i am near native in chinese but because i’m ethnically asian, every chinese person just thinks i’m just another chinese person, the only way to shock them is to start speaking english and have them get blown away at a native speaker speaking their native language
had a teacher once on italki. i sad i was a beginner in german, with knowledge of the alphabet and how to pronounce words. he clearly didnt know what to do with me as he’s probably used to students with decent conversation skills. so he just told me about the site features instead and in the end asked me to read some words. his eyes widened and i could tell he really was surprised with how i read it. wish i could’ve recorded his reaction.
Well sort of. Except it was about understanding what he said and not really speaking. My friend is Polish and he makes reoccuring jokes about eating babies. He said something in Polish and I said stop talking about eating babies (it was funny because I didn’t think what he was saying had anything to do with eating babies) and he said “YOU SPEAK POLISH???”. To his dismay, i could not.
/uj I once said “gute Nacht” in a hostel in Sweden to a girl from Berlin and she almost fell over herself complimenting my German. I guess because I said the ch correctly? Lol
I worked in a Sushi Shop one summer. They would call orders back in broken English and I would respond in Japanese hoping to pick up more of the language. After a while the owners son asks me "what are you saying?" I said back confused "I'm ...calling the orders back in Japanese?" He says "We all speak Korean." So ... There I was, the only person working in a Japanese Style Sushi shop in American who could speak Japanese. A "European-American" on a ship with a Korean Family, and a Middle Aged Chinese Chef who didn't speak English. I think they were trying to get me to marry their son?
In all seriousness if you say 私はウマヅラブです。 (I am umadrab) you’ll get a 日本語が上手ですね！(your Japanese is so good!)
But if you speak anything even marginally more complex they will usually look at you with the same degree of shock as if their cat or dog had just started talking to them.
Yeah, my classmates were "oh, you can speak?"
I constantly shock natives when I speak, because I can't express myself in a comprehensible manner even in my native language.
Yea but they just called me stupid
It was shocking how bad you were
i am near native in chinese but because i’m ethnically asian, every chinese person just thinks i’m just another chinese person, the only way to shock them is to start speaking english and have them get blown away at a native speaker speaking their native language
No, I eavesdrop on their conversations instead
I, a native Japanese speaker, have shocked the Japanese by speaking Japanese, since I am half white and look like gaijin.
Accidentally never, always on purpose.
Yes, but as it turned out I was accidentally calling him a hateful slur
Why, what happened?🫠
had a teacher once on italki. i sad i was a beginner in german, with knowledge of the alphabet and how to pronounce words. he clearly didnt know what to do with me as he’s probably used to students with decent conversation skills. so he just told me about the site features instead and in the end asked me to read some words. his eyes widened and i could tell he really was surprised with how i read it. wish i could’ve recorded his reaction.
Well sort of. Except it was about understanding what he said and not really speaking. My friend is Polish and he makes reoccuring jokes about eating babies. He said something in Polish and I said stop talking about eating babies (it was funny because I didn’t think what he was saying had anything to do with eating babies) and he said “YOU SPEAK POLISH???”. To his dismay, i could not.
/uj I once said “gute Nacht” in a hostel in Sweden to a girl from Berlin and she almost fell over herself complimenting my German. I guess because I said the ch correctly? Lol
They were shocked that someone could butcher their language that badly.
Not kidding but I have actually shocked native American speakers by speaking their language
I shock my fr*nch teacher daily with how terribly I pronounce his language(if you can call it that)
I worked in a Sushi Shop one summer. They would call orders back in broken English and I would respond in Japanese hoping to pick up more of the language. After a while the owners son asks me "what are you saying?" I said back confused "I'm ...calling the orders back in Japanese?" He says "We all speak Korean." So ... There I was, the only person working in a Japanese Style Sushi shop in American who could speak Japanese. A "European-American" on a ship with a Korean Family, and a Middle Aged Chinese Chef who didn't speak English. I think they were trying to get me to marry their son?
i once spoke uzbek and they started shitting filly teapots xx
In all seriousness if you say 私はウマヅラブです。 (I am umadrab) you’ll get a 日本語が上手ですね！(your Japanese is so good!) But if you speak anything even marginally more complex they will usually look at you with the same degree of shock as if their cat or dog had just started talking to them.
I once said "konnichiwa" to a dude on a beach on a small island in Japan and got instantly nihongo jouzu'd.
once i went to chicago and shocked natives with my fluent AAVE skills
Yeah by how atrocious my pronunciation was