How The Horse tried to be obnoxious and wound up in an enjoyable, if brief, conversaton.
By The Horse
@TheHorse (205716)
Walnut Creek, California
October 11, 2020 1:41pm CST
A friend and I are going to a concert at the Freight and Salvage in Berkeley CA, a well-known venue for bluegrass, folk, and Americana artists.
The middle-aged (meaning about my age) lady in casual but attractive clothing takes my ticket and tears it in half.
I say "Todah rabah."
She says "b'vakasha"
Then she hesitates and says "Hey, how did you know I speak Hebrew?"
I laugh and say "I didn't. I was just being obnoxious and saying 'thank you' in a language most people don't understand."
She laughs and says "So you speak Hebrew?"
I say "Yeah, about 20 words. I work at Congregation Netivot Shalom, over there."
There were people behind me, so we ended by laughing and saying "Have a good evening" in English.
Have you had "multi-lingual" experiences that amused you? Do you enjoy "random" conversations?
10 people like this
8 responses
@kobesbuddy (74554)
• East Tawas, Michigan
11 Oct 20
My sister threw out a Polish insult, at their wedding party. This didn't help her relationship, with Jack's predominantly Polish family!
4 people like this
@kobesbuddy (74554)
• East Tawas, Michigan
11 Oct 20
@BarBaraPrz It's swearing, I can't share it on My Lot.
1 person likes this
@jvicentevalera (13671)
• Santiago, Chile
11 Oct 20
What a brief and enjoyable random conversation Mr. Horse. I haven't had a random multi-lingual conversation like yours, however I remember when I was at a Chinese store, and when I got to the cashier, I looked at him and said, "Ni hao" which means, "Hello", and he smiled to me, later on when he was done charging me, I said "Xièxiè" which is "Thank you" and looked at me impressed, he was Chinese, but thank God he did not reply back because those are the only words in Chinese I know. Haha
4 people like this
@GardenGerty (157552)
• United States
12 Oct 20
No random other language convo for me. I did learn Latin in High School, but no one goes around saying "Caesar in Gallia est." I know SEE sign language, somewhat, but if I said anything, you would not hear me. My favorite other language is a hug.
2 people like this
@ptrikha_2 (45467)
• India
11 Oct 20
I had a couple of "Hindi" or "Urdu" language conversations with a few folks in England back in 2005-06.
1 person likes this
@ptrikha_2 (45467)
• India
13 Oct 20
@TheHorse
Actually I know the spoken form of the above 2 languages, but I found it interesting to converse in them in a foreign land where one expects lesser people to know about them.
1 person likes this
@ptrikha_2 (45467)
• India
14 Oct 20
@TheHorse
I mean that being in England, I had not expected many people speaking Hindi or Urdu - the spoken languages I was familiar with.
1 person likes this
@1creekgirl (40515)
• United States
11 Oct 20
That was so cool! During my years as a secretary at our health department, I took some Spanish classes so I could better help our Mexican patients. They were often amused and after I would say a phrase in Spanish, they'd take off talking so fast I was completely lost!
1 person likes this
@1creekgirl (40515)
• United States
13 Oct 20
@TheHorse We usually did laugh, at least they knew I was trying!
1 person likes this
@TheHorse (205716)
• Walnut Creek, California
13 Oct 20
@1creekgirl Heh. I "tried" when I was in France. I think it was appreciated.
1 person likes this
@lovebuglena (43074)
• Staten Island, New York
12 Oct 20
Our native language is Russian and we speak English. Sometimes we can say a sentence that is gonna have some Russian words and some English words.
2 people like this
@TheHorse (205716)
• Walnut Creek, California
13 Oct 20
@lovebuglena I think that there are some similarities among "slavic" languages.
@lovebuglena (43074)
• Staten Island, New York
13 Oct 20
@TheHorse I've heard Polish people talk and at first thought they were Russian because I heard Russian words. Maybe Polish has words that are the same in Russian.
1 person likes this
@LindaOHio (156078)
• United States
12 Oct 20
No, I haven't had any experiences like this. Random conversations are nice sometimes. As long as they aren't chatterboxes!
1 person likes this
@Bensen32 (27519)
• United States
11 Oct 20
LOL, that is kind of funny. I know how to say a greeting and thank you in quite a few languages but that is about all I know. I have used it before and sometimes they just start talking and I don't know what they are saying so I have to stop them 
1 person likes this
