DEAR ABBY: The story of the Spanish speakers who assumed two blond Anglos wouldn't understand their rude comments reminds me of two incidents.
A blond man my husband works with had learned Hmong while serving in Vietnam. One day he was on the Paris subway while two girls were speaking Hmong to each other, harshly criticizing fellow passengers. The man waited until a break in their conversation, then gave them an equally bold critique -- in fluent Hmong. They were so stunned, they missed their stop.
Then there was the deaf woman I often waited on in a fabric shop where I worked. She liked for me to help her since I would sign "Hi" (the only word I knew in sign language), speak clearly while facing her, and take the time to puzzle out her speech. One day she told me that two women shopping nearby were planning to steal quite a few very expensive buttons by tucking them into the folds of the fabric they were buying. Sure enough, the manager stopped the women outside the store and the buttons were in the fabric. How did my customer know? She had read their lips! -- CORYN WEIGLE, ALEXANDRIA, VA.