Bilingual People Share Their Greatest “I Didn’t Know You Spoke the Language” Stories

Helpful in Extreme Circumstances

I used to be a cop in Australia. Was working with a guy who spoke fluent Arabic because his parents spoke it when he was growing up. Guess he looked fairly Aussie, if not tanned. Got called to a mental health job one day by this girl’s parents. They claimed she was threatening to take her own life.

She told us she definitely wasn’t. She walked away and screamed at her parents. In Arabic. I looked at him. “What did she say, bro?” “She just said ‘I’m gonna do it when they go.’” Okie dokie. Let’s take you to the nearest mental health clinic, love. [deleted]