How people react when you speak their language

Comedy/Humour
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languagemap
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:smiley:

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When I first arrived in Brazil in Sao Paulo I spent a lot of time being ferried around in taxis to various company offices and government departments as my papers were sorted out. So I’d get in a taxi and say the five or six words I knew: “Avenida Rebouças 210, por favor” having learnt on day 1 that an “r” is pronounced like an “h”.
The taxi driver would turn to me and say how well I spoke Portuguese. :slight_smile:

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I once got asked if I was Greek by a taxi driver in Athens which I was well chuffed about.

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I wonder if others have experienced similar reactions to the below? Assuming you do speak the language of the country you’re in, the locals may regard you as a World Authority on all items and events in your home country. For example, over the past year, some of the locals here assume that - being a Brit - I must be a World Expert on (variously):-

Megan and Harry
The Royal Family more generally
Shortbread
Cheddar
[Insert name of] Prime Minister du jour
Validity of French ID cards for entry to the UK

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I was once taken for a council workman in Seville.

Right up until the moment I opened my mouth.

Turned out that the council workmen wore trousers the exact shade of blue I was wearing.

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In Bulgaria once. I’ve got a friend who lives in London , maybe you know her.:roll_eyes:

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What nationality was the taxi driver :face_with_hand_over_mouth:

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For a brief time pre-Brexit, pre-Covid etc. etc. I belonged to an international/social club in our local town (mixture of French and other nationalities). They used to have guest speakers and two of us were invited to talk about Brexit and what it would mean for us. After our brief presentation, the first question from the mainly French audience - did we know Megan and Harry? :roll_eyes:

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Well he wasn’t Irish. :smiley:

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Turkish?

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They’re all barbers, aren’t they?

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Maybe, but he might have been scalped on the fare…

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You should have asked them if they knew Louis Alphonse de Bourbon.
Other pretend monarchs are available.

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None of the taxi drivers in Dublin are these days either :slightly_smiling_face:

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:thinking: yep Purple would describe the general reaction to anything I say here, when I say here that is in France ,but also applies to anywhere I happen to be :persevere::roll_eyes:

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Bit like the ones in New York then, I thought I understood the English language, 'till I got in a cab there.

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I saw the stencilled logo on the door ‘Yellow Cab Co’ exactly the same typset as on my door in Sydney and I thought ‘how great it is going to be to chat with a fellow Yellow on the other side of the world, he will be sooo interested in learning about our world wide club.’

Then I got in and began the conversation. Grunt, in Serbo-Croat or something. :rofl:

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My morning ritual when arriving at The Afghan Media Resource Centre in Peshawar, Pakistan, took up time better spent editing photos.

@Vero please edit/correct …

“Salaam Aleikum” [God be with you]
“Waleikum Salaam” [and God be with you also]
“Chiturasti?” [How are you?]
"XXXX " [I’m very well, thank you]
“Hub asti?” [You are well, are you?]
“XXXXX” [Yes, I am very well]
“Fazli hudast?” [How is your family?]
"XXXXX " [My family is very well, thank you]

And a hug …

Repeat for every person on the staff … +/- x30.

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Jân-e joor-e?
ZendÊ bâshi
Mândé nabâshi…

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Ça va can be a bit like that…

" Ça va ? "
" Oui, ça va . "
" Ça va ? "
" Oui, ça va ; "

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