Something like this has also happened to me when in holiday in Spain. I was looking around nice buildings open to the public, and entered one that I later found out happened to be a university. Walking around I entered one very well decorated hall, also because it started to rain and had to wait somewhere until it passed. To my horror, more people started coming in as well and I realized I was in for some sort of book or thesis presentation on the subject of Spanish language on the Balearic islands.

I barely speak Castilian Spanish (the more common one) and it was instead in Catalan Spanish, so I didn't understand a word, but stayed for the 1-2 hours it took, clapped, and skipped the handshakes/signing part of it.

I attended a funeral for the family member of a friend of mine. After the funeral we all were to convene at his sister's house. Because of the crowds I parked half a block away and found myself in a group of similarly dressed people walking towards what I remembered to be her house. After maybe 5 minutes of not recognizing anyone, someone simply says "who are you", and after explaining my relation to the deceased, my error became apparent.

I had a similar experience in Monza, Italy. Was taking a walk around some old church and a guy was giving an explanation in English so I stopped to listen. They started ushering the entire group into the crypts underground so I just went with the flow.

While showing us where the dead bodies were stored the guy said something like “but you’re all doctors so I’m sure you’re used to it” was when I realised this was an organised event.

I thought this was the difference between the laid back European culture vs the more, um… detailed mindset of the Far east one I grew up in. The Italians probably didn’t care if there were strays while the Singaporean or Japanese organisers would be doing a headcount at every stop.

FYI naming it Catalan Spanish would be akin to naming Welsh as Welsh English. Catalan and Spanish (also known as Castilian) are two different languages, like French and Italian.

So it's normal that you didn't understand much, as even it having some words that are similar the tonalities and some of the constructs are very different.

And they might have been speaking in Balearic, which is a Catalan dialect, and that's sometimes even harder to understand.

Couldn't you just leave? Like what if you had genuinely been there intentionally but had an emergency at home? People understand

Haha yeah, same here—I totally get that feeling. Sometimes the best stories end up being the ones we didn’t live through, because we keep replaying the “what if” in our heads. At least we can laugh about it now, and share it here. Makes me feel a bit better knowing I wasn’t the only one who missed out.

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