27. Show Off your 2nd Language
If you’re European, you know 6 languages so this doesn’t really impress you, but in North America we go nuts for crazy exotic things like “languages”. Anything that isn’t English is witchcraft as far as we can tell.
If you speak Italian, take some friends to an Italian restaurant and order for everybody. Coolest person at the table.
Easier still, if you’re walking down the street with a friend, pretend to get a phone call and then start blah blah yickity yacking for 30 seconds or so in that foreign tongue of yours. Your friend will be giddy from having no idea what’s going on, but they’ll be reminded of one thing: Que toi, t’es vraiment super cool!
July 3, 2009 at 12:12 am
If you don’t want to go through the trouble of learning a language people actually speak, and can thus correct you on, you could always learn a few choice Latin phrases, and drop them (very) occasionally into conversation.
You’ll seem learned, worldly and wise.