Ah, Yes, English: The Default Language, Part 2
I’m working TSA at the airport security gate. An Arabic-speaking family is placing their belongings in the trays for the x-ray machine (a mother and three children) when a loud older woman in line behind them booms her voice loud enough for us all to hear.
Woman: “Oh my God! Your kids are geniuses!”
I admit I breathe a sigh of relief, that was not what I was expecting.
Mother: “Uh… thank you?”
Woman: “How’d they ever learn to speak that language, with those sounds!”
Mother: “That’s… just the language we speak at home. It’s their first language.”
Woman: “What’s a first language?”
Mother: “The first language we learn as children.”
Woman: “Ah… so English?”
Mother: “No, it’s—”
The oldest child says something to her mother in Arabic, while looking and smiling at the woman. The mother nods and resumes speaking English.
Mother: “—uh… yes. English. Anyway, we need to go through security. Nice chatting to you.”
I don’t speak Arabic, but I know “just agree with her or the conversation will never end” when I hear it, no matter the language.
