Oh God, this legitimately happened to me. Laughed out loud after someone apologized for his absence the previous week due to his mother's funeral. People glared while I wondered why.
Oh, the joys of missing pieces and misunderstood words! When I was twelve, my class was on an exchange stay in England and my host family asked me - as I thought - if I wanted to ride a bike. After some confusion and no bike anywhere, I figured out that they just asked if I wanted my packed lunch in a bag. I was pretty embarassed. But one of my friends had it much worse. Her host mum showed her a photo of a baby and said: "This is my daughter when she was born", and my friend, seeing the red face that a baby has just after birth, thught she was saying "when she was burnt" and responded with "I'm so sorry." She got some weird looks!
(Maybe it's obvious but perhaps I should have mentioned that I'm from a non-English speaking country and didn't have much command of the English language back then.)
Oh, the bittersweetness of this.
ReplyDeleteWhen I was first learning Thai I had this experience many times. I swear that guy said something about a watermelon! He just laughed at my response.
ReplyDeleteWith how fast the Spanish speak, I am always playing this guessing game
ReplyDeleteOh God, this legitimately happened to me. Laughed out loud after someone apologized for his absence the previous week due to his mother's funeral. People glared while I wondered why.
ReplyDeleteSmooth. What did you think they were talking about?
DeleteOh, the joys of missing pieces and misunderstood words! When I was twelve, my class was on an exchange stay in England and my host family asked me - as I thought - if I wanted to ride a bike. After some confusion and no bike anywhere, I figured out that they just asked if I wanted my packed lunch in a bag. I was pretty embarassed.
ReplyDeleteBut one of my friends had it much worse. Her host mum showed her a photo of a baby and said: "This is my daughter when she was born", and my friend, seeing the red face that a baby has just after birth, thught she was saying "when she was burnt" and responded with "I'm so sorry." She got some weird looks!
(Maybe it's obvious but perhaps I should have mentioned that I'm from a non-English speaking country and didn't have much command of the English language back then.)
ReplyDelete