Charlize Theron Was Called Out for Speaking Afrikaans

James asks Charlize Theron about her and her mom's conversations in their native tongue, Afrikaans, and learns that it once backfired on them at an airport.

More Late Late Show:

Watch The Late Late Show with James Corden weeknights at 12:35 AM ET/11:35 PM CT. Only on CBS.

---
Each week night, THE LATE LATE SHOW with JAMES CORDEN throws the ultimate late night after party with a mix of celebrity guests, edgy musical acts, games and sketches. Corden differentiates his show by offering viewers a peek behind-the-scenes into the green room, bringing all of his guests out at once and lending his musical and acting talents to various sketches. Additionally, bandleader Reggie Watts and the house band provide original, improvised music throughout the show. Since Corden took the reigns as host in March 2015, he has quickly become known for generating buzzworthy viral videos, such as Carpool Karaoke."

[fallofcamelot]

One of my favourite stories was how a woman wearing a hijab was on a bus in Britain and she was speaking to her child in a language that was not English. One guy stands up gets in her face and shouts “We are in England! Speak English!” To which a little old lady nearby looked at him and said “Actually love we’re in Wales and she’s speaking Welsh”

[daftyfunky]

Everyone in the comments is in full campfire storytelling mode. I love it.

[therealbs]

1:03 The best part of this video for me was finding out that 3 percent of the world speaks Afrikaans and all 3 percent apparently was in the audience

[jambee_q]

I remember my first time in Rome when I'd just landed and the passport control guy saw my passport is Kenyan and he switched to speaking in swahili the whole time. And it was so good. And he was like he learned it from friends and Hopes to visit Kenya one day. Loved it. Did not expect that at all considering I was away from home

[leaflarkin]

Different vibe but: I was on the NYC train heading to Grand Central. There was a homeless guy with a big cardboard sign saying he was Deaf and that he needed help to get back home. I gave him money and started up a conversation with him in sign language. He was shocked and happy that someone knew his language. He was telling me how rare it is people give him money because people assume he is faking his deafness for sympathy (which I have experienced before). As soon as we started signing together, people noticed and began giving him money.

[bronkroon]

For those wondering.. he said.. "I can hear everything you are saying"

[timgerber]

My girlfriend and me once sat in the train when at the next stop a group of people entered and one guy started addressing the entire train in Polish. I just looked at him blank like: dude you‘re in Germany. What are you expecting!? Turns out my girlfriend who was born in poland later told me he said: Good evening ladies and gentlemen, does any other person on this train speak our beloved language? No? Wonderful. Hence we can continue to make fun of the Berliner‘s weird taste of clothing.

[KBWrecker]

Bad titles everywhere. She got called out for talking shit, not for speaking Afrikaans

[tattts]

Once in London, my friend and I were riding the taxi and we were busy speaking Portuguese and suddenly the driver, who was this older Indian gentleman, said something like "it's been a while since I heard that beautiful language". Me and my friend were stunned, not because we were talking smack about him, we weren't but because how random that was having an Indian in London understanding Portuguese. Then he proceeded to tell us how he was born in Goa, an ex Portuguese colony in India and his parents would speak Portuguese at home, and he still was able to understand.

[acjub]

I was on a train in London once. Ended up chatting a bit with the random man who sat next to me. We both spoke in English. Went on for maybe 10 minutes. Ended up asking where he was from. Turned out we were both Norwegian. We changed language after that. It was so bizarre.

[davidlarson]

I lived in Nigeria for a while as a kid and learned some of the local language. Years later working on an engineering project I recognized the accent and an engineer’s name were from that region. After his presentation I went up and said hello in Yoruba. He just stood there not knowing what to say. I said I thought you were Yoruba so I thought I greeted you in Yoruba. I am, he responded. I’m just not expecting a white guy in California to greet me in my native language. Sorry I didn’t respond, It just freaked me out a little.

[ryannarine]

He crowd gasped like they knew wtf the man said back 😂😂

[jimclark]

Misleading title. She wasn't called out for speaking Afrikaans, but for insulting the guy in Afrikaans.

[lenson]

Swore at this guy in Afrikaans in Toronto and low and behold he responded back in kind! We all started laughing.

[mr_knat]

Years ago I was in Amman (Jordan) and needed to fix an issue with a plane ticket at the airline’s office on the other side of the city. I didn’t really know where I was going and my cab driver didn’t either. He spoke almost no English and I spoke almost no Arabic. Randomly, we figured out that we both knew some German. He was just learning it and I hadn’t used it since high school but we spent a very pleasant half hour chit-chatting (in probably the best German of my life), and we found the office just fine.

[hanstun]

Caught a Swedish couple on the subway in Toronto discussing what they were going to do to each other later in the evening.... in very explicit detail. I was getting off before them so a quick "Ha en trevlig kvall" (Have a nice evening) just before the doors closed created some seriously red faces. :)

[ireallyreallyhategoogle]

"Called Out for Speaking Afrikaans"
Called Out for Badmouthing Someone in Afrikaans

[YadiraLaguerre]

It’s New York City. There is no language you can speak privately there.

[marymad]

I wouldn't use Afrikaans in front of Dutch speaking people either

[ALROD]

I’m stuck in the comment section. Someone please help!