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

Aimlessly Looking

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I was on vacation in Turkey in 2016. On the first day, I was at the beach like everybody would do. Of course, I didn’t know my way around the hotel so I just left my towel on the beach chair and went to my room to go to the bathroom instead of aimlessly looking around the place for one.

When I came back to my spot, there was an older Russian couple taking the chairs next to me. I laid back in my chair, put my hat on my face and just tried to snooze in the shade. 

A couple of minutes later I hear the woman next to me saying, “Look at those freaking Germans! Sleeping until noon but always having to reserve the best spots early in the morning! Freaking Nazis!” (She said this in Russian, of course.)

Sometime later, I woke up and had to pee again. I put my hat on the table next to me and asked them, in Russian, “Do you understand Russian? Do you know where the nearest toilet is?” 

The woman was turning so red you could mistake her for a tomato. Her husband told me where to go and so I said thank you — in Russian again.

Abdico

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