When you’re somewhere where your native language isn’t spoken, you may use it to say something that you aren’t comfortable with others hearing, but you have to be careful! Or if you do choose to say something in your native tongue, here are some ground rules: first, don’t say anything rude. Second, don’t say anything about someone within earshot.
Although the chances of someone listening in are pretty slim, it can still happen! A bunch of multilingual redditors shared stories of some times where they have either understood someone speaking in a different language, or got caught saying something when they thought no one else spoke the same language. Like what happened to lameio69’s grandma: ‘My grandmother speaks Arabic fluently and one time when she was at the grocery store, a few women behind her began mocking her dye job and calling her tacky. So she turned around and said in Arabic ‘I may be tacky but at least I’m not stupid enough to assume nobody can understand me.’’ The woman was so embarrassed.’ This is why you have to be super careful with using a different language in public. You can’t assume that you’re the only one who can speak it!
2. From Bobbled_It: ‘When I was dating my first girlfriend since their family speaks French a lot, her sister decided to talk about how cute I was in front of me. My girlfriend responded in French and they began to banter. I said I appreciated it in French her sister ran bashfully to her room.’
