Person Who Knows 3 Languages Puts Rude American In His Place: “The Only Language You Know”

Mocking someone for mispronuncing a word is a jerk move no matter the circumstances; unless, maybe, it’s a good friend and you do it in a gentle teasing kind of way. But ridiculing someone’s pronunciation when it’s their second, third, or Xth language, especially when you’re monolingual yourself, is definitely not right.

Yet that’s exactly what happened to this redditor. Being trilingual himself, the OP was mocked by his American friend for the way he pronounced a word in English. But the mocking didn’t last long, after the redditor clapped back at said friend.

Scroll down to find the full story below, where you will also find Bored Panda’s interview with Dr. Viorica Marian, Professor of Communication Sciences and Disorders at Northwestern University and author of best-selling book The Power of Language: How the Codes We Use to Think, Speak, and Live Transform Our Minds.

Being able to communicate in several languages is not something everyone can do

Two men at a café table, one holding glasses and listening, illustrating communication and cultural judgment.

Image credits: GaudiLab / Envato (not the actual photo)

However, some people, like this netizen’s friend, mock a multilingual person knowing only one language themselves

Text screenshot discussing an American mocking a mispronunciation and getting shamed in response.

Text about a trilingual person helping an American friend with French translation.

Text screenshot of a judgmental American mocking a mispronunciation of the word "awry" and getting shamed for it.

A man with glasses and a thoughtful expression, adjusting his black jacket.

Image credits: kegfire / Envato (not the actual photo)

Text highlights a judgmental American mocking someone's mispronunciation but getting shamed in return.

Text expressing a non-native English speaker's pronunciation explanation.

Text questioning French pronunciation skills, related to a judgmental American's perspective.

Text reads: "If you make any grammar or pronunciation mistake, however tiny, I will mock you endlessly." Judgmental tone conveyed.

Text excerpt discussing a judgmental American mocking mispronunciation and questioning behavior.

Image credits: Expensive-Print7397

Most Europeans believe that everyone should speak at least one foreign language

Image credits: Image by Freepik (not the actual photo)

Learning a foreign language is not always easy. In some instances, it can actually be very, very difficult. (I am certain that having to learn numbers in French or verb conjugation in Lithuanian, just to name a couple of examples, have pushed many learners to the brink of tears.) Be that as it may, a number of people manage to master a second, a third, a fourth language and sometimes even more.

The Eurobarometer survey carried out in 2023 found that in Europe, for instance, most people have positive attitudes towards multilingualism and value language diversity; nine-in-ten of them believe that everyone should speak at least one other language than their mother tongue. In most cases, that one other language is English, which close to half of Europeans (47%, to be exact) have mastered to some extent, making it the most popular foreign language in the region.

According to the survey, the youth—people between ages 15 and 24—seem to be especially motivated or interested in learning foreign languages. Out of them, roughly four-in-five are able to carry out a conversation in a language that they are not native to (marking a 5% increase since 2012). Out of Europeans of all ages that are proficient in a foreign language, close to a third reportedly use it on a daily basis.

“Knowing multiple languages is like a superpower,” expert says

If you’re wondering what motivates people to learn a foreign language, the aforementioned survey suggests that job opportunities are a big motivator, encouraging roughly half of Europeans to delve deeper into language learning. Other benefits they see in said activity include being able to understand people from other cultures and using it on holidays abroad.

Learning or practicing a foreign language is also good exercise for the brain. “Being bilingual and multilingual has multiple benefits for the brain, for aging, and for cognitive, social, and economic outcomes,” says Northwestern University professor and author of The Power of Language: How the Codes We Use to Think, Speak, and Live Transform Our Minds, Dr. Viorica Marian.

“Knowing multiple languages is like a superpower that helps delay the onset of Alzheimer’s and dementia, improves cognitive control, benefits metalinguistic and metacognitive skills, and boosts creativity, in addition to immediately noticeable benefits like being able to communicate with people who speak other languages, facilitate travel, and making one eligible for jobs in which knowing a specific language is required.”

But it’s not only the benefits of learning a language that are fascinating; the way our brain reacts to languages—foreign or native—is, too. A study delving deeper into the way the brain of a polyglot—a person who can speak five or more languages—works found that it expends comparatively little effort when processing their native language compared to a foreign one.

English is the most commonly spoken language in the world

Image credits: peoplecreations / Freepik (not the actual photo)

The US, too, is home to millions of bilingual and multilingual people. Though English is the official language, according to the United States Census Bureau (as of 2019), close to 68 million people in the US spoke a language other than English at home. The most frequently spoken languages, other than English, were Spanish or Spanish Creole, Chinese, Tagalog, Vietnamese, and Arabic respectively.

According to Statista’s 2023 data, Spanish and Chinese were among the most common languages not only in the US, but in the entire world as well. Taking into consideration all of the speakers (not only those to whom it is a foreign language), English is the most common one worldwide, followed by Chinese (Mandarin), Hindi, Spanish, French, and Arabic respectively.

Because of his background and his interest in the English language, the OP was fluent in three of the five most commonly spoken languages in the world, while his friend, Max, spoke one. That was one of the reasons why said friend mocking his pronunciation made the redditor snap back at him, which some netizens believed to be too strong of a reaction. Many, however, agreed that Max was being a jerk to the OP, too. Both sides shared their thoughts in the comments.

Many netizens believed that Max was in the wrong for mocking his friend

Reddit user shames judgmental American mocking mispronunciation, explaining language learning differences.

Online comment exchange with judgmental tone about pronunciation, resulting in a supportive response.

Reddit comment shaming a judgmental American for mocking mispronunciation.

Comment exchange discussing judgmental Americans mocking pronunciation and getting shamed for assumptions.

Comment shames a judgmental American for mocking mispronunciation, highlighting irony in language use.

Online comment advises someone to reconsider a friendship after being judgmental over mispronunciation.

Comment criticizing judgmental person for shaming mispronunciation.

Comment defending mispronunciation against judgmental American shaming, emphasizing empathy for non-native speakers.

Reddit comment discussing an American mocking mispronunciation and being shamed by a teacher defending multilingualism.

A Reddit post discussing judgmental behavior and mockery among friends.

Comment about a judgmental American mocking mispronunciation and being shamed, discussing a funny language mistake.

Screenshot of a comment calling out judgmental Americans for mocking non-native speakers.

Some, however, thought that the OP was a jerk to some extent, too

Screenshot of a comment criticizing sensitivity over mispronunciation, relevant to judgmental American topic.

Text showing an American mocking mispronunciation, sparking debates on language learning and cultural understanding.

Comment discussing judgmental American mocking mispronunciation, criticized by French user.

Text discussion about language skills, judgment, and mispronunciation shaming.

Comment criticizing judgmental behavior over mispronunciation, emphasizing friendship tolerance.

Reddit comment criticizing a judgmental American mocking someone's mispronunciation.

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