When I was young, I met a couple. (51 words)

[Charlie Bernstein]

Don't you, Tarheel? It makes perfect sense to me. I'm not impressed when I listen to two native speakers of a language simply chatting to each other. However, if they are both speaking a second language, it's much more impressive.

You're right, but local and native are two different things. A local couple can be foreign or native.

I didn't get it at first, either.

[emsr2d2]

I agree that "local" doesn't necessarily mean "of the same nationality as me". To avoid all ambiguity, the situation would need to be described as:

When I was young, I often heard my Chinese neighbours speaking to each other in [fluent] English. I was really impressed and wanted to speak English like them when I grew up.