Some fun stories
I don’t know if it’s just me but I think the best fun TCK/CCK stories are about accents- see I’m bulgarian but also lived in the US as a kid, so both languages are pretty much the same thing to me. In the US, I was visiting New York last year and along came a college student who was gathering money for some sociological survey he was doing. He asked us for some money,and I was with a friend of mine who lives in the states but is bulgarian (thing is, he went when he was 15 so he doesn’t speak English like I do). So the guy asks us where we’re from. My friend says well, I live in Virginia Beach but I’m from Bulgaria. Then I say I’m also from Bulgaria. Then he asks where I live in the states and I’m like, “California”; and he’s like, “Oh, ok so you’re not from Bulgaria after all you’re from California”, and I’m like “No, actually I’m not”… Guy basically just got really confused and soon left 
Fast forward to this year, I was sitting waiting for somebody in the downtown of my “home” city Sofia in Bulgaria. Along came some foreign tourists and they were like “We’re looking for a bar around here would you tell us where we can find one” and I told them a good one I know which was nearby. Then one of them asked me”Where do you live?” and I said “In this city”; he then said”But your English is too good, you can’t be a native?”; and I’m like “No, I am, it’s just a long story”. I’m sure many of you guys have quite similiar stories to these; and maybe they’re the most fun- and bizarre- thing about growing up multicultural.
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7 Comments to “Some fun stories”
September 30th, 2008 at 9:10 am
Sounds like a day in the life of a TCK.
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September 30th, 2008 at 10:02 am
Yes, I have been complimented many times on how good my English is.
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October 1st, 2008 at 3:19 pm
sweetie, i am an african living in canada, so you know every time i open my mouth someone comments on how well (or “good” as the case may be) i speak english.
well i certainly hope so, it is,a fter all, my first language!
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October 16th, 2008 at 9:37 am
mm.. fun times!
“Guy basically just got really confused and soon left :)”
-> this made me smile.
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October 27th, 2008 at 9:55 pm
The thing that always gets ‘em… cussing them out perfectly in a foreign language, and then giving them directions in perfect English.
I also love how native Spanish speakers think I can’t understand them (I’m white) in their native tongue. It always shocks them when I “read their minds” and then turn around and apologize in their language.
Classic.
Try this: Start a conversation with someone and pull out your Spanglish (or whatever mix of language/English you speak) and see if they can keep up the conversation. If not, insult them freely. They’ll never know.
My sisters and I would speak Spanish at the dinner table when we didn’t want to share with others in English. Mostly about the food… Sometimes, someone’s toupee would be the topic of discussion, but that was rather rare.
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November 30th, 2008 at 7:50 am
hahaha, it happens…
imagine, i work as a cashier in my passport country, and whenver someone who spoke spanish came to my cash, they were extremely confused…they didnt understand how someone who appears (and is) canadian speaks spanish so well…
then they end up asking me to clear up theyre confusion, and once i explain they walk away even more ocnfused…
just a typical day in the social interaction of a tck…
yes! spanglish is a SICK language…
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November 30th, 2008 at 6:31 pm
I was walking through a store the other day, chatting with a Cuban friend of mine over my mobile, when I had a TCK moment. Coming up to the cash register and still speaking rapid fire spanish, I don’t bother to switch to english for the cashier.
Now this really shouldn’t be a problem in Florida. Many signs are bi-lingual, most stores proclaim “Hablemos Espanol”, and a few ever boast “English spoken here”, but I somehow catch the only teller in south Florida who can’t even count to ten in spanish.
After discovering her monolingual status, I check out “normally” and am on my way. As I am about to make it out the door, she calls after me,
“Merry Christ… wait, Fleas On The Dog!”
I just about died laughing. I’ll giver her points for trying though.
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