The REALLY interesting thing about learning Spanish is how much you mess up! You mix up letters; use “at” instead of “in”; use “on” instead of “around”; use he instead of she. You get flustered in the simplest situations and say the wrong thing even though you know the right thing….

Here’s a list of some of our funniest blunders:

1) On our hike to Chicabal Lake, we ran into an indigenous family farming potatoes, so we stopped to make some small talk.  They asked what we were doing, and our friend Kristen wanted to say – “Right now, we’re waiting for our friend, but in general we all study spanish in Xela.” So she said “Esperamos nosotros espanol estudiar en Xela” = “We’re waiting for our Spanish to study in Xela.”

 

Hike to Chicabal Lake

 

 

2) Same family – they asked where we lived, so I wanted to ask if they lived in the town at the bottom of the hill, which is called San Martin. I said, “Ustedes vivamos in San Simon?” = “You guys, we live in San Simon?” I accidentally asked them where WE lived, not where THEY lived….and I asked if we lived in San Simon, which is a Guatemalan Saint/god, not a town.

3) We heard about a guy on a crowded bus who got elbowed in the crotch by an old woman trying to get out. She apologized profusely and he replied “No importa. No tengo pene.” He MEANT to say, It’s no problem, it didn’t hurt. Instead, he said “It’s not important, I don’t have penis.” In Spanish, when you say something hurts, you say you HAVE pain. So he was trying to say he doesn’t have pain, but said he doesn’t have a penis!

4) Another student was looking for his pen at his host family’s house and asked everyone in the family “Buscando mi pene. Lo miraron?” = I’m looking for my penis. Have you seen it? (the word for pen, is “biligrifo”)

5) A few weeks ago at the bank, I opened the door and asked the security guard “Peudo cambiar dolores?” I meant to say “Can I change dolars?” but way I pronounced it, made it come out like “Can I change your pain?” He gave me a weird look and Miggy corrected it!