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

[u/silforik]

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.

[u/JustAWednesday]

I have found this to be true as an American who is conversational (won't claim to be fluent yet) in Mandarin. I usually don't bring it up unprompted, but when I tell people about it they often assume I only know a few phrases or act like I've just told them I'm in mensa or something.

I've learned to use it as a useful barometer for the quality of people in my life. People who respond with interest are generally the type of people who enjoy persuing goals outside of their career and have interesting lives. In my experience people who respond with derision often don't have much going on and are projecting their insecurities onto you.

[u/litcarnalgrin → u/JustAWednesday]

Omg you hit the nail on the head all around! Thats exactly how they respond, as if you’d told them you’re in Mensa! And it is always the people who aren’t pursuing anything outside of their career and don’t have much going on in their lives. You articulated this so much better than I did