We have all dealt with that one person at the office who tries a little too hard to be the most interesting person in the room. You know the type: they’ve traveled everywhere, they’ve seen everything, and they’ve definitely mastered skills that most of us mere mortals only dream about. But for one 25-year-old on Reddit, her new colleague Cathy decided to take the “fake it ’til you make it” mantra to a whole new, deeply embarrassing level. Imagine claiming you are a native-level speaker of a language only to find out your coworker actually grew up in the country where they speak it.
The Original Poster (OP) works in an office where Cathy, a 33-year-old who is described as “loud and assertive,” recently started. During a casual coffee break, the topic of travel came up. Cathy couldn’t wait to jump in and brag about her “exotic” trips to Europe and how she was genuinely worried that the travel ban would cause her foreign language skills to get rusty. She claimed she was “native-level” in three European languages, including French and Dutch, and boasted that Europeans are always shocked to find out she isn’t a local.
Usually, this is where most people would just nod and say “wow, cool,” but the OP is actually from Belgium. For those who skipped geography class, Belgium is a place where people are raised speaking—you guessed it—Dutch and French. The OP was genuinely excited to finally have someone to talk to in her mother tongue, so she naturally responded in Dutch to find some common ground. Instead of a friendly conversation, Cathy hit her with a sour face and a total insult, claiming the OP must have a “terrible accent” because she couldn’t understand a word.
The audacity of telling a native speaker that they don’t know how to speak their own language is truly a sh!t-show level of confidence. The OP didn’t back down, though. When Cathy asked where she was from, the OP explained her Belgian heritage and pointed out that she also speaks French—which, according to Cathy’s earlier boast, they could also use to chat. The OP admits she was being a bit of a “dick” here because she knew Cathy was full of bullsh!t, but honestly, can you blame her? Cathy reacted by stomping off like a toddler who just got caught with her hand in the cookie jar.
Later on, instead of apologizing for being a total liar, Cathy doubled down. She approached the OP and accused her of acting “superior” about her European heritage. Then, to make things even more toxic, she went behind the OP’s back and called her a “little b!tch” who enjoys bullying new colleagues. It is a classic move from the “haughty b!tch” playbook: get caught in a lie and then play the victim so you don’t have to face the embarrassment of your own making.
Let’s be real for a second: calling someone out on a lie isn’t bullying, especially when that lie involves them claiming a “native level” mastery of your actual culture. If Cathy didn’t want to be embarrassed, she simply shouldn’t have lied about something so easily debunked. It’s not “superior” to speak your own language; it’s just a fact of life. Cathy’s fragile ego couldn’t handle the fact that she wasn’t the most cultured person at the coffee machine, and she chose to lash out instead of just admitting she might have exaggerated.
The emotional commentary on this is pretty straightforward: Cathy is the ahole. If you are going to lie about your skills at work, maybe don’t do it to the person who actually possesses those skills. The OP was trying to be friendly, and Cathy turned it into a weird competition. To then go around the office calling the OP a b!tch is a level of unprofessionalism that suggests Cathy won’t be a “culture fit” for very long.
The other colleagues in the breakroom seem to agree, shrugging off Cathy’s tantrum because they know she’s the one who started the fire. But the OP is feeling the pressure to apologize just to “keep the peace.” We are here to tell her: Do NOT do it. Apologizing to a liar only validates their bullsh!t behavior. If Cathy feels humiliated, that is a “consequence of my own actions” problem, not a “bullying” problem.
There is something so satisfying about a liar getting caught in real-time, especially when they try to insult the person who caught them. Cathy tried to k!ll the OP’s credibility by attacking her accent, which is the ultimate defensive move for someone who doesn’t know what they’re talking about. It’s like telling a professional chef that they’re making toast wrong while you’re burning your own water.
The OP is wondering if she should just say sorry, but that would be a mistake. Cathy needs to learn that her words have weight and that she can’t just manufacture a personality out of “exotic” lies. If the office atmosphere is awkward, it’s because Cathy made it that way by being a fake. The OP should stay “superior” in her actual skills and let Cathy stew in her own embarrassment.
So, NTA (Not the ahole). The OP should keep speaking Dutch and French whenever she wants and let Cathy find a different hobby that doesn’t involve lying about her “native-level” skills. Maybe Cathy can take up a hobby she’s actually good at—like stomping away from conversations she can’t win.
What would you do if a coworker lied about a skill you actually have? Is it “bullying” to speak your native language to someone who claims to know it, or is Cathy just a total ahole for making it up? Let us know in the comments if the OP should apologize or if she should keep being a “little b!tch” for the sake of the truth!
She would have an excuse not to understand you if you had used Walloon!