The following story came from Reddit user perpuallynocturnal. Here’s her story…and it’s pretty unbelievable…
Original Poster:
"I grew up in Thailand and can speak fluent Thai but I’m mixed race so I look pretty white.
"This happened when I was about 14 and wearing red lipstick for the first time.
"I was coming home on the sky train.
"This older lady turned to her husband and basically said that foreigners always dress like tarts and that she feels sorry for my parents for raising such a degenerate.
"(WOW lady, how rude…am I right?) Anyway, back to the story.
"Luckily, my Thai mom called to ask which station I had gotten to so I was able to talk to her in perfect Thai.
"The woman’s face was priceless.
"I kinda wish I had some witty retort before I got off the train but I was really shy and didn’t really stand up for myself at that age.
"I think her knowing I understood was enough
"This just goes to show that the best revenge is letting them know you heard their smack talk…and just didn’t care!"
Honestly, this next story is a primary example of why you should always be nice to your servers.
They’re handling your food, after all!
"I was working downtown (in the US) in a part of the city that is mainly tourists and waited on a Chinese family one day.
"The restaurant is the equivalent of a sit-down chain like Olive Garden.
"I greeted them in English and they responded in English, so I figured that this would be the best method of communication since they did not ask if I spoke Cantonese.
"Once I moved on to my next table I heard the mother tell the father that it is such a shame that my parents worked so hard for me to not speak Cantonese and work at a restaurant.
"I went through the whole meal speaking in English and at the end, as I was handing them the bill, I said in Cantonese, 'it was a pleasure serving you and I hope you come again soon.'
"Here’s where it gets good…This lady had no idea that she was caught talking crap, red-handed!
"The mother’s face dropped and she thanked me profusely and left a decent tip.
"I might speak English well, but I also know how to work the Chinese guilt."
We’re glad the original poster: WHEREAMI90 got the tip they deserved, hopefully, that rude lady learns to be nicer to strangers!
Here’s what this Reddit user had to say about his irish friend who very fluently spoke spanish.
"This happened to a friend of mine.
"So he is a manager in a kitchen and when he got this sweet gig in a new kitchen it was like 90% Cuban women.
"Now my friend is straight up Irish, red hair, pale skin with freckles, green eyes, totally a white boy.
"His mother, though, was a Spanish teacher and raised him to speak fluent Castilian Spanish.
"Well for his first two weeks the ladies talked a lot of smack about him in Spanish to each other and totally dissed him nonstop.
"He decided to let it roll and when the two weeks was up he held a big meeting with them all to go over the changes he was gonna make in the kitchen.
"He held the whole meeting in Spanish and he said every women’s face just dropped and went bright red.
"Needless to say they stopped talking smack in Spanish."
Spanish is one of the most widely spoken languages on earth, so these ladies should have known that someone would have caught on at some point. We hop Snowskirt’s friend is still taking care of business.
Opinions are like armpits: everyone has them, and they all stink!
Maybe these tourists will remember that next time they think no one is listening.
Here’s what Reddit user Raddlesnake gave as a prime example of an annoying tourist.
"As an American who works abroad, it always baffles me how some American tourists seem to think that nobody else in the world speaks English.
"The one that comes to mind was at a train stop where some tourists who were clearly American were talking about how smelly everyone in the country was.
"Tourist A mentioned that Tourist B should keep her voice down, and Tourist B replied….
“'Why? None of them know what I’m saying.'
"A guy standing behind them piped up with something like, 'Pretty much all of us speak English.'
"The tourists faces dropped and they were silent until the train came.
"It was excellent.
"This was in Argentina, by the way."
Reddit user Shottyxx caught these guys being total jerks towards women… Here’s how it went:
"I was sitting in an Uber Pool. Two Korean guys from a music school were in the back seat while I was in the front.
"They were discussing [intimacy] at first, but then they started talking about women in a super disparaging way.
"Things like, 'You have to try a white girl at least once, they’re different. If you just play music for them they’ll take their clothes off.'
"Except the rated-R version.
"The uber algorithm decided I should be dropped off first.
"The one asked his friend, 'Where are we going?' in Korean.
"I answered in English, 'He’s dropping me off first.'
"They said, 'oh' in unison, then quickly changed the subject to, 'hey have you eaten yet?'"
These guys need to learn that they can’t talk about women that way.
