Introduction:

Found TRP 3 months ago. I've been doing what I can to internalise and practice it.

I live in a bilingual country, where English is a 2nd (or 3rd) language. I prefer English. There's a certain element of social status to being able to speak it well, so I default to English 90% of the time.

For dialogue, I'll use:

standard text = English

italics = [local language]

Body:

I cold-approached a girl on the street a week or two ago. We exchanged numbers. Her texts were boring and stilted. Didn't feel like powering through just to build comfort. I pushed to meet. She said no.

Yesterday, I was out running an errand. We crossed paths on the street again. I put on a smile, said "what's up?" and didn't break stride. Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed that she stopped as if she wanted to chit chat. I made a mental note of that.

A few hours later, I send her a text to tease her in English. She started getting hostile and answering back in the local language. So, I text her:

Relax. I'm just teasing. If language is an issue, say so. My [local language] isn't perfect but it gets the message across.

If you take yourself so seriously that you can't take a joke, no problem. Let's stop talking and each be on our own way.

She immediately texts back:

Speak [local language]. Am not good in english

I switch language. The texting continues. I keep teasing. And she's warming up.

Now, here's where my mind gets blown. Remember when I said her texts were boring and stilted that first day?

She told me she was copying my texts into Google Translate to read them in the local language, write her response, translate that into English, and then sending her answer to me.

I think she's making a joke. She insisted multiple times that she was not.

I en