Last night we went to truffle making class in Boston and needless to say that the class was in English. Maybe if you did not speak a word of English or spoke only a bit, you would have enjoyed a class like that, but in order to fully learn, it is important to have reasonably good command of English. In any case, in our class, there were three young men, who were not only unusually loud, talking mostly among themselves (which was fine considering it was a fun activity and no one really went there to make new friends), but most annoying to me (and I am assuming to other students), they spoke in a foreign language (they were fluent in English as well). I don't think they impressed any one with their linguistic abilities and spoiled the fun for everyone. I know that some people are annoyed a lot by foreign languages, but mostly my wife and I are both much more accepting of them, because between the two of us we speak four languages and have lived in several countries. Still, it was a nuisance. So ladies and gentlemen who speak more than one language, here are some rules to follow:
- Try to speak the language of the group in which you voluntarily choose to participate. When you choose not to share what you are talking about, it creates suspicion in the minds of others. Are you making fun of them?
- If you are in a group, try not to dominate the conversation by speaking out too loudly.
- In any case, keep it down in any public setting.
- Never assume that only your group knows the language you are speaking. From my appearance, no one would consider me Japanese-looking, but I have lived in Japan for years, and have a pretty strong command of the language. So some Japanese people might assume that I don't speak Japanese (after all it seems like a reasonable assumption to make that a man who does not look like a Japanese and if you meet him in America, he will not know Japanese) but I do.