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Today I was a spy. | ||
Tags: Usefulness | Mandarin | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Cultural Experiences in Foreign Languages |  | |
| Louche Diglot Newbie United States Joined 6328 days ago 18 posts - 18 votes Speaks: English*, French Studies: Romanian, Swahili | Message 17 of 27 04 November 2007 at 3:28pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Hahahaha! Idiots. You're not a spy. They're the spies. And pretty lame ones, too.
My Romanian friend told me once she was sitting near some Mexican girls who wanted to know if she could speak Spanish. When she told them no, they started talking negatively about her in Spanish. She could understand them because Spanish is somewhat intelligible to her as a native Romance speaker. She kept looking at them while they were talking about her, and they asked her what her problem was. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| alfajuj Diglot Senior Member Taiwan Joined 6020 days ago 121 posts - 126 votes  Speaks: English*, Mandarin Studies: Taiwanese, French | Message 18 of 27 11 January 2008 at 6:33am | IP Logged | |||||
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I think it is a peculiarity of Chinese people that they call all non-Chinese foreigners, even when they themselves are outside of their own country, and it is they who are in fact the foreigners. I once had the bizarre experience to be on a tour group from Taiwan to my native country. I was in Los Angeles for a convention and everyone in the group was Taiwanese except me. We were riding around on a tour bus, eating at all Chinese restaurants and it was just a very strange experience to be a tourist in your own country and seeing it through others' eyes. They consistently called all the Americans foreigners. Living in Taiwan, it's my lot in life to be a foreigner forever. This was my chance to finally be the non-foreigner for once, but they didn't stop calling us foreigners!
I think it's something about the Chinese that they feel they are the "center-of-the-world county" They're not arrogant about it, but very self-assured. By the way, I've had thousands of chances to eaves drop on Mandarin conversations and Taiwanese people never say bad things about you, even when they think that you don't understand their language. 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| SpaceCakeGirl Groupie United States Joined 6015 days ago 51 posts - 50 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Japanese | Message 19 of 27 11 January 2008 at 10:35am | IP Logged | |||||
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It is a really bad idea to assume that someone doesn't speak the language you're speaking - ever!
There is a pretty famous Las Vegas story about what happens when you make that assumption. At the Wynn casino there was a very high-rolling Chinese couple playing. They literally spend millions of dollars when they come to Las Vegas. So, one day day they're playing and the dealers are changing shifts. The outgoing dealer tells the incoming dealer in Spanish some very unkind things about the couple, particularly the wife. Because hey, they're Chinese, so they can't understand what he's saying, right? *dun dun dun!* The Chinese man owns companies in Mexico and is fluent in Spanish. He finds a pit boss, tells him what happened, and announces that he is never playing at the Wynn ever again. The dealers are fired on the spot. The man and his wife go to the Venetian where they proceed to spend a few million dollars. Never make assumptions! :D 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| guto2005br Tetraglot Newbie Brazil Joined 5948 days ago 13 posts - 13 votes Speaks: Portuguese*, English, GermanC2, Spanish Studies: Swedish, Italian | Message 20 of 27 09 February 2008 at 6:21pm | IP Logged | |||||
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I was one time on the train to zurich and i heard brazilian people talking about their lives, bosses, lovers, everything... since i pass for a swedish man, they kept talking and talking.. another time on the train, i sat in front of a swiss woman who was talking in broken portuguese to her husband on the phone, that she was going to do this and that to him when she gets home. In both occasions I had to go away, because I felt really embarrased... =)
1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Earle Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 6124 days ago 276 posts - 276 votes Speaks: English*, German Studies: Norwegian, Spanish | Message 21 of 27 21 March 2008 at 2:39pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Once, on vacation, I was staying with my family in a little pension in a mountain village in the Tirol. The B&B's name was "Haus Heel," named after the family which owned it. The breakfast area was, shall we say, "cozy," so much so that it was easy to overhear all the conversations going on in the room. One table was occupied by two elderly ladies, on vacation, and a younger man, probably late 30s, who was "taking the cure." He had an impressive list of disorders, most of which I took to be psychological. When they would tire of discussing his health, they would turn to discussing the Americans at the adjacent table in uncomplimentary terms. This went on for three mornings. On the third day, one of the ladies commented, asking if it were possible that I understood German. The man replied "Er?, kein Wort!" (Him? not a word!")* With impeccable timing, Frau Heel burst into the room, querying me in her charming Tirolerisch about our stay, how my hikes had gone, etc. I chose to reply in High German - and I don't have an accent - at more length than really necessary. All the while, I was peeking at the people at the next table from the corner of my eye, observing their discomfort as they tried to remember what all they had said about us. They left the next morning - before breakfast...
*for those just learning English, the objective case is used idiomatically... 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| bela_lugosi Hexaglot Senior Member Finland Joined 6263 days ago 272 posts - 376 votes Speaks: English, Finnish*, Italian, Spanish, German, Swedish Studies: Russian, Estonian, Sámi, Latin | Message 22 of 27 13 April 2008 at 1:01pm | IP Logged | |||||
Care to share any details? :p I often spy on the unsuspecting Italians in Finland.. last year I saw the rudest waiter ever, obviously from Naples, who spoke Italian to the Finnish customers. He made some extremely nosy remarks about the hairdo of an older lady and about her poor pronunciation of a certain Italian word on the menu.. I will never go to that restaurant again! 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Leopejo Bilingual Triglot Senior Member Italy Joined 5918 days ago 675 posts - 724 votes Speaks: Italian*, Finnish*, English Studies: French, Russian | Message 23 of 27 13 April 2008 at 1:33pm | IP Logged | |||||
Tell us city and restaurant... Is it ruder to make fair remarks or to spy people? ;-) 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| bela_lugosi Hexaglot Senior Member Finland Joined 6263 days ago 272 posts - 376 votes Speaks: English, Finnish*, Italian, Spanish, German, Swedish Studies: Russian, Estonian, Sámi, Latin | Message 24 of 27 14 April 2008 at 2:07am | IP Logged | |||||
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Well, I hope you don't work in this place (:p):
Ristorante Villetta, Helsinki. Those Neapolitan waiters are utter pr*cks. >:( Edited by bela_lugosi on 14 April 2008 at 2:08am 1 person has voted this message useful |
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