Thursday, April 23, 2009

Spanish Slip-Ups

So I'm learning Spanish. And I still make plenty of mistakes that all you can do is laugh at...

One of the language blunders came in Mexicali. We were driving around (Rick was in the driver's seat). A little lost. Very dark. No street lights. Two lane, twisting and turning road. I'm in the back seat and all of a sudden I saw a speed bump. And I could tell by how fast Rick was driving he didn't see it. Even though all of us in the car spoke English, for some reason Spanish was the first thing to come out of my mouth...I yelled "Totopo!!" Now that is not the correct word for speed bump in Spanish which is "tope." What I actually yelled was "Tortilla chip!!" Everyone in the car had a good laugh.

Another Spanish slip-up came when we were at home about to go into town or something. I don't remember. I was still getting ready and said, "Necesito ponerme mantequilla." I was pretty sure when that sentence came out of my mouth something was wrong with it. I meant to say, "I need to put makeup on." Mantequilla is not the word of make up. It's actually the word for butter. So what I actually said was, "I need to put butter on." If you're wondering, the real word for makeup is maquillaje. Close. But not nearly right.

Oh, the joys of learning a language!

3 comments:

Jennifer said...

hahaha thank you for sharing those stories!

"TORTILLA CHIP!" :)

Marlene said...

hahahaha!! MANTEQUILLA!!! PRICELESS!!!

missy said...

so proud of you!! keep it up, girl!