Fake language genius
When I was at University, I used to hang around in the pub with a bunch of mates. One of these was a guy called Steve who was pretty smart, but a bit of a cocky so-and-so.

One day, he went on about how many languages he could speak, and I raised a sceptical eyebrow. "OK then," he said, "I bet I know more than you."

I know nothing about languages, seulement mon O-level obligatoire de Francais, but we went through a couple of obvious ones where I would say "Ya" in a German accent, or "Si" in a Spanish accent to whatever he was saying, and managed to get it right.

Finally, he smiled and said "Right, you'll never get this one" and rattled off a load of stuff at me. Damn. No idea, but it sounded kind of eastern european. As I had just been watching 2010, with Helen Mirren talking in a nice Russian accent, I remembered two words: "Da, Tovarisch". Bingo!

He went and sat in a sulk for the rest of the evening.
( Amish Information Systems hates misplaced, commas, Wed 16 Jul 2008, 12:51, Reply)