Comical Mistakes When Speaking a Foreign Language

[marmoset]

I remembered a good one.

At the high school where I teach English in Japan, one of the Japanese teachers of English passed me on my way to the restroom. He said he wanted to discuss something, so I turned around to walk with him back to the staff room. Then he said, "ah, we can talk after you take a bath."

As I proceeded to go "take my bath," I imagined him continuing on and smacking himself on the forehead when he realized what he said. His English was better than that.

[CrOtALiTo]

Nice the story.

[Luna]

We had just moved to Arizona and shared a duplex with a Mexican family. We wanted to introduce ourselves to our neighbors so we asked them to come for an outdoor barbecue. Mistake #1 - We are from the midwest and my husband did not notice the cold weather. All of us, except him, were shivering. Mistake #2 - I studied Spanish at the university twenty years ago but could barely remember it. I was trying to tell them we had a son who was 19 years old, but I said he was 90 years old! Our guests were very polite and eventually realized what I meant to say. When I realized my mistake I couldn't stop laughing. They were so polite they wouldn't laugh with me. That broke the ice for me. After that I wasn't afraid to try to speak. I simply accept that I will make mistakes all the time. - Luna

[marmoset]

Originally Posted by Luna

We had just moved to Arizona and shared a duplex with a Mexican family. We wanted to introduce ourselves to our neighbors so we asked them to come for an outdoor barbecue. Mistake #1 - We are from the midwest and my husband did not notice the cold weather. All of us, except him, were shivering. Mistake #2 - I studied Spanish at the university twenty years ago but could barely remember it. I was trying to tell them we had a son who was 19 years old, but I said he was 90 years old! Our guests were very polite and eventually realized what I meant to say. When I realized my mistake I couldn't stop laughing. They were so polite they wouldn't laugh with me. That broke the ice for me. After that I wasn't afraid to try to speak. I simply accept that I will make mistakes all the time. - Luna

Fun story. I love laughing at my own mistakes too. I'm so glad that it made you NOT afraid to speak instead of the reverse. All too often, 2nd language learners (sometimes myself included) become too afraid of making mistakes.

[Caballero]

Hmm. It could be a good idea to make a few deliberate comical (but not rude) mistakes (like "my son is 90 years old"), so if you ever do say something completely inappropriate (e.g. Estoy caliente), they will forgive you for it.

[CrOtALiTo]

Originally Posted by Luna

We had just moved to Arizona and shared a duplex with a Mexican family. We wanted to introduce ourselves to our neighbors so we asked them to come for an outdoor barbecue. Mistake #1 - We are from the midwest and my husband did not notice the cold weather. All of us, except him, were shivering. Mistake #2 - I studied Spanish at the university twenty years ago but could barely remember it. I was trying to tell them we had a son who was 19 years old, but I said he was 90 years old! Our guests were very polite and eventually realized what I meant to say. When I realized my mistake I couldn't stop laughing. They were so polite they wouldn't laugh with me. That broke the ice for me. After that I wasn't afraid to try to speak. I simply accept that I will make mistakes all the time. - Luna

I'm sorry I didn't understand completely the jokes.
I guess you have a son with 90 years old?

[Caballero]

Originally Posted by CrOtALiTo

I'm sorry I didn't understand completely the jokes.
I guess you have a son with 90 years old?

Ella dice "Mi hijo tiene noventa años."--pero realmente su hijo tiene solamente 19 años. Olvidó la palabra correcta para 19.

[CrOtALiTo]

Hahahahaha.

I catch you.

Before this explanation I didn't catch you.

[Rusty]

Originally Posted by CrOtALiTo

Hahahahaha.

I catch you. I got it.

Before your explanation I didn't get it.

Corrections.

[CrOtALiTo]

Originally Posted by Rusty

Corrections.

Just I wanted to improve with other new expression for me hahaha.

But very inside to me, I knew that expression was incorrect

Thank you for the correction.

