August 22, 2024 at 11:52 am

Cruise Passenger Conversed With A Staff Member In The Woman’s Native Tongue, But Her Sister Claimed The Interaction Was Embarrassing Because She Was Talking To “The Help.”

by Ryan McCarthy

Source: Reddit/AITA/Pexels/Bruno Castelli

One of the coolest things someone can do is reveal they speak another language, especially if they do it completely off the cuff.

But when woman started speaking to a worker on her cruise in her native Filipino, her racist sister got embarrassed and told her that she was being rude!

Was she wrong to speak to the worker in another language in front of her sister?

Decide for yourself!

AITA for speaking another language and giving my step sister secondhand embarrassment?

Here’s a bit of a backstory. I (F15) am Asian-American. My mom is Caucasian while my dad is Chinese-Filipino. I also have an older brother.

My biological dad passed away when I was young, and my mom remarried around 2022 . Now, I have an amazing dad and an older sister.

My mom works corporate for a cruise company, and therefore, I don’t mean to brag, but my family frequently goes on cruises.

And one of these frequent cruises was to celebrate her sister graduating high school!

My sister recently graduated HS, and back came home to San Francisco (She attended HS in the East Coast).

And now, my family is on this amazing cruise to the Caribbean to celebrate.

Just yesterday, my sister and I were in the pool deck, and she needed to wash her hands.

The ship we were on was really big, and I wasn’t too familiar with the layout, so in order to locate the bathroom, I asked a kind worker for directions.

I tried to speak to her in english, but she didn’t seem to understand initially.

But she quickly realized she could actually speak the worker’s native tongue!

But then I noticed the ‘Philippines’ in her badge (On the cruise, the nationality of a staff member could be found in their badge) so I began talking to the lady in Filipino.

My grandpa was Filipino so he taught me.

The lady and I had a short and happy conversation before eventually asking where the nearest bathroom was, and I led my sister to go there.

While we were walking, my sister told me to ‘just speak in english’ and said that Filipino is the ‘worker’s language’ (Plenty of the staff onboard are Filipino).

Sadly, the sister’s rhetoric soon crossed over into plain ignorance…

She mentioned it was embarrassing for her because she said she didn’t want to be associated with them.

Those were her exact words.

I was shocked. I didn’t know why she would be embarrassed and ashamed, but I still felt really bad. I didn’t mean anything.

I just wanted to speak Filipino due to my heritage, and the lady seemed to be really happy when I did so anyways.

I told my sister I won’t do it again, but was it really that rude to speak in another language in the west?

What do you think?

Someone should never be ashamed to know more than one language, that’s absolutely ridiculous!

Reddit said that she was certainly not in the wrong.

Source: Reddit/AITA

This person said that if anyone should be embarrassed after that interaction, it’s her sister!

Source: Reddit/AITA

And this user pointed out how happy it made the worker to be spoken to in her native language.

Source: Reddit/AITA

And finally, many people thought her comment was all the more disgusting considering her Mom was a cruise ship worker herself!

Source: Reddit/AITA

Speaking two languages should be a source of pride, not shame!

The sister has a skewed view of the world, though.

If you liked that post, check out this post about a woman who tracked down a contractor who tried to vanish without a trace.