Craziest Things Overheard In Another Language



If you speak more than one language, it's undoubtedly happened to you: while minding your own business and being great, you hear some people talking in your target language. Not only are they talking in front of you, they are saying some wild things. It's clear they think you probably don't understand what they're saying. Except you do. 

I know it's happened to me so many times in Germany, even in New York City.  I always wondered, what's the craziest thing that you have overheard in another language? 

Here’s what some of our readers had to share:


 “I was at the nail salon and the women were talking about the man’s feet next to me. They were crusty, and as she scraped away at his old skin, she kept saying it was ‘like snow! Like snow!’”. – Kari H.

“I was sitting on the train when two black girls exited, passing by two Spanish speaking ladies. The [Spanish speaking] ladies, then, started to talk in Spanish about black women, specifically how we [black women] think we know everything but they [Spanish women] can get our jobs and do it even better than we can.” – Kimberly M.

“In Mexico, I overheard a little 12-year-old boy ask his father whether or not I could %@#! with braids in my hair. In impeccable Spanish, I quickly turned around and asked him if he kissed his mama with that mouth. His face went redder than a lobster shell.” – Kami J.

“A few of my girlfriends and I went over to chill at a guy’s house, who we’ll call “Jean”. “Jean” and his roommates spoke in French about which girl each of them would take into a room and have their way with. I whispered to my friend that we needed to leave immediately. As we gathered our things, “Jean” asked why we were leaving so suddenly. I told him in French, “Listen, you idiot, I understand French!”. He was floored.  – Adrienne R.

“While my mother and I was vacationing in Oaxaca, Mexico, we were at a restaurant and I gave our orders in English since I heard the employees taking orders in English. While they were making our orders, two of the employees were trying to figure out our ages, if we were sisters and where we were from. I let them continue until our order was completed, then I left them know in Spanish that we were mother and daughter from Chicago. They looked so embarrassed. I told them it was fine because I was glad they thought we were younger than we were LOL.” – Tosha J.

“Once when I was playing Second Life, I was in a Brazilian area of the game and since my avatar didn’t have a Brazilian name, the other avatars there assumed I didn’t speak Portuguese. A woman in a group of female avatars started talking about my chubby avatar calling me ‘uma gorda besteria’, which means something like ‘a fat @$$’ in English. The group kept on laughing and saying ‘gorda besteria perto’. I responded in Portuguese asking who’s talking all that trash? Then one of the avatars asked me if I was Brazilian. I told them not to worry about that. After that, none of the avatars said anything else.” – Lelah C.

I remember when I used to live in New York City as an au pair, I was riding the train one day and there were some people sitting near me from my home country (Germany), talking in German about my hair. They clearly thought I was one of the locals. They were wondering amongst themselves if my hair was real or if it was extensions, because it was so long. Then, they started talking about how they didn’t know how to get to wherever they were going. After a while, I turned to them and asked them in German, “Hi, do you need some help?’ They just got quiet and looked stunned. Kristina J.


What are some of the craziest things you overheard in another language?

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