Neighbour doesn’t speak English at home

[Identiy]

I know I am just being nosey, but my new neighbour chats away in English to me, I always assumed and she is English. But I hear her chatting to her dog (she lives alone) and I don’t recognise the language at all. I have a fairly good grasp of French and Spanish, recognise German and Italian and a few others. I am just intrigued as to what she is speaking because I don’t recognise it at all. Would I be rude to ask her? I don’t want her to think I am eavesdropping, but then it wouldn’t matter anyway!!

I am just really intrigued!

I have a friend who's half Greek and half Swiss and speaks six languages, the absolute bastard.

A Dutch lady told me that one day a week in The Netherlands all schools teach the whole days classes in English only. Consequently the dc all speak English very well.

NoBiscuitsLeftInMyTin

When she's out break into her house and place some microphones arounds the place. When you've got some recordings post them here and we'll do our best to work it out for you. Simples.

I think this would be a good way to go👍👏👏👏

Sort of incidentally, my friend and I once spent a full day commanding her dog in French while practising for a GCSE oral, and he responded perfectly. Clearly the body language and intonation meant more than the actual words.

You speak Scandinavian? What do you mean by that?

Our Cat is bilingual.

I mean he seems to be as far as cats go. We are a two language household and he responds to both.

We adopted him from a local cat sanctuary ( German). His old name was German for ‘crumb’. We changed it. But still call him Kleiner Krümmel sometimes.

My neighbours have rescued 5 dogs from abroad over the years. They've learnt words in their mother tongue.

In Bermuda the trained police dogs are issued commands in Dutch to outwit miscreants

It definitely does. Most dogs will respond to any old gibberish in the right tone.

Most cats won't respond at all, regardless of words or tone. 😄

It’s possible she knows you can hear her and is just playing you for entertainment value.

I’d find it weird to say you listen to her when she’s at home in private.
If she wanted to tell you where she was from or her cultural background I’m sure she would.

Mine too - they prefer Welsh though

@2dogsandabudgie 😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂

Welsh? Irish? Afrikaans? Gaelic?

Norwegian, Swedish, Danish.

Thanks for all the guesses. It turns out she is speaking Scottish Gaelic! Apparently she got annoyed when the dog was a puppy with family members calling commands at the dog and not making them do it, so she switched to Gaelic, now the dog views anything it’s asked to do in English as optional 🤣.

She chats in Gaelic, because their conversations are important and the dog needs to listen! 🤣🤣🤣

I’ve loved some of the stories here, but I love my neighbour’s answer too!

Is the dog a German shepherd?

I know a cat adopted from Poland into an English speaking house who insisted the owners learned Polish to communicate.

Unbefuckinglievable!

Cats speak body language and tone of voice is also important.

If I was re-homing I’d look for a caring and loving home, preferably a ‘cat person’ of course.

Looking for a polyglot in the UK? Good luck with that!

Ah I love that, gaelic for the dog!

I'm in Finland so my boss's dog obviously responds to Finnish commands but I'm working on teaching him English. So far he understands sit, lie down, and get back inside Ali!!

Or Scandinavian. I remember going into a shop in Stockholm with a group of obvious (from our baggage) non-Swedes and the man behind the counter asked me what language I'd like to speak "English, Francais, Deutsch, Italiano?"

I'd a friend who spoke to his cat in Latin. He said the cat was a snob and wouldn't respond to English.

Glad you found out OP, and I'm glad she's keeping one of our lovely old languages alive, even if it is just to her dog!

My bet is on Esperanto

Well I lost the bet

Which one is your mothertongue?

I chatted to woman for years on the school run without realising until she mentioned it that she was Swedish. I also knew a Dutch woman whose English was flawless. Wonder if she is from either of those countries?

How fascinating! I love languages and, though I say it as shouldn’t, I’m pretty good at them. Pets aside, I pretty much always ask anyone I hear speaking something I don’t recognise what the language is - I think they’re flattered that I’m interested in their culture,
The most bizarre situation I ever came across was in a healthcare setting. A nurse who was Romanian was speaking to a patient who was also Romanian and didn’t speak English that well in English. In think she was explaining something about a new drug he was being put on and, when I asked why they weren’t speaking Romanian, she said it was because others around might object!