I had a friend who had a real problem with Jehovah's Witnesses coming to his door all the time. So one day, he and two of his friends dressed up as devils, and when they answered the door, yelled down the hallway: "Satan! The Jehovahs are here!"
They never had a problem with them again.
Yeah, see, that wouldn't have worked with us at all. I've seen people try it, and a) assumed they are lying; and b) would actually have been more interested in talking to them if they really did worship Satan.
I doubt anyone would try to speak Spanish to me... if I ever used the "I no speak Engrish" excuse (which I don't recall that I did) they would have tried a hail of Mandarin or Cantonese at me, considering that I am Asian and it is Arcadia.![]()
On several occasions I had obviously Hispanic people tell me (when I responded to their English) with "No hablo inglés". When I responded in Spanish, they would look confused (a white guy! speaking Spanish!) and say they didn't speak Spanish. So I would ask them if they spoke Chinese, they would think that was a safe response - until I busted out with my two phrases of badly-pronounced Mandarin, which was enough to convince them I spoke Chinese. At this point they would just shut the door in our faces.
Moral of the story: within my first day as a missionary, I had seen all the "tricks" and excuses that people would use. You might as well just tell the truth.
All of this is very OT, by the way.