Overhearing and being overheard

The Sultan Ahmed Mosque or "Blue mosque" in Istanbul, Turkey

One of the fun thing of being on a holiday is that you can talk openly with your friends / family even in public places, because others wouldn’t understand you. But that is often a false sense of security. Far more often than you would think, some bystander will be following your every word. Here’s some situations:

Turkey

On a school trip to Turkey in my secondary school time, some of my classmates were walking behind a Turkish soldier in Istanbul. They were jokingly saying things like “do you dare to kick him?” “I’ll give you 10 guilders if you kick him”. The soldier turned around: he was a dual Dutch-Turkish citizen normally living in the Netherlands, and was serving his National Service as a requirement to keep his Turkish passport. Fortunately, he had a sense of humor similar to that of my classmates.

Finland

A Dutch friend of mine spent a semester on exchange in Helsinki, Finland. One day, sitting in the train in a spot where two rows of seats face each other, he was joined by two Belgian girls on the opposite site. They were feeling very free and commenting in Flemish on how good-looking Finnish men are etc. Dutch and Flemish are no more different than, say American and British English. Upon leaving the train, my friend couldn’t resist pulling off his mask, saying in Dutch “Nice to have met you, almost-fellow-country-citizens” to great embarrassment of the girls

Singapore

I’m often in a receiving position of this in Singapore, as I don’t quite look like a person who would understand Mandarin. But compared to Europeans, it seems Singaporeans are quite well behaved. I haven’t ever caught a bad word. Wouldn’t know whether I would take off my cover if it happened.

The one situation I can remember is when I was flying off from Changi Airport and wanted to buy some last minute gifts. One of the aunties behind the counter told her colleague as I opened up my wallet: “他住在新加坡。我看到他的UOB card” (“He lives in Singapore. I see his UOB card”, UOB being a local bank). I really wished I had a witty reply ready, but I wasn’t that fast on my feet when it happened.

Do you recognise this?

If you speak English only, you may never have felt comfortable using your mother tongue as a secret language. If you speak Mandarin, you should not, ever, feel comfortable again either. And as you see, even if you speak a rather small language as Dutch, there is no way to be sure that you’re safe.

My guess is that we’re being overheard far more often than we think. Can you remember you overheard tourists who thought they were safe? Did you reveal you understood them?