Polyglot in the making

Yesterday as I was walking home from work a guy greeted me with the often-used "Hey, foreigner!" I responded with "Peace to you" in the local language. He then began asking me the normal greeting questions in the normal language to see how much of it I actually knew. When I succeeded in responding appropriately, he asked me where I was from. I said America.

He told me he had a brother in Miami (I was surprised he didn't say New York; everybody has a brother in New York). He continued by saying, in impressively clear English, that he didn't speak very good English. I asked him basically the same questions in English that he had asked me in the local language and he answered them with moderate success.

This whole exchange took place as we walked about 50 yards. We were coming to a T and it was evident that I was turning right and he was going to turn left. So as we started to split off in our separate directions he said to me, "You are quite impressive. You speak English, French, and the local language. But you know, you really need to learn to speak Tubar*."

Well, it just so happens that my wife and I were in a Tubar-speaking village two weeks ago. So I greeted him in Tubar. At that he stopped dead in his tracks and his jaw just about hit the sand. He asked me another question or two in Tubar and I tried my best to answer correctly even though I wasn't really sure what he said. "Where did you learn that?!" he demanded. I gave him the name of the village, which he obviously had never heard of, and then gave the name of a larger town nearby. "Oh," said. "Well, I'm from up North. We speak the real Tubar up there." There are three different dialects of Tubar spoken in the country and they are each quite proud of their language.

He then said that he worked just down the road, so hopefully we would see each other again. We said farewell and went our separate ways.

Believe it or not, this interaction was not unusual for me. As soon as I step out the door, I never know who I'm going to end up chatting with.

*name changed