Have you ever made any embarassing mistakes?

[Ally]

I only ask this because I was talking to my Auntie and she told me that when she was 60 she told a shopkeeper she was 'muy caliente'. The poor guy said jokingly that she was a bit old for him :blush:

The other one happened the other day at the doctors when she told him she had problems with her knee and he laughed. She'd said 'rodillo' instead of 'rodilla'.

Still, we have to make mistakes in order to learn!

[Edith]

I only ask this because I was talking to my Auntie and she told me that when she was 60 she told a shopkeeper she was 'muy caliente'. The poor guy said jokingly that she was a bit old for him :blush:

The other one happened the other day at the doctors when she told him she had problems with her knee and he laughed. She'd said 'rodillo' instead of 'rodilla'.

Still, we have to make mistakes in order to learn!

LOL, it's easy to guess what you mean!

Rodillo must be some sort of colloquial expression, though - I have never heard of it before. This is what the dictionary says:

rodillo:


Definición (http://www.wordreference.com/definicion/rodillo) | Sinónimos (http://www.wordreference.com/sinonimos/rodillo)
En Francés (http://www.wordreference.com/esfr/rodillo) | En Portugués (http://www.wordreference.com/espt/rodillo)
in context (http://groups.google.es/groups?hl=es&lr=lang_es&q=rodillo) | images (http://images.google.com/images?hl=es&safe=on&q=rodillo)
rodillo m roller
rodillo de cocina, rolling pin

[Victor]

Yes, yes.... I remember one day, when I was studying in the US... I had run out of paper, so I asked the girl sitting right next to me if she could give me a "shit". (I'll always remember how she looked at me when I said that) She wouldn't react, so I insisted: "Could you please give me a shit of paper?" Then she seemed so relieved...
Pretty much the same when I told my friends how much I missed the bitch "meaning la playa, of course"
English is so hard for me to pronounce ...Aghhh! You just have too many vowels!

[thismortalcoil]

Once when I was studying in Mexico, I ordered a meal and told them to please leave off the "lechuza." The man looked puzzled but then, I suppose, realized I meant to say "lechuga." :blush:

[Edith]

Once when I was studying in Mexico, I ordered a meal and told them to please leave off the "lechuza." The man looked puzzled but then, I suppose, realized I meant to say "lechuga." :blush:

Maybe they ran out of owls... ;D

[Ben]

There was the time that I told Marina's mother I liked Polla a la Korma...
...not the Indian dish I had meant to refer to!

[Chiny]

I asked the girl sitting right next to me if she could give me a "shit". [Snip] Then she seemed so relieved...
Ah... right - this may not be what you meant ;D

I am beginning to dread what solecisms I may have committed in Spanish.

--
Chiny

[Victor]

Ah... right - this may not be what you meant ;DChiny
No, I certainly didn't mean that. But it works great though;D

[Kate B]

After being in Mexico for a few weeks, I told my host family that I was married (casada) instead of being tired (cansada). They all looked at me with this strange look on their faces, and clarified what I had said.

The rest of my stay, they kept asking me how my "husband" was doing. :)

[Edith]

There was the time that I told Marina's mother I liked Polla a la Korma...
...not the Indian dish I had meant to refer to!

Oops! :D

[Brian]

The funny thing, though, is though you may have said something embarrassing, the important thing is that you were trying to express yourself, something that your foreign-speaking listener most likely appreciated.

[Bolboreta]

Pretty much the same when I told my friends how much I missed the bitch "meaning la playa, of course"
English is so hard for me to pronounce ...Aghhh! You just have too many vowels!
I missed: the Ocean, the Sea, "that thing with sand and water", anything to avoid saying "the beach". I just refused to try (and I think I can make the difference, but just in case...)

The weirdest one I remember saying was "I'm putting some ointment in my knee", and freaking the guy I was talking to because he though I had a hole there :o Seriously, I hate prepositions even more than vowels... and that's saying something!

