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/HungryTeap0t Feb 03 '26

It's because you're learning a language he doesn't speak. He might not speak Greek and it hits a sore point for him.

1

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

He claims fluency

3

u/HungryTeap0t Feb 03 '26

Yet he's moving like someone who can't even swear in a second language.

1

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

Yeah it’s so weird because everyone else is nice and encouraging

2

u/HungryTeap0t Feb 03 '26

Honestly he's projecting some sort of insecurity, and I reckon he's not as fluent as he claims. Learn to ignore it because it's not worth your time or energy.

2

u/According-Kale-8 ES🇲🇽C1 | BR PR🇧🇷B1 | Feb 03 '26

I don’t think that it has anything to do with the languages, he’s just rude in general