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

Shock and Disbelief

My mother tongue is Arabic, I look very Middle Eastern, but I speak very decent Russian and this was in Dubai. Was in an elevator in a fancy hotel and a Russian speaking couple walk in, the lady was visibly upset.

The guy was apologizing and saying something along the lines of “come on, was it that bad?’ And the lady says, “I told you before not to finish in my mouth!”

I couldn’t help it and laughed, told them I could understand and apologized. The lady looked at me in horror and disbelief as the guy laughed his butt off.

That was an awkward wait till I hopped off the elevator.

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