orlando

anyone got amusing mistakes they have made using other languages? my own short list:<BR>asking for armchairs in a Cuban post office (sellos = stamps, sillones = armchairs)<BR>asking for "steel" in Yugoslavia (instead of steam iron)<BR>not a gaffe but amusing - as a teenager spending 10 mnutes working out how to ask for cheesy biscuits "avete biscotti con formaggio" only to have the proprietor say "si signorina, Ritz"

frenchie

My little niece learing French:<BR><BR>Une pomme paresseuse! <BR><BR>(au lieu de "pourrie") ;o)

orlando

just remembered many years ago I told an Italian I didnt eat spaghetti because it was bad for my figure - he thought I was saying "figa" which is apparently italian for liver

frenchie

Hm... well 'liver' would actually be 'il fegato'. Never mind!<BR><BR>

Mome

Telling a gendarme in Vence that I had lost "mes allumettes" (matches) and having him offer me a clic of his bic, when what I really had lost were "mes lunettes" (glasses).

Rex

See this thread<BR><BR>http://www.fodors.com/forums/pgMessages.jsp?fid=2&tid=1355323<BR><BR>for much more of the same. Just topped.<BR><BR>Best wishes,<BR><BR>Rex<BR>