again."- Fthku

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Love Thy Neighbor

"The Amish speak 'Pennsylvania Dutch', a bastardized form of low German that even some Germans can’t understand."

"They have good reason to believe no outsider can understand them."

"A high school friend (17 M[ale]) was leaving a restaurant."

"Two Amish girls were sitting on the front steps."

"One said, 'That one has a nice a**'.”

"He thanked her in PA Dutch."

"Red faces and giggles all around."

"At work, I was cleaning a machine and making a mess."

"An Amish farmer watching commented, 'Does this dumb @ss know what he’s doing?'”

"I replied, 'Yes I do'.”

"To his credit, I got a formal apology."

"Multi racial adoptions happen among the Amish."

"Sadly, latent racism usually means that the adoptees have to leave the Amish to find a life partner."

"Having grown up in that culture and faith, they are Amish on the inside but can’t make a life in the faith because they are the wrong color on the outside."

"I know one, a Black man now in his 30’s, 6’2”, built like a linebacker and no longer Amish."

"He was visiting his family in Pinecraft (an Amish settlement in Sarasota, FL)."

"He saw two elderly Amish women coming toward him on the sidewalk."

“'Watch out for that big black one'."

"'He will run you off the path',” one said to the other in PA Dutch."

"He replied in PA Dutch, 'with our tongue we speak bad words against men who are made like God.'”

"From the Bible, James 3:9."

"He then stepped politely aside so they could pass."

"I heard this story from both sides (from him soon after it happened and through the Amish grapevine in Ohio a year later)."

"I like to think it had a lasting effect on Amish behavior."- amishlike

Love Is All Around

"Not a meeting, but I used to work in close spaces with a man who was newly-wed to his French wife."

"He would take phone calls from her and with nowhere to go, I would try to politely tune it out (we weren't allowed to have headphones due to safety concerns)."

"I got to hear some very sweet conversations."

"Hearing him tell her how much he missed her and loved her was very cute."

"I never told him, or anyone I knew."

"It's none of my business."- Classic_kitty

Name Calling Never Pays Off

"A group of tourist girls in public transport were pressed up against me because of the crush and one of them said in their native language (Swedish) 'look at that idiot with his jacket above his head'."

"The idiot was me."

"I replied to her in her language that I had a project for Uni wrapped in my jacket and I was protecting it against the crush, and I even unwrapped it a bit to show her, but she didn’t see it because by that time she was looking red-faced at the floor while her friends were giggling."- Loko8765

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Looks Can Be Deceiving

"I trained to be a Japanese translator / interpreter but don’t have a drop of Asian blood in me so no one would ever know unless I told them."

"At one point in my career I worked at a company with a lot of Japanese colleagues and was on a call with them and some non-Japanese speaking employees."

"After some heated back and forth, the Japanese colleagues asked if they could switch to Japanese to talk internally."

"The first thing out of their mouths was 'why don’t these Americans ever listen?'"

"They are so difficult to work with!'."

"I had to put myself on mute to laugh about it."

"I signed off the call in Japanese just to make them sweat a bit."- kuzubijin

In The Heat Of The Moment

"Pretty girl at a college house party telling her friend she thought I was cute and she was going to jump my bones that very evening."

"Surely I capitalized on that extremely valuable information?"

"I did not because I’m an idiot and C*ck blocked my own self."- netter_360

When They Go Low...

"When I went on a college trip to Japan, we were in the customs line at the airport when an elderly Japanese woman in line behind us started making all sorts of snide comments about us as foreigners."

"Most of the people in my group knew either very basic Japanese or none at all."

"I wasn’t fluent by any means, but knew enough that she was talking smack."

"So I turned around and told her in Japanese I’d been excited for the trip because I’d heard Japanese people were SO KIND."

"The look on her face was priceless."- __silent_wishes

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Funny No Matter The Language

"I taught English in local high schools in Indonesia for a few years."

"I used to pretend not to understand Indonesian so my students would be forced to rely on their English to communicate with me."

"One morning I was doing roll call and a student was missing."

"I kept asking in English if anyone knew where he was and they all kept saying no."

"One of his friends asked his group in Indonesian if they knew - one of the boys replied 'he's taking a sh*t' and I burst out laughing and blew my cover."

"The one who said it was mortified to have sworn in front of a teacher who knew what he was saying."- gagrushenka

In Good Company

"A long time ago, a friend was stopped by German police."

"They flatly refused to use English with him, knowing he didn't speak German."

"It must have been an act of God that empowered them because as soon as his other half spoke in German (her being German and all), they were fluent in English."- SugarInvestigator

One Can Easily Tell When They're Being Swindled...

"I was checking into a 90,000tshs room in a hotel in Tanzania a few days ago and the manager told the receptionist in Swahili to charge me 120,000tshs."

"I cut her off, challenged her in Swahili and said the room is 90,000tshs and she instantly slunk backwards and told the receptionist to charge the lower amount."

"That felt quite satisfying."- tfeilding

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TWO Official Languages...

"I wasn't working but in college, it was a French college and we were an English course (aircraft structures)."

"The instructors right in front of us would say we are doing things wrong or that they think _____ doesn't get the point, etc but would never actually correct us or say anything."

"One day I finally replied back in French 'so TELL him'."

"And the two were absolutely shocked and said in French 'you understand us?'"

"'I can't tell you how often I've caught French people talking sh*t right in front the person/people, assuming they/we/I don't understand."

" In Canada it is quite common to learn both so.... Idk why they would do it so blatantly and then act shocked every time someone understands."- Blibberweed

And They Thought They'd Get Away With It...

"Back when I was a research student I taught undergraduate basic IT."

"The university I was at had a lot of Greek students at the time."

"My research partner was Greek, so taught me a lot of Greek insults and the like."

"Anyway, whilst teaching a bunch of Greek undergrads they were calling me a wanker and all sorts of stuff."

" I didn’t acknowledge it, eventually won them round and they were ok at the end."

"Last day of teaching I thanked them all for their participation and hard work."

"In Greek."

"Lots of red faces."- Technical-Yard4538

Foreigner, Not A Tourist…

"I'm a white dude that speaks Mandarin and lived in China for a decade, I've heard it all."

"Not just in meetings, but on the street, in restaurants, on the subway, everywhere."

"I'm a dumb fat foreigner."

"I couldn't have possibly completed that task because I'm just a dumb foreigner."

"I'd f*ck that guy (much appreciated)."

"He's tall."

"He's fat."

"What is he? Is he Russian? No, he's too fat he must be American."

"Look at him pretending to read the menu/newspaper."

"Why's he in here (a Chinese language film), he's not gonna be able to understand anything."

"That's disgusting, all they come here for is to take our jobs and our women (lololol)."

"I hate seeing foreigners with our/Chinese women."

"Oh wow he can actually use chopsticks."

"Oh, he can eat spicy food."

"Wait, they actually like to eat that?!?! (stinky tofu)."- Hai-City_Refugee

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Our parents and teachers always taught us that it isn't polite to talk behind someone's back.

It's even worse to talk smack about them when they're in your presence.

No matter the language.