Languages

Spanish guy: She’s half Spanish.
Black woman: No, she’s black.
Spanish guy: No, she’s half Spanish.
Black woman: She ain’t no half Spanish. Her name is Juanita. That don’t sound Spanish to me.

–Holiday Inn, 57th & 10th

Overheard by: CGS

Crackhead girl talking to old pimp: I don’t know why for she call you… Just to be talkin’ shit… You know how I be is…

–Bed-Stuy

Vassar student: If I spoke France fluently, I’d be there right now!

–West 7th & Avenue T

Man leaning into friend’s car window: Nah, she aight… Nah, she aight… Nah, she aight. [Sees a guy across the street] Hey, man, you aight? Aight… Nah, she aight…

–150th & Macombs

Black woman: He coulda played for the Bears, he coulda played for the Jets, but nothing never stucked.

–14th St & 6th Ave

Overheard by: off white

Earnest student giving presentation: I was going to talk about Freud, but I decided he was tangenital to the discussion.

–NYU Silver Center

Overheard by: She wasn’t kidding, and no one laughed

Artistic hipster wannabe: Also, not to get too psychoanaliterature…

–Starbucks, Union Square West

Overheard by: Benjamin

Thug: Yo, nigga, don’t make me yo’ escapegoat!

–4 train, Bronx

Overheard by: charles elliot

Construction worker #1: Braille really trips me out.
Construction worker #2: I know. Me, too.
Construction worker #1: Do you think they have different fonts?

–21st St & Park Ave

Chinese girl: [in Chinese] Your luck just ran out.
Black girl: What the fuck did she say?
Chinese passerby: You are fucked.

–W 4th & 6th Ave

Overheard by: Ting

Bus driver: Attention, ladies and gentlemen, I have an idea: the next stop is going to be Las Vegas! Vegas, y’all! Get out those cell phones and start calling your husbands and wives. Tell ’em you won’t be home tonight. Vegas!

–M103 bus

Overheard by: Tina

Bus driver: Everyone, please move to the back of the bus…Come on, people. I’m speaking English here. Move to the back of the bus so these people can get on. There’s nothing wrong with the back of the bus. It’s not scary. There are no monsters back there. You won’t get hurt. So please move back.

–Q12 bus, Main Street, Flushing

Overheard by: Jo

Bus driver: This is Westchester Ave. Here you can transfer to the 9 and the…uh…I don’t even remember. Hey, you back there! You look like Charles Bronson! You ever heard that?…Whateva. You know you look like Charles Bronson. And the world needs another Charles Bronson.

–Bx40 bus, E Tremont Ave

Overheard by: vegannramember

Girl: He took me to a Japanese restaurant. I got the chicken karaoke.

–78th & Broadway

Overheard by: E HAGEN

20-Something girl: So, is Alabama in Kentucky?

–27th & 1st

Overheard by: interlard

Early-20’s woman: The Himalayas aren’t a real place. They’re like Narnia.

–1st & 1st

Ghetto girl: In British Whose Line Is It Anyway?, do they speak English?

–75th St

Girl: Oh, and in French, they say-
Guy: -I don’t care.
Girl: This date has been awful.
Guy: Shut up!

–78th & Broadway

Young guy: I was in a spaceship speaking Arabic.

–Chambers & Broadway

White guy on cell: You’re Japanese. You should like Swiss.

–Penn Station

Overheard by: Lizzerd

Conductor: For local service, switch to the D Train. Yes, for local service, take the D. I know many of you don’t believe me, but I know you know in your hearts that I am right. And if you glance to your right, you’ll see there is a D train on the next platform. Excellent.

–B train

An Israeli guy is reading a newspaper in Hebrew.

Kid: What language is that? Russian or something?
Israeli guy: No, it’s Hebrew. It might look a little like Russian, but you read it from right to left
Kid: Really? That must be hard.

–3 train