[laepelba]

Originally Posted by Luna

We had just moved to Arizona and shared a duplex with a Mexican family. We wanted to introduce ourselves to our neighbors so we asked them to come for an outdoor barbecue. Mistake #1 - We are from the midwest and my husband did not notice the cold weather. All of us, except him, were shivering. Mistake #2 - I studied Spanish at the university twenty years ago but could barely remember it. I was trying to tell them we had a son who was 19 years old, but I said he was 90 years old! Our guests were very polite and eventually realized what I meant to say. When I realized my mistake I couldn't stop laughing. They were so polite they wouldn't laugh with me. That broke the ice for me. After that I wasn't afraid to try to speak. I simply accept that I will make mistakes all the time. - Luna

Many of the students to whom I teach math are native Spanish speakers who are learning to speak English. They have a lot of trouble with:
- "thirty" & "thirteen"
- "fourty" & "fourteen"
- "fifty" & "fifteen"
etc...

Some of them have a horrible time with quick recall on those differences, and in a math classroom, that is quite an important thing to keep straight!

[chileno]

We latins, in general, have problems with pronouncing the end of words, and that is represented by the problem laepelba describes.

I started to work again with Cuban refugees and that reminded me the many problems they have in pronouncing regular Spanish, and that represent a real problem when teaching them English.

ie:

Egipto for the most of them becomes Egicto.


So I made a small experiment and wrote in the blackboard:

Napkin

Sure enough they had problems in pronouncing the word and some of them had to think it over a couple of seconds before uttering any word. And all of them finally settled on:

Natkin

I have done this with different people at different times, and it is always the same result. There just a few of them that will pronounce correct in Spanish "Egipto" and in English "Napkin"

We have a great time as we laugh at how we all have our problems in pronouncing Spanish and at the same time I make them aware that we have to overcome those problems if we are going to speak English a bit better than the average Hispanic.

[wrholt]

Originally Posted by chileno

We latins, in general, have problems with pronouncing the end of words, and that is represented by the problem laepelba describes.

I started to work again with Cuban refugees and that reminded me the many problems they have in pronouncing regular Spanish, and that represent a real problem when teaching them English.

ie:

Egipto for the most of them becomes Egicto.
....

Alternate pronunciations of /p/ followed by another consonant is not limited to Cuba: from my own experience this is common in parts of Central America, too, particularly Nicaragua. I recall first noticing it when people talked about Pepsi Cola, which came out as Pecsi Cola.

[chileno]

Right...

[AngelicaDeAlquezar]

@wrholt: "Pecsi cola" is said in Mexico too... Pepsico has launched their products with both spellings, and they hired a popular football player to advertise them.

[chileno]

Originally Posted by AngelicaDeAlquezar

@wrholt: "Pecsi cola" is said in Mexico too... Pepsico has launched their products with both spellings, and they hired a popular football player to advertise them.

By any chance, this wouldn't be for people from Córdoba, would it?

[AngelicaDeAlquezar]

¿Córdoba, Veracruz? No tengo idea, pero creo que la población-objetivo era más amplia.

[chileno]

Originally Posted by AngelicaDeAlquezar

¿Córdoba, Veracruz? No tengo idea, pero creo que la población-objetivo era más amplia.

Sólo preguntaba, por siaca.

En Chile hay algunos que pronuncian así, pero no es una cosa muy generalizada.

[pjt33]

Lo que Pepsi me recordó de algo que vi en el supermercado, pero solo hoy me acordé de comprobarlo al bajar de compras.

Parece que hay alguna oferta, y ponen "Pepsi o Pesi - lo digas como lo digas, ahorras".

[chileno]

Originally Posted by pjt33

Lo que Pepsi me recordó de algo que vi en el supermercado, pero solo hoy me acordé de comprobarlo al bajar de compras.

Parece que hay alguna oferta, y ponen "Pepsi o Pesi - lo digas como lo digas, ahorras".

jajaja también.