People around you speaking a language you don't understand

[SunWuKong]

how do you feel when people around you are speaking a language you don't understand?

personally it doesn't bother me, but these two Vietnamese guys at work right now are speaking Vietnamese to each other and all i can understand is "duma" in every other sentence. i'm almost at the point of busting out laughing. :p

[SunWuKong]

hahhah one of those guys' phones just rang and he said "duma" right before he answered it in a polite and professional way. hahhahhah!! i don't think i'm going to last the day without laughing my ass off.

[Chester]

hahhah one of those guys' phones just rang and he said "duma" right before he answered it in a polite and professional way. hahhahhah!! i don't think i'm going to last the day without laughing my ass off.

I remember, in seventh grade, when a Vietnamese taught this Mexican kid the phrase "do-ma" (or however it's spelled). He promptly made use of his new linguistic skills...

"I pledge allegiance to the flag, do-ma, of the United States of America. Do-ma. And to the republic, for which it stands...do-ma..."

I was fucking dying.

[Emperor_Mike]

It's awkward and you can't do anything except speak in a language they don't understand and then the awkwardness gets spread around.

[nonamerasian]

I've been in situations like that my entire life--Sometimes in my own home, even.

It doesn't bother me.

I do however like the look on peoples' faces when, contrary to their beliefs, they suddenly realize that I do indeed understand the language that they are speaking.

The look. . .Priceless.

[himura-dono]

never bothers me. but yea, like non-amer said, i do like when people trash me in a language they THINK i don't understand. but being able to reply after they've said it is totally hillarious.

[Ogumo]

It does not bother me because I do it myself.

[amietron]

I didn't appreciate it in my work place. It made me feel uncomfortable when they did it right in front of me. Like a group of 5 people standing together, and then 4 of the 5 people start chit chatting in a different language while person 5 is still standing there. I think that's rude. period.

[Ogumo]

I didn't appreciate it in my work place. It made me feel uncomfortable when they did it right in front of me. Like a group of 5 people standing together, and then 4 of the 5 people start chit chatting in a different language while person 5 is still standing there. I think that's rude. period.


Yes that is kind of rude. When they are excluding this person like this...

[teaz0r]

i like listening to sexpats talk. they think i don't understand english. fuckiin' scum.

[jenjen]

i don't mind if its strangers (ie ppl on the tram) but i agree with amietron, within a group of friends its just plain rude.

someone actually wrote into the opinion section of a tabloid newspaper we have in melbourne complaining that he thought it was rude that two people (strangers, may i add) whom where standing on either side of him on the tram were speaking a language that he didn't understand. i thought THAT was just plain RIDICULOUS. what kind of nosey/paranoid freak is he?

never bothers me. but yea, like non-amer said, i do like when people trash me in a language they THINK i don't understand. but being able to reply after they've said it is totally hillarious.

yeah. these two bitch beijingnese women sitting opposite me and my very chinese friend on the train were talking about us. 'they (young chinese australians) don't know how to speak chinese'... 'they're an embarrassment to us'... what a bloody big-arse generalisation. so me and my buddy start speaking in impeccable mandarin. that shut them up. :rolleyes:

[artsfartsyjanet]

I'd feel uncomfortable at first if friends or family around me speak a different language than I do b/c I would feel somewhat excluded. Other times, I just don't care b/c my family speaks Vietnamese too and I hear it thrown around so many times that I'm desensitized to it. My boyfriend is Vietnamese and when I went back to visit his family.... I did feel a bit uncomfortable or that I didn't quite belong, but my boyfriend tried to include me as much as possible. At first, he felt it was inconvenient to translate and go back to speaking vietnamese again, but all i wanted was a one sentence summary AFTER he'd spoken to them.

[AliBabaIncorporated]

how do you feel when people around you are speaking a language you don't understand?
Usually, I get a sudden urge to learn the language. Fortunately, it wears off pretty fast, unless I keep hearing the language a lot.

[kimpossible]

I usually don't care unless it's a language I can at least partially understand. Then I get distracted because I'm able to get bits and pieces of the convo. It used to get to me when someone talked about me, either assuming I couldn't understand or like I wasn't even in the room but lately I seem to acclimating to that also. Not a big deal to me in the greater scheme of things.

[AngryABCGirl]

I don't care if it's just people on the street or if I'm in the market or something that's just everyday life to me, but if it was with a group of friends or at teh workplace and you're intentionally being excluding, it sucks because it's like the equivilent of people whispering in front of your face.

[John0101]

I had a lot of Russian friends back in HS, they spoke russian sometimes when english just plain old didn't cut it. You sort of get use to it and my friends were cool they always explained it to me as best they can what they were trying so say so I wasn't out of the loop.

[SunWuKong]

I had a lot of Russian friends back in HS, they spoke russian sometimes when english just plain old didn't cut it. You sort of get use to it and my friends were cool they always explained it to me as best they can what they were trying so say so I wasn't out of the loop.


yeah that happens to me with Chinese sometimes. either i'm not sure how to say a certain term or thing in English, or it's just better expressed in Chinese.