Comical Mistakes When Speaking a Foreign Language

[Sancho Panther]

The funny thing was though, I addressed her in Spanish and she seemed to know what I was saying (judging from her answer) - she answered in English, but I carried on in Spanish! Something on the lines of "¡Vale, muy bien - no importa!".

As I walked away I was thinking "Why didn't I say, 'it's OK, I'll find one!". Or even just "Danke"!

A lo mejor entendió un poco del español, pero no suficiente para contestarme y fue más conifiada en el inglés.

[aleCcowaN]

En Tarragona yo tuve que darme a entender dos veces en inglés porque comenzaban a contestarme en catalán, todo en los dos únicos días de mi vida que estuve allí.

(By the way, why did she day "I'm German" instead of "I'm a tourist" or "a German tourist"?) In my experience, those multi-language dialogues that take us by surprise are not our most brilliant and memorable moments. The question is not why something went wrong but the miracle of having communication against all odds.

[Caballero]

Originally Posted by Sancho Panther

The funny thing was though, I addressed her in Spanish and she seemed to know what I was saying (judging from her answer) - she answered in English, but I carried on in Spanish! Something on the lines of "¡Vale, muy bien - no importa!".

As I walked away I was thinking "Why didn't I say, 'it's OK, I'll find one!". Or even just "Danke"!

A lo mejor entendió un poco del español, pero no suficiente para contestarme y fue más conifiada en el inglés.

That makes sense. I try to speak Spanish with everyone I know that has taken Spanish. Usually they can understand what I say to them (unless they're really beginnerish), but they can't respond back in Spanish, so they just respond in English and I continue speaking to them in Spanish.

Just for the benefit of those who seem to lack comprehension of the British sense of humour...

the bit about the bowler hat was a joke.

I've seen a lot of people with bowler hats lately, so it didn't register as being a joke.

En Tarragona yo tuve que darme a entender dos veces en inglés porque comenzaban a contestarme en catalán, todo en los dos únicos días de mi vida que estuve allí.

It's funny how Catalan is so intelligible on paper, but is not very intelligible in speech, unless they're discussing technical subjects.

[aleCcowaN]

Originally Posted by Caballero

It's funny how Catalan is so intelligible on paper, but is not very intelligible in speech, unless they're discussing technical subjects.

It's another case of a language having more sounds than the alphabet used to write it down, like Portuguese, French or English. Catalan has 5 e's what is way too much for me -I have enough with the 3 e's in English-. I'd rather read and write in Japanese (hiragana or katakana) but having about the same sounds and syllabic rhythm as Spanish, that try to learn Brazilian Portuguese by ear.

[Sancho Panther]

Which is way too much for me.