Pretending not to speak English

[lethal]

I did it today so this beggar woman would go away. She kept pestering me while I was waiting for my car at the car wash, so I kept pretending not to understand her and then I started speaking to her in Vietnamese.

Is this a bad thing to do? I sometimes do it when I just don't feel like interacting with strangers.

Or one time this guy with his wife and 2 kids were separated on a plane and asked me to trade my window seat for a middle seat behind me...I just wasn't in the mood and I need the side of the plan to lean agaisnt to sleep, so I pretended not to speak English.

[SunWuKong]

you think you're bad... i've pretended not to speak chinese in HK...

[Napoleon Chynamite]

#$%@#%@ yea I've done it. In my freshman year of high school I pretended to be barely literate in the English language so that the teacher would let me re-take a math test because I scored....um.. 12% the first time, hehe :blush:

[Hanuman]

I've never done this. My broken english just isn't too believable. I also don't have a problem telling people in english to fuck themselves.

[amietron]

Originally posted by tazadar@Jan 25 2003, 02:59 PM
You sucked at algebra?

Don't assume that all freshmen take algebra for their math class.

I've never pretended not to speak English before. =\

[YuheiCarreau]

Originally posted by FrozenPizza@Jan 25 2003, 04:50 PM
#$%@#%@ yea I've done it. In my freshman year of high school I pretended to be barely literate in the English language so that the teacher would let me re-take a math test because I scored....um.. 12% the first time, hehe :blush:

No good at math?! You must not be Asian!

[Chinkaholic]

only to make those annoying telemarketers that call during dinner shut up.

[Adaon]

Originally posted by SunWuKung@Jan 25 2003, 02:22 PM
you think you're bad... i've pretended not to speak chinese in HK...

lol at least u can pretend. If I were in HK and tried to speak in canto, i'd

a.) get laffed at
b.) get stared at
c.) ignored
d.) get shot for calling someone's mom a hermaphraditic goat with chicken boffing tendencies while asking for a napkin

[Adaon]

I've used the canto on telemarketers before....works wonders.....in chinatown once, a bunch of FOBs (these guys were being loud and obnxious with a bunch of the street venders) were lost and asked me which way something was and I was so flabbergasted at them, I spun some espanol and went on my merry way.....

I once went off on a caucasian guy about my age on the bus, using canto, cause he had just finished track practice from another school and was going home.....I had just finished too and was a bad day for the coach which meant it was a bad day for us sprinters.....so my rage kicked in and I just flew off the handle and screamed everything that my parents and friends taught me how to let someone have it verbally.....he backed away with his hands up like I had a gun.....for some reason my ABC accent disappears when I get really POed.....-snickers-

[angel nympho]

I wouldn't be able to if I tried.... It'd probably come in handy sometimes.

[ism]

Hrmm, no. It's not too hard to stand up for yourself. Is the myth that Asians are generally submissive true, then?

As for telemarketers, tell them to put you on their do not call list for the company they are calling for, and the do not call list for the telemarketing company. After a month or so of this you'll stop getting calls.

Beggars... oh boy. I was at a Checkers drive-thru in Newark (had to get those fries) and this woman comes up to me with this sob story about how her husband was in one of the World Trade Center towers and at that point I just thought she was despicable trying to pull that kind of shit off. So I ask her which tower her husband was in, why she hasn't gotten any relief from the various funds set up, and couldn't get any satisfactory answers. What's up with the beggars in Santa Monica? One asked me for "a dollar or two." Is the standard of living for beggars that much higher there than it is in NYC? Erm... I think I'm veering way off-topic now.

[angel nympho]

Originally posted by ism@Jan 26 2003, 12:05 AM
Hrmm, no. It's not too hard to stand up for yourself. Is the myth that Asians are generally submissive true, then?

As for telemarketers, tell them to put you on their do not call list for the company they are calling for, and the do not call list for the telemarketing company. After a month or so of this you'll stop getting calls.

Beggars... oh boy. I was at a Checkers drive-thru in Newark (had to get those fries) and this woman comes up to me with this sob story about how her husband was in one of the World Trade Center towers and at that point I just thought she was despicable trying to pull that kind of shit off. So I ask her which tower her husband was in, why she hasn't gotten any relief from the various funds set up, and couldn't get any satisfactory answers. What's up with the beggars in Santa Monica? One asked me for "a dollar or two." Is the standard of living for beggars that much higher there than it is in NYC? Erm... I think I'm veering way off-topic now.

Out here, beggars actually make more money than I do.

[Chinkaholic]

But Telemarketers NEVER give up! There's this one from i think GTE telephone company who ALWAYS calls our house and It's the same guy over and over again. He has this voice that sounds like he's going to cry if you decline his offer. He fluent in Chinese and doesn't seem like he speaks English,so we started talking to him in English and he hasn't called yet. Kinda the opposite of this..topic..but yeah.

[jimbo]

I've had gweilo's approach me and try and talk to me in Canto and I just say back in Broken English sorry I'm korean I don't understand. :lol:

[moschikat]

Eeps.

yes, one too many times.

the panhandlers, the ugly boys asking for your numbers, the mean teachers/professors (just to annoy the heck out of them) . . . .

and then I pretend I don't speak Thai when i'm in Bangkok if I'm trying avoid boys.

:lol: