Learn how to go deep undercover in a hostile foreign country

boing
1

Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2017/09/27/learn-how-to-go-deep-undercove.html

…

2 Likes
2

Completely applicable in todays world.

1 Like
3

So many small ways to slip up – it must have been nerve-wracking for spies and even worse for untrained people. The story goes that Gestapo agents were trained to spot escaped American POWs by the way they used their cutlery (if someone switched his fork and knife after cutting his food, he was probably American). Similarly, a Nazi spy was caught in England when he tried to buy a bottle of cider at a pub at 9AM. Then there’s this classic:

3 Likes
4

Guilty. I guess it still holds true.

1 Like
5

Heh. The baba does this. She’ll realise she’s answered a question in real language and look annoyed with herself, then go back to speaking Baby.

2 Likes
6

There was also the film where a German infiltrator was betrayed by they way he wrote his 7s, but I can’t remember what it was called, or anything else about it.

Conversely, there’s the apparently true story (for which I can’t find a link) about the British SOE agent who saved his own life when he was kicked awake by the Gestapo at 5am and instinctively swore in French.

2 Likes
7

The benefit of learning to think in the foreign tongue.

1 Like
8

Though Brad Pitt’s hilariously thick Texas drawl while pretending to be an Italian dignitary (“bon-jurrr-no!”) seemingly didn’t arouse notice.

9

This topic was automatically closed after 5 days. New replies are no longer allowed.