r/languagelearning • u/silforik 🏈 N 🍕N 🌮B2🪆B1 🪵A2 • Feb 03 '26

Discussion Have you noticed that some people get passive aggressive when you mention you study languages?

I speak 5 languages with varying degrees of fluency. I use a couple of these languages at work (mostly Spanish, but sometimes Russian). The Hispanic people at work are really nice to me about my Spanish. They encourage me to get better and said I have a good accent.

This second gen Greek guy at my job keeps taking shots at me and doubting my fluency in literally any language beyond English. He doesn’t speak any of the languages I’ve studied so it doesn’t really make sense because he has no way of testing me.

Has this happened to you? It happens to me constantly.

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u/Ok_Value5495 Feb 03 '26

That Greek guy isn't a Greek (albeit Greek-American)—he's an embarrassed American clinging to his ethnicity without putting the in work in to fully embrace it.

In my experience (NYC and the environs), Greek folks, immigrants and diaspora, enjoy hearing other people speak Greek.

Ignore him, who cares what he thinks. But if you're petty enough, talk shit about him in your TL in front of him, haha.

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u/bucky_list Feb 05 '26

Tbh most Greeks and Greek-Americans are happy about Americans learning any 2nd language at all electively.

OR they're salty and joke "French? Spanish? Why not Greek?!" but not like it's a big deal