[neskadebilbao]

Do not confuse the word pie as in foot in Spanish with the postre pie as in Apple Pie. I once ordered feet in Mexico. The waiter looked at me like I was nuts. ;D

[Ally]

One of the guys here at work told me one he'd made in French. He was trying to order Ocean Pizza and they heard it as Pizza au chien - "you want DOG pizza?".

[Ally]

There was the time that I told Marina's mother I liked Polla a la Korma...
...not the Indian dish I had meant to refer to!

Someone's going to have to help me here otherwise I'll be scared of ordering chicken for the rest of my life :o

I know (now) what polla/pollo means so how do I order chicken without shocking people?

[Bolboreta]

Well, the food is definitely pollo, always. You can say "polla" for a female chicken, but it'd have to be alive *shrugs*

[Andy E]

The BBC has a section devoted to often embarassing mishaps in various languages. Well worth a visit for "what not to say". Some of them are hilarious.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/languages/yoursay/lost_for_words.shtml

Andy.

[Catica]

"¡Mira, mira las sandías!"

Said by a friend of mine as she pointed to her new sandals. Sandía means watermelon.

I haven't had the opportunities to make this type of blunder, but it's not that I'm not capable. Just give me time!

[rlilloy]

yo hubiera aprovechado la situacion, el malentendido, how do you say "malentendido".

[Edith]

yo hubiera aprovechado la situacion, el malentendido, how do you say "malentendido".

In English? Misunderstanding.

[Brian]

In English? Misunderstanding.

More likely, misunderstood, since it's past tense.

[Bolboreta]

Nope, it's misunderstanding, because he was using it as a noun :)

In fact, I don't think we use the verb "malentender" that much (I had to look it up to see if it existed!)

[gary]

When my son was 14 he broke his wrist. On the way to hospital the taxi driver asked what had happened. I said

Su muñeca esta roto, ha casado, instead of caido

¡Hay mucho dolor en cada circumstancia!

[Edith]

Su muñeca esta roto, ha casado, instead of caido

;D

BTW, did you know esposa also means handcuff? :D

[gary]

;D

BTW, did you know esposa also means handcuff? :D

Not conciously but I had the strangest feeling.....

[Ally]

Not conciously but I had the strangest feeling.....
I learnt 'las esposas' in last weeks lesson! It was clearly a man that invented Spanish ;) ;D

[Edith]

Not conciously but I had the strangest feeling.....

LOL!

[ValenciaSon]

When I was a kid, we were watching a movie that took place at an insane asylum. A spanish cousin of mine asked where was it taking place and I answered: un grande mariconio.

[Edith]

mariconio.

;D

[Brian]

When I was a kid, we were watching a movie that took place at an insane asylum. A spanish cousin of mine asked where was it taking place and I answered: un grande mariconio.

Wow, now that's a freudian slip if I've ever heard one. ;D

[que]

I remeber when my spanish house mate's family came to visit, when asking her mum who didnt speak much English to 'besame la pimienta' instead of 'pasame la pimienta' at the dinner table, needless to say it got some laughs.

Thats the one that sticks out the most, but there have been numerous. But it makes me laugh, and its those words and phrases i dont forget! So it helps.

I also have a female friend that asked for a 'bocodillo de polla' at a kebab shop in south Spain once. :o ja ja ja

[angeltreats]

I know this is an old thread but I thought this might make some of you guys giggle.

We were in a bar the other night and an (English) friend showed up with a drastic haircut. He'd had his thick longish curls all chopped off. I asked him, in Spanish, what had happened to his hair. He replied "no tenía pene".

We all fell about laughing, not unkindly.

He meant to say "peine" and when explained to him what he'd said, he had a good laugh too :)

I hope he doesn't read this!

[eldeano]

I remember sitting in a taxi in Madrid and trying to make a joke. The driver looked a bit puzzled so I explained to him that it was only a chiste, except I said chispa instead. He then looked even more puzzled!

[Palmerito]

When I first moved to Puerto Rico and was just learning Spanish, I went to the store one day and asked the lady behind the counter "Donde estan los jueves?" when of course I meant to ask "Donde estan los huevos?" She knew what I meant, though. I'm sure she thought, "Well, at last the gringo is trying to speak".