Miscommunications

Marcos has been studying English the last 2-3 years and he is so good that I sometimes forget that English is his second language.  Whenever I hear Spanish, sometimes I hear the word and it sounds similar to another Spanish word.  I'm a constant ball of confusion.  Here are a few of our miscommunications. 

I was sitting on the bed looking at my laptop and having a discussion with Marcos, while he was on his computer.  The last line of the conversation was from me to Marcos: "Don't be so defensive."
Long 10-20 second pause.  Marcos looks over at me and says, "What is so expensive?"

I came home from the Pharmacy with a box of "throat lozenges".  They came in a box, which is not as normal as USA, but the directions say to suck on them and they tasted minty just like at home.  I had a horrible sore throat, so I laid down on Marcos's bed, opened my laptop to watch the latest Grey's Anatomy and Private Practice, and started to suck those babies down.  2 hours or more passed when Marcos says, "You can now have another one of your medicines, enough time has passed."  I looked at him and said, "What medicine?"  He looked at me and stared.  I then picked up the box and said, "theeesee?  I have had 12 so far!"  Woops.... maximum in 24 hours was 8.  Overdose symptoms were hypertension and stroke.  Sweet Jesus I was paranoid but nothing bad happened and I didn't die in my sleep (obviously).

When practicing English with my friend Vane, she described to me what she did in class.
"My teacher touched me....." umm....
"Taught Vane, taught!"
I didn't tell her what she really said, as I didn't want to embarrass her.

When asking Marcos where something was, he replied, "It's in the toilet!"  And I thought "WHAT?!?! IN THE TOILET!! WHY?"  But then I realized, they call the bathroom, 'toilet'.  Which kind of makes sense because some bathrooms don't have baths only toilets.  

While in Barcelona I asked Marcos "Is there any other museums that you wanted to see today?"  Marcos: "Yes, but they are already in my pants."  Me: "um... are you trying to be cheeky with me?"  I heard pants, but what he really said was plans.

Handing Marcos my water bottle to pack in his suit case, I said "Can you fit this?"  He took it and I went on with my packing.  30 second later he handed it back filled with water.  (fit / filled)

"I think I have lice," I said as I itched my head.
Marcos: "um, like the potato chips!"  (Lays)

Marcos and Paco were rough housing and Marcos hit Paco in the leg.  All fun intended, Marcos actually hurt Paco.  Later Marcos and I were on the bus discussing the incident.  After a little pause Marcos finished the topic with the statement "I hope he's okay".  I looked at him, trying really hard to understand what he said and finally just asked if what I heard as correct "You want a piece of cake?"

While in Spanish class, I told my teacher what foods I ate in Chaouen.  Instead of saying "pollo" which is chicken, I said "polla" (which is a really stupid mistake, but a funny one!) which means "cock" or "dick".  She burst out laughing and said in english "no no, that means cock!"

I am sure there will be plenty more miscommunication as long as I continue to hang out with bi-lingual friends and studying Spanish!!  Fun times.

xo

ps:  Some of you are having troubles viewing my pictures in your email.  I am not sure how to correct the problem, but if you would like to view the images, just go directly to my blog site.  

Comments

Alisa said…
Hehehee...in the toilet! I'll be laughing about some of these for awhile to come (p.s. thanks for the heads up on the polla mistake--I didn't know--and certainly will be careful around that one, now!)

I asked a friend the other day at church if her son's name was Rico. She was very very confused. Oops...I meant--Ricki. Yeah--seeing how she/he is not rico, it made for a good laugh for both of us!

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