Woman Claims To Be Fluent In Swedish, Mortified When She Fails To Communicate With Actual Swede

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    Font - Font - r/AmItheAsshole Posted by u/Throwra_NoSweForYou 5 hours ago 2 3 3 3 2 6 AITA for talking to a girl in Swedish, who claimed she spoke it? I'm Swedish and have lived in the U.S for about 5 years. Met my girlfriend 3 years ago and hit it off immediately. Last week we celebrated her birthday and she had, like usual, invited friends to the party. One of them we can call Linda.
  • 02
    Font - Font - The evening was going well, we had talks, games and fun. My girlfriend and Linda spoke about some new acquaintance from Germany or something, and Linda reached out aid said she had Swedish heritage and was really proud because she spoke the language fluently because her "mormor" (grandma in Swedish, mom's sida) taught her.
  • 03
    Font - Well, you can imagine I was thrilled since the only times I get to speak Swedish now is on the phone and online in chats with friends. So I proclaimed "Ballt! Då kan vi ju snacka lite svenska om du har lust. Länge sedan jag fick prata svenska med någon i verkligheten!", which translates to "Cool! Then we can talk a bit Swedish if you want. It's been a long time since I could speak Swedish with somebody in real life!".
  • 04
    Font - She looked at me, and you could immediately tell from her expression "oh shit...". She tried to get back on track and said "Sorry, you caught me off guard. I didn't know you were Swedish. Could you repeat that?", so I said "Ja, jag tänkte att vi kunde snacka svenska lite granna?", which means "Yeah, I thought would could talk a little Swedish?".
  • 05
    Font - She then said "Jag... eh, Linda namn är... hur du mår?", which made it obvious that she knew a few words, but definitely not on a conversational level. She said "Jag... eh, Linda namn är.. hur du mår?", which while understandable is not correct Swedish. The correct sentence would be "Jag heter Linda, hur mår du?" for "My name is Linda, how are you?".
  • 06
    Font - The rest of the night was... tense, to say the least. She kept looking at me like I had ruined her plan and made her the villain. I don't even care if she could speak it or not, I just wanted to talk to someone.
  • 07
    Font - Evening went by and they all left. The next day, after my girlfriend had a talk with her, she explained that Linda was really mad at me for "embarassing her" in front of everybody. I told my girlfriend that I did in no way do that, since all I did was ask her if she wanted to talk to me, and then I repeat myself since I thought she didn't hear me the first time. I thought she just hadn't "activated" her ear for other languages, which happens to me all the time. I get just as surprised and
  • 08
    Font - Now I'm the bad guy apparently. What do you think? AITA?
  • 09
    Human body - KrtekJim · 5h NTA. She should have realised that there was a non-zero chance of this happening some day, and quietly retired the lie.
  • 10
    Font - HeyYouShouldSmile · 1h "Oh, I speak Swedish fluently" "Wait, why did you talk to me in Swedish when I only know a few sentences?" She did this to herself.
  • 11
    Font - dracoda · 2h Partassipant [1] It's amazing how many people lie, get caught and then blame the person who caught them for the embarrassment they caused themselves by being dishonest. I never know if they believe what they're saying or if it's just lie number two. Or both?
  • 12
    Font - Puzzled-Barnacle2771 · 44m I don't know for sure if she was intentionally lying. It's quite possible the only native Swedish speaking people she met were her family. I always think I'm better at Spanish than I am until I hear native speakers. But there are a lot of those near me so I'm constantly put in my place. She's silly to be mad at him though. It should be a humbling learning experience. But lie? Maybe not. Just ignorance.

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