LorenzoGuapo Triglot Groupie United States Joined 6444 days ago 79 posts - 94 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, Portuguese Studies: French
| Message 1 of 3 06 May 2010 at 2:30am | IP Logged |
So a few months back I was hanging out with my Portuguese speaking friend and we picked up a girl that was a lusophone also, so they were talking in portuguese and I just decided to talk to her in Portuguese. She joked around about some stuff and it seemed like all 3 of us were having a good time, untill she asked me what country I was from, when I told her the US she didn't believe me,we went to a club and had a good time and she asked me where my parents where from and I said US and she got really mad because she thought I was lying about my heritage. Has that ever happened to you? Where u speak the language so well that people think you are a native and then get mad when they find out you are not?
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ellasevia Super Polyglot Winner TAC 2011 Senior Member Germany Joined 6142 days ago 2150 posts - 3229 votes Speaks: English*, German, Croatian, Greek, French, Spanish, Russian, Swedish, Portuguese, Turkish, Italian Studies: Catalan, Persian, Mandarin, Japanese, Romanian, Ukrainian
| Message 2 of 3 06 May 2010 at 6:24am | IP Logged |
Yes, it has happened to me when chatting with Brazilians online. They refused to believe that I wasn't Brazilian or Portuguese or of either of those heritages, and had never visited or lived in any Lusophone country. It was a bit of a backhanded compliment, because although they are getting mad at you, it just shows how good your language skills are.
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Solfrid Cristin Heptaglot Winner TAC 2011 & 2012 Senior Member Norway Joined 5334 days ago 4143 posts - 8864 votes Speaks: Norwegian*, Spanish, Swedish, French, English, German, Italian Studies: Russian
| Message 3 of 3 06 May 2010 at 7:09am | IP Logged |
I have never experienced actual anger, but I remember a heated discussion with a Spaniard in the Canary Islands when I was 18, and was absolutely fluent in Spanish, speaking with a very distinct Andalusian diealct. I told him I was Norwegian, he refused to believe me, and although I pointed out to him
a) That we were a a Scandinavian resort
b) That I hardly had the Iberian look
he still rufused to believe me. Finally I said, "Listen I can prove it, I'll pull out an ID-card, and when you see my name you'll see that I am not Spanish". And then proceeded to take out - my Spanish driving license...
The guy wouldn't even look at what it said inside, he just took one look at the colour of the document (a distinct pink in those days) and said, "OK. that's it, you've been pulling my leg long enough, this is not nice of you."
Just be happy that it happens - it is a compliment. I wish I could still pull off something like that, but after hardly having used it for 20 years you start making the little mistakes that give you away.
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