Hopefully, someone put them in their place at some point.
Reddit user Mwatwe01 spent a month in Germany…here’s what happened:
"In high school, I spent a month in Germany as an exchange student.
"The family had a son my age.
"Everyone I met commented on the fact that they had never met an American who could speak German.
"Until they met me.
"One night shortly after I arrived, I was at a party.
"Two girls about my age sat down close to me and started talking.
"I tried to look oblivious.
"Girl1 (In German): 'Isn’t that the American boy staying with Peter?'
"Girl2 (German): 'Yes. He’s rather cute, yes?'
"Girl1 (German): 'Yes! I’m going to say something!'
"Girl1 (English): 'Hey! Aren’t you the American staying with Peter? I’m Birgitte, and this is Hilde.'
"Me (In German): 'Yes, I am! It’s nice to meet you both!'
"They both turned bright red. It was one of the funnest [sic] trips I’ve ever had."
Reddit user Howlingowls123 surprised two German boys after she passively let them know they messed up!
Here’s her story:
"I am ethnically Chinese but grew up learning German.
"I was in Germany for student exchange and attended a dorm party one night.
"Two German guys at the party started flirting with me and openly discussed who would be able to sleep with me that night.
"Played dumb and rejected both their advances. A week later at another party I conversed with other friends in fluent German in front of them.
"Their expressions were priceless."
Maybe they’ll learn to be a bit more respectful next time!
Canadians are the most polite people on earth…until they’re not.
"I was eating at a restaurant in Quebec —
"where seriously everyone speaks at least some English who isn’t super old…
"— and a couple who only spoke English sat there and whined about everyone around them as if no one could understand a word they were saying.
"It was crazy because we were speaking English (albeit, not so obnoxiously loud as to draw everyone’s attention, as they were) a couple of tables over.
"Anyways, it was embarrassing for them at first.
"Then downright terrible as they even made fun of their waitress right in front of her.
"Eventually, a manager came out and basically told them to screw off.
"But as they went people were commenting loudly in English, and I’m surprised people didn’t actually clap."
There’s nothing worse than a rude party of two sitting next to you at a restaurant!
Thankfully the manager kicked these idiots out. Thanks to Reddit user Billbapapa for sharing this encounter.
Reddit user CitizenCOG shared a friend’s story about an absurd situation that turned awkward real quick.
Here’s how it went.
"Not me, but a teacher of mine...
"Teacher, who spoke both fluent French and fluent German, was on a horse-drawn tour of a city, sitting in the center row of the carriage.
"A French couple sat in the rear row, and a German couple with small children sat in the front.
"The children were tired and cold and making a small fuss, but nothing outrageous.
"The French couple started insulting the parents and children in French, snidely. The German family didn’t speak French and had no idea what was going on, trying to soothe their children and enjoy the ride.
"Teacher scolds the French couple in French, saying something along the lines of 'if you two bitter people ever manage to hold this relationship together, you’ll likely be in the same situation one day. Show some decorum.'
"Teacher then turned to German couple and, in German, reiterated what the French were saying about them and what he said in return.
"The German couple asked him to convey their apologies; their hotel room wasn’t ready and the children hadn’t eaten yet, and they were killing time until they could check in.
"And that they were sorry for disrupting their evening.
"Teacher did. French couple looked embarrassed. Teacher spent the rest of the evening visiting with the German family in German."
Reddit User El_pobbster apparently speaks quite a few languages, and has caught several people talking smack about them!
French, English, German and Spanish.
Have had some fun ones with the latter two.
Once, German tourists were in town, talking about how North Americans are rude and dumb.
I politely responded to them that generalizing all North Americans is dumb, and saying things like that was very rude.
That shut them up.
In Spanish, I was out with my partner, and a group of Spanish speaking boys started saying things about my partner that while I understand why they’d think them, you shouldn’t say out loud, and what they’d do to her.
I responded that this is what I thought of their mothers as I was having them the night before. Once again: triumphant silence and indignant shock was their reaction.
The best polyglot story ever was my Godmother, who is this super white French Canadian who was raised in India, and speaks fluent Hindi and Marathi.
So these two guys in an elevator start talking about her physique, berating her for being on the plumper side.
As she exits the elevator, she says in fluent Hindi how their mums would not approve of how they were talking and treating women.
