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

Only Pretending

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I’m white, but reasonably fluent in Korean. When I went to an orthopedist in Korea for elbow pain, a translator was provided by the hospital and I figured I might as well talk through him in case there was any specific medical terminology I didn’t know. After describing my symptoms and doing a brief physical exam where I was visibly in pain, the translator told the doctor that he thought I was only pretending. 

The thing was, he was doing an absolutely terrible job of translating even prior to that, so I quickly responded, “And you’re only pretending to know English” (in Korean). The doc actually cracked a smile and the translator spent the rest of my visit sitting in his seat without saying a single word. Tbone456

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