Bilingual people, when you were/if you are in school, did/do you ever talk to someone who speaks your language in that language so that the teachers won’t understand?
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There weren't many other kids who spoke Cantonese at my school (a couple, but not a lot), but I learned to be paranoid after one incident in English class.
My teacher at the time was like the most stereotypical looking white guy you could imagine. Being a school in a big city, we had a pretty diverse population of students, and in this particular class there were two boys who were friends and would often goof off between themselves in Spanish.
One day about 2/3 of the way through the school year, I have no idea what one of the two boys must have said, but Mr. "Grew up on a farm in Ohio" quickly turned around from the board and interjected in the most native-sounding Spanish my untrained ears could parse. That immediately put the fear of god in them—in all of us, really—to suddenly realize that he had been listening to and understood everything they were saying from the very beginning of the school year, and had just not bothered to say anything until then. I think we were basically an English-only English class from that point on.
Between that experience and other stories I've read online, I've learned to never, ever assume that someone doesn't understand what you're saying in another language. You never know what unlikely language someone picked up because they had a pen pal or their SO is from another country or they lived/worked abroad for a while. Even then, since it's so easy these days for anyone to subtly pull out a smartphone and let Google Translate provide the gist of what is being said with relative accuracy, you should never say out loud something you don't want someone else to hear.
Edit: a word
I personally find it hilarious when people have slanderous conversations en español, thinking that none of the non-hispanic people in the vicinity understand them.
Están equivocados. Lo aprendí como segunda lengua cuando mi hermano se casó, y agregamos venezolanos a la familia lol.
It's adorable that someone world think that the fourth most widely-spoken language on the planet is a secret code that no one in public would possibly have a hope of comprehending 😆
It's adorable that someone world think that the fourth most widely-spoken language on the planet is a secret code that no one in public would possibly have a hope of comprehending
Even if someone doesn't know a language initially, they aren't secret codes! Anyone can get a language learning app on their phone and practice it until they know enough to follow a conversation.
me recuerda a alguien en chicago hablando en polaco a pesar de que muchos polacos viven allí.
😂 especialmente en los estados unidos, solo hablaba español con mis amigos pq el maestro no lo entendía.
