Didn't see THAT coming, did you?

[WouldYouLikeToBuyAPhone?]

This call was taken my one of my colleagues, whom we will call RC.

RC: Welcome to <MyCompany>, you're speaking with RC.
SC: I would like blah blah
RC: you can't have blah blah (I can't remember the details, they're not important)
SC: In some obscure eastern european language Clearly <MyCompany> are only employing useless assholes. (or some such insult)
RC: In same obscure eastern European language Do you kiss your mother with that mouth?
SC: hangs up.

That's right, RC stands for Russian Colleague. Of all the people in all the world, you chose to insult this man in his native language. Owned!

[RootedPhoenix]

Moral of the story: Don't assume the other guy doesn't know what you're saying.
(Or do, as it's utterly hilarious when you get pwned...)

[Magpie]

I can go better than that. On the bus in TORONTO, people have been known to talk in French as if the people around them can't understand. Oh, wait, it gets better. As if the high school students around them can't understand. You know, the people who have taken French less than 3 years ago at a maximum.

[Golden Phoenix]

I had that trouble once, it was hilarious.

The customer didn't take kindly to being told "no" to their offer of paying £10 per week (off a multi-thousand pound debt ) and addressed a friend in the background in Welsh, they described me as a "Dumb whore".

I informed them, very politely, and in Welsh, that if they continued to insult me the conversation would be terminated. They were good as gold from then on.

Thing is that although I was born in england and live there now, and have no Welsh accent at all, i lived in North Wales for nore than thirteen years, including being educated there.

You know what they say about what happens when you assume....

[TelephoneAngel]

can't remember if i wrote about this before, I was in a shop and some women were speaking Polish and blocking the aisle, I asked in English "excuse me" to come by but they continued talking.I tried again and one said to the other in Polish "English bitch", unfortunately they chose about the only English person in town who would have understood that.

I then asked them in POLISH "excuse me please i would like to get by" (a whole sentence)

They moved aside with such looks on their faces!

[TonyF]

This why I wish I was completely bilingual.

I can speak enough Spanish to get by (3 years and a trip to Mexico ) but if I were to get cussed out or insulted by our large Spanish-speaking clientele, I'm dead in the water.

[crazylegs]

My g/f has managed to do that a few time while we're out and about. It does help that she speaks 12 languages though!

[mharbourgirl]

My French is horrible, which is slightly embarrassing for a Canadian, but I grew up on the West Coast and never had to really use it. Spanish, on the other hand, well, thanks to lots of US television as a child (Sesame Street and John Wayne movies, in large part) I have a decent understanding of Spanish, though I can't speak it as well as I understand it.

I do know quite a few insults, though, thanks to a former co-worker who immigrated from Mexico and thought it was hilarious to teach me every impolite alternative to a phrase he could think of. I've startled more than a few tourists from Latin countries who didn't expect the glow-in-the-dark Canadian girl to know that they were being really really vulgar about me, or just plain rude.

There's an immense satisfaction that comes from knocking someone off a position of perceived superiority, isn't there?

[LillFilly]

Hee.

Despite living in a state 1.5 hours away from Canada I took Spanish in high school. I know enough to ask for the bathroom, and to know when I'm being insulted, but that's about it! Wish I knew more, but my language apptitude sucks!

[XCashier]

Despite living in a state 1.5 hours away from Canada I took Spanish in high school. I know enough to ask for the bathroom, and to know when I'm being insulted, but that's about it! Wish I knew more, but my language apptitude sucks!

Don't feel bad. I grew up in Phoenix, a town with a very high Hispanic population and close proximity to Mexico, and I only know a smattering of Spanish myself (and am better at written Spanish than spoken Spanish). I am horrible with languages!

[Shalom]

More bilingual pwnage stories at this thread from a few months back, including some of mine at this post...

[Magpie]

My French is horrible, which is slightly embarrassing for a Canadian, but I grew up on the West Coast and never had to really use it. Spanish, on the other hand, well, thanks to lots of US television as a child (Sesame Street and John Wayne movies, in large part) I have a decent understanding of Spanish, though I can't speak it as well as I understand it.

You only had the one Sesame Street? You never got to see Louis and Basil!

[cinema guy]

My g/f .... speaks 12 languages though!

I bet she is a cunning linguist!

[dalesys]

My g/f ... speaks 12 languages though!

I bet she is a cunning linguist!

No, that's crazyleg's job.

[crazylegs]

No, that's crazyleg's job.

Discretion is the better part of valour...