Life of a Couch Potato

The Troubles about Languages

So for some people who don't know this, I know a few languages other than English, however these languages (some of them) I can barely speak. In other words... it's just words I picked up from shows I watch.

Here's the list of languages I'm below average in speaking:

Japanese

Mandarin

Korean

Languages are really hard to learn, especially when you've grown up to be as old as I am... but sometimes, it's a blessing to know another language that isn't so common... but it's even better when you find someone who speaks the same language as you. In this case, the language for me is Cantonese (which is a pretty "rare" dialect of Chinese).

So yesterday my friend and I went to the park to play badminton. Of course, because the world wants me to stay cooped up in my room, it was windy (not that windy, but enough to throw our game off course). We were laughing and talking in Cantonese when suddenly a couple just came over and became interested in our conversation.

Now let me tell you about this couple. They were adults who were walking their dog (a huge, but nice looking, husky). Everyone  knows (hopefully) that you should never talk to strangers... Ahahahhahahahahahaha.... if that was the case, how do you make friends then right? So yeah, we talked to them... but we kept our personal information to ourselves.

They were asking us if we lived around the park (for which we sort of lied... but for a reason!) and what we were doing at the park. Then came the question that everyone who speaks another language gets asked: "I noticed you two were speaking an interesting language. Could you two say something to us in that language? Like... I love my siberian husky or I wish today it would rain?"

So that's obviously not the question that every multi-lingual people gets asked. But I think you all get the idea. If they see someone speak another language they would be like: "Oh! Could you say this and say that?" "What language is that?" "Oh! How do you say hi? Oooh - insert a bad hi here in the desired language- ! Did I say it right?"

And of course... the worst thing is... when they find someone who speaks the same language as you and drags you to that person. The next thing you know, they're asking you to converse in the foreign language in front of them... and though you're asking about the weather or exchanging names, they think you two are explaining like quantum science or something. It's just that interesting to them.

Now don't get me wrong, there are good things about knowing another language. For example, if you're really pissed off at someone/something, you could yell in that foreign language and no one would know what you said... unless it's a pretty common language like Spanish or English lol.

I don't know, of course there are a bunch of benefits knowing a language, but I feel that with benefits comes detriments. Just curious though, for anyone and everyone who reads this, comment down below what languages you speak?  With that, don't forget to stay awesome everyone.