People choose to learn foreign languages for many reasons – for work, for travel, for study, for love or for fun.

There are no wrong reasons and sometimes knowing a foreign language can just come in handy when you least expect it…

Whilst living in Japan I travelled to South Korea with two of my Australian friends.

We were all quite young at the time (many years ago) and throughout our trip had been mistaken as Americans because of the presence of the US base in Korea.  It was quite common to see Americans walking the streets of the capital Seoul.

Following a fantastic meal at an Indian restaurant we hopped into the elevator and found ourselves surrounded by Japanese men who once again mistook us for Americans, and who definitely had no clue that we could speak Japanese.

We listened to them talk about us for what seemed like a very long elevator ride and when the doors finally opened to let us out we turned to them and in Japanese told them that they should be careful what they say as you just never know who may understand you!

The look on their faces was priceless and I like to think they will never do anything like that again!