I Live For the Horrified Look They Get
I’m one of the palest people I know; add to that blonde hair and a thick, northern (UK) accent I look like the last person on the planet to speak a Middle Eastern language.
I married into an Egyptian family and we spend plenty of time there. My Arabic isn’t amazing, but I can get by. I live for the horrified look on people’s faces when I switch to Arabic. I used to do debt collection for a utility company and had a gentleman who refused to pay his bill.
He called me all kinds of horrific names. I quickly told him in Arabic that I absolutely wouldn’t tolerate language like that, that I was trying to help him, and that he was bringing shame on his family.
He stuttered for a good few minutes, apologized and ended up paying. However, I got into trouble at work because all calls are recorded at the call centre and management was unable to review my call because they couldn’t understand what I was saying.
They were worried I could have said something offensive etc. So from then on, we were forced to use professional translation services only on three-way calls, which was an absolute pain.