Since sign language is considered a foreign language for the hearing, I share this story. I was travelling in Florence with a friend. We were using the bus system to get back and forth to the hostel. Our italian was not very good, and it was her turn to ask for the correct bus number. There was an information kiosk at the bus station, so she grabbed her "pointy-talky" (phrase book) and approached the gentleman behind the counter. She promptly held out the book pointing to the phrase about the bus and asked "please".... Would you believe it! The man was blind! The gentlemen around him laughed so hard, one fell off the bench! The people on the bus were still laughing when we got on!

That it is perfectly OK to stay in a Best Western or "chain" hotel property...written in English on THIS site but for some rather miffed folks who responded it was obviously in a "foreign" language!

While in Munich a few years back, shortly after meeting the friends of a girl I knew in the States, I meant to say, 'Please don't let me disturb you', (they were momemtarily occupied), but mistakenly said 'Please don't let me destroy you'. I mixed up 'zerstören Sie' with 'stören Sie'. That kind of killed the buzz for a few moments, needless to say. Thankfully, once the mouths closed and eyes went back to normal size everyone laughed. I think my friend fell out of her chair when she found out.

My grandmother came to visit us in Germany when she was eighty. While shopping, a clerk spoke to her in German, and she replied (in English), "I'm sorry, I don't speak English!"