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Having fun: playing a foreigner | ||
Tags: Language Banditry | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Cultural Experiences in Foreign Languages |  | |
| Siberiano Tetraglot Senior Member Russian Federation one-giant-leap.Registered users can see my Skype Name Joined 6493 days ago 465 posts - 696 votes  Speaks: Russian*, English, ItalianC1, Spanish Studies: Portuguese, Serbian | Message 1 of 3 11 September 2011 at 1:32pm | IP Logged |
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It might be not that interesting in places full of tourists, but in my city tourists aren't ubiquitous, and are of interest to locals.
So, we went for a walk with a friend to just meet some girls, and decided to have fun using our skills. We walk down the main street, full of clubs and bars, and ask random girls that go our way: "Sorry, do you speak English?" and start asking how to find a decent bar, and if they could walk us there. They say they can speak English, but hit the wall of short vocabulary. So, they say they need to go home quickly, but walk us to the nearest bar, asking where I'm from. My accent obliged me to pretend to be a Brit. I thank them, say I don't waste their time, switch to Russian and say: "You get C for your English". They drop their jaw and run away. :) Another time this was more productive: two girls sit on a bench in a park. I come up and ask the same thing. We exchange a few phrases, I pretend to not understand, they have to try harder, but in general they were much better at English, so I say: "You get B+ for your English. What smart girls!" Again, a dropped jaw, and they say that initially they thought it was a prank, but the good accent made them believe I'm a Brit. We went to a cafe and had a very interesting talk. Actually, it's hard to not laugh at what they say in Russian between them: "Shit, what's that word I have to say to him?" "Damn, why our men don't do this good haircut?" Well, that was very funny. 6 persons have voted this message useful | |
| Leurre Bilingual Pentaglot Senior Member United StatesRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5425 days ago 219 posts - 372 votes Speaks: French*, English*, Korean, Haitian Creole, SpanishC2 Studies: Japanese | Message 2 of 3 11 September 2011 at 3:06pm | IP Logged |
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I suppose you'd have to be pretty good to trick someone into thinking that you're a
native speaker of another language, though of course if it's a language they don't speak that well it must be easier. My favorite game is the much more challenging 'playing the native speaker'. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Siberiano Tetraglot Senior Member Russian Federation one-giant-leap.Registered users can see my Skype Name Joined 6493 days ago 465 posts - 696 votes Speaks: Russian*, English, ItalianC1, Spanish Studies: Portuguese, Serbian | Message 3 of 3 11 September 2011 at 3:17pm | IP Logged |
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Yeah, when native speakers ask you where you are from (in their country), it's a great pleasure to hear. But this was more a social than linguistic exercise: a language nerd going out to pick up girls in his own funny way.
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