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[Celeste]

When I lived in Korea, I learned enough Korean to get by in the shops and with the taxi drivers, here in Japan, I am trying to do better than that because there are actually language classes available to me.

Still, I have some odd experiences due to the language barrier.

Like the time I ordered 2 cheeseburgers with 4 bags of french fries and four cokes. I had mixed up the words one and two, but I also had no idea that the pricing I was looking at was for a cheese burger set. I then proceeded to order a beverage and fries to go with my cheeseburger. (Still mixing up the words for one and two) They didn't bat an eye. I was floored when I saw the MOUNTAIN of food they started placing on my tray.

Like the time I tried to buy a phone card and bought a 7/11 gift certificate card instead.(Still trying to use that one up.)

Like the time I went to a doctor and tried to convey to him that I was allergic to aspirin so he prescribed aspirin for me- fortunately the pharmacist was on the ball!

So, what ridiculous scrapes and adventures have you gotten yourselves into in your new home country due to language mix ups?

[Seth]

Once there was a formal dinner around Christmas at my school in China, where the foreigners got to sit with the headmasters (such a honor, lemmetellya ), and the owner of the school said 'weidao bangjile.' I knew what bangjile meant, 'wonderful', but I didn't quite know what weidao meant. So I put 2 and 2 together. Wei by itself means stomach, dao by itself means to arrive. So I thought that since we were eating, it meant that the food arrived in the stomach. So I tried to explain what they meant to the guy sitting next to me, and the translator started laughing and told everyone in the hall what I had just said. Weidao means 'aroma', nothing to do with stomachs or arriving. The whole hall erupted into laughter at the dumb foreigner. Sometimes knowing little is worse than knowing nothing. This is the same dinner where the headmaster looks at the two black foreign teachers and says 'you are both black but you look different.' Will wonders never cease?

There was another time where I was sitting in a cab with a Brazilian, a Brit, and a French guy. The French guy was riding shotgun and he was practicing his Chinese with the cab driver. (we also taught the cab driver the F-word but that's a whole other funny story) I don't remember what Frenchie was talking about, but he suddenly says in Chinese 'Yes, Yes, I like to sell little girls.' I laughed as I was the only other Chinese speaking foreigner, and the cabbie looked at me and laughed. I'm not sure what he was trying to say. There's nothing more fun than Chinese cab drivers, I could write a book on it.