Recently in Spanish class, we were learning about false cognates. The Spanish language has many words that sound really similar to their meanings in English. For example, "car" in English is "carro" in Spanish and they sound quite similar as well. However, this isn't always the case.
I remember a few years ago we were learning about the past tense in Spanish class and each student was required to give a short presentation using the past tense. I decided to write about a dinner party where I broke and plate and was then embarrassed. Carelessly, I thought that the word embarrassed was another common cognate, so I assumed that in Spanish, it would be "embarazada." So without trying to verify this self-created meaning, I just went with it and continued writing my presentation.
The next day, I gave my presentation, which was going well until I said "yo rompí un plato y fue embarazada." My Spanish teacher looked at me surprised and said "¿que?" I froze. What had I done wrong? She told me to repeat what I said and so I did.
"Wait what? Do you know what that means?" she asked.
"Yeah, doesn't it mean I dropped the plate and I was embarrassed?" I asked back.
She, being a lighthearted person, smiled at me and my somewhat understandable error. "That's not what you said, you said that you dropped the plate and were pregnant."
At that point, I was embarrassed and felt quite awkward that I had said that, but it was funny so I laughed it off and continued my presentation, trying not to make any more mistakes. But I did learn my lesson: things are not always what they seem to be...more importantly though, always use a Spanish-English dictionary when you don't know a word. :)
I remember a few years ago we were learning about the past tense in Spanish class and each student was required to give a short presentation using the past tense. I decided to write about a dinner party where I broke and plate and was then embarrassed. Carelessly, I thought that the word embarrassed was another common cognate, so I assumed that in Spanish, it would be "embarazada." So without trying to verify this self-created meaning, I just went with it and continued writing my presentation.
The next day, I gave my presentation, which was going well until I said "yo rompí un plato y fue embarazada." My Spanish teacher looked at me surprised and said "¿que?" I froze. What had I done wrong? She told me to repeat what I said and so I did.
"Wait what? Do you know what that means?" she asked.
"Yeah, doesn't it mean I dropped the plate and I was embarrassed?" I asked back.
She, being a lighthearted person, smiled at me and my somewhat understandable error. "That's not what you said, you said that you dropped the plate and were pregnant."
At that point, I was embarrassed and felt quite awkward that I had said that, but it was funny so I laughed it off and continued my presentation, trying not to make any more mistakes. But I did learn my lesson: things are not always what they seem to be...more importantly though, always use a Spanish-English dictionary when you don't know a word. :)
No comments:
Post a Comment