{"id":1255,"date":"2011-09-18T12:24:42","date_gmt":"2011-09-18T12:24:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.language-museum.com\/blog\/?p=1255"},"modified":"2011-09-18T10:27:28","modified_gmt":"2011-09-18T10:27:28","slug":"embarrassing-mistakes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.language-museum.com\/blog\/2011\/09\/18\/embarrassing-mistakes\/","title":{"rendered":"Embarrassing mistakes"},"content":{"rendered":"

We\u2019ve all made mistakes in our target languages, some of them embarrassing. The Johnson blog at The Economist asked readers<\/a> to share<\/a> their most depressing moments on the path to fluency \u2013 here are a few gems:<\/p>\n

Hydriotaphia <\/strong>– I also have a Japanese story. Having just returned from a year of intense language study, my girlfriend, two other Japanese-proficient friends and I decided to order in Japanese at an Izakaya in NYC. Of course, having been served our oden (if I recall correctly), I tried to ask our waitress whether there was any spicy mustard (karashi) available. Unfortunately, I in fact asked her whether she had a boyfriend (kareshi). Neither my girlfriend nor the waitress were pleased with me.<\/p>\n

Faedrus <\/strong>– One of the more famous mistakes English speakers make when learning to speak Spanish is to use the term “embarasada” – which means “pregnant” – when trying to say “embarrassed”. I had been speaking Spanish for about 15 years when I actually made that mistake at a dinner party, although I certainly knew better. I was – to say the least – embarrassed after I said it. But actually I just felt like an idiot.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

My most embarrassing moment so far was in Spain, when I was buying something in a clothes store. The transaction went well until the assistant asked me in Spanish if I\u2019d like a bag. I had no idea what she asked (although I suppose I could have guessed in the context) and my brain went completely blank \u2013 I couldn\u2019t even say \u201csorry, I don\u2019t speak Spanish\u201d! The pressure really got to me as there was a queue behind me. Eventually the assistant guessed that I spoke no Spanish and waved a bag at me whilst repeating her question. As soon as I\u2019d paid I escaped from the store very quickly! <\/p>\n

Like Johnson\u2019s writer and many of the commenters though, I find that native speakers often appreciate you making an effort in their language. Try not to take yourself too seriously, and laugh with the locals if you make a mistake! <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We\u2019ve all made mistakes in our target languages, some of them embarrassing. The Johnson blog at The Economist asked readers to share their most depressing moments on the path to fluency \u2013 here are a few gems: Hydriotaphia – I also have a Japanese story. Having just returned from a year of intense language study, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[100,27,40],"tags":[40,1052,1051,327,330],"class_list":["post-1255","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-culture","category-hints-and-tips","category-language-acquisition","tag-language-acquisition","tag-language-fluency","tag-language-mistakes","tag-spanish","tag-speaking"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.language-museum.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1255","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.language-museum.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.language-museum.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.language-museum.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.language-museum.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1255"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/www.language-museum.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1255\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1257,"href":"http:\/\/www.language-museum.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1255\/revisions\/1257"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.language-museum.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1255"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.language-museum.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1255"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.language-museum.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1255"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}