So here we are in Panama armed with several years between us of forgotten high school German and French...We're making every effort to learn Spanish. Pat's been here longer than I have, so he's really getting into the swing of things...He can communicate most of his needs and now he's getting more discriptive...the only problem is...he usually gets the vocabulary a little off. Giggling can often be heard in the wake of his Spanish.
Getting out there and speaking up is important when you're trying to learn a language...and I admire Pat's outgoing attitude...You just have to be totally willing to make a fool of yourself...and I'm not so sure I'm there yet...
Example: There we are on the ocean shore trying to hire a boat to take us out to an island. In Panama, a small boat is called a panga...So Pat cruises up to a group of fishermen and tells them he's looking for a pinga...this garners a few smiles from the guys. Well, Pat doesn't quit there, he turns to one of the guys standing in front of his boat and says in his best Spanish, "You have a beautiful pinga...how much for a ride for my wife, my daughter and me?" The guy took pity on him...he pointed to his boat and said, "PANGA," he then pointed to his crotch and said "Pinga." It's all in the details.
HA HA! That's so funny! I mean I already knew about it. But in you words.
ReplyDeletelol! Oh, that brings back memories... ; ) One of my favorite "language mix-up" stories came from a fellow ex-pat friend I made in Geneva. She was visiting a French friend 's family, and the friend's mother had made these delicious jams by hand. So my friend was trying to ask about how she made them, and asked if she had used any "preservatifs" (meaning preservatives) in the jams. Turns out in French "preservatif" is condom.
ReplyDeleteThen there was the time Zach wore his "Grand Tetons" shirt to work, garnering loud snickers from all the men and vivid blushes from the females.
And Spanish is especially tricky, as the vocab varies to much from one country to another. I would have had no idea what "either "pinga" or "panga" meant, even though I'm fairly proficient in Spanish. Are you taking any classes? For the first several months after we moved to Switzerland I took about 20 hours a week of full-immersion french classes. That helped a LOT.
heh, your husband is lucky people are understanding and he wasn't given a black eye for that comment.
ReplyDelete:)
Lost in translation!
ReplyDeleteLove it!
ReplyDeleteNana
So hilarious. I can totally picture the whole incident. Did you go to the island where the crabs like leftover peanut butter sandwiches?:)
ReplyDeleteWhen I lived in Germany I knew how to speak some German as we had many German friends coming and going in Hungary all the time. What really helped me to learn more was to watch television pretty regularly. I know that helped my mom learn English too. When she came to the states she did not know any.
XO
Suzy