The proud Brussels Sprout

So, he sat in front of the mirror for many hours straight, holding a French book and rehearsing to make sure his accent would be perfect. As soon as he appeared in the grocery and spoke Greek with a French accent, however, the other fruit and vegetables burst into laughter as the sight was ridiculous.

He, then, got even angrier. Unable to calm down he went for a walk to the garden nearby so as to get some fresh air. A Chinese cabbage happened to pass by, who asked him for advice in his mother tongue, that is, in Han Chinese. The Brussels Sprout, then, answered in a perfect French accent, pretending to understand what he had said. Yet in reality, his talk was gibberish, as he didn’t know a single word in Chinese. So, they both kept on talking nonsense, until in the end, the Brussels Sprout angrily told the cabbage: “It’s all Greek to me!”, and walked away. The Chinese cabbage followed him and kept asking him for directions.

On their way they found an Italian radish, who also spoke in his mother tongue, that is, Italian. As soon as the Brussels Sprout heard him, he again replied using his well-trained French accent. Again, no one understood a thing, as nobody spoke the language of the other. Soon the Chinese cabbage followed, making the conversation totally incomprehensible. When the Brussels Sprout eventually turned his back on them and went back to the grocery store, they both followed him and kept asking questions in their language.

Reaching the grocery store, they found the other fruit and vegetables attending a standup comedy show by the anecdote – telling zucchini. “What is a Belgian, an Italian and a Chinese doing in a grocery store?”, asked the zucchini and everybody turned their attention to them.

“They are teaching us foreign languages!”, answered the crowd and they all pointed at the Brussels Sprout, bursting into laughter. He, then, became red with shame, as he was the only one of the three not really speaking a foreign language, and only pretending to be doing so by faking the accent.

From that day on he took his lesson, never to boast again to others about his noble descent.

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