Language Funnies

Our neighbors from Mexico provide us with lots of entertainment as they are learning English. Two recent examples:

Fernie came to the door last night and urgently asked, "Can I have a paper toliet?" King Jo was confused. "Please," she pleaded, "one paper toliet." She asked several times and I was just chuckling in the background. The funniest part was that King Jo, whom they refer to as Jose', kept asking if she meant "paper towels" or "paper." He didn't get it. They wanted a roll of toliet paper!

Today the girls were over playing and were bickering as usual. Fernie approached me to tattle on her sister and declared, "Lin-see, she is NOT telling the tooth!" (instead of truth).

Now that I've told on them, I can tell on myself. My Spanish speaking abilities leave a lot to be desired at times. Last fall when I was explaining how to make corn on the cob I told Lupe to put "manzanas (apples)" on top of the corn. She kept asking, "Si? Manzanas?" I would say, "Si! Manzanas!" What I meant to say was "mantaquilla (butter)!" We finally figured out my mistake!

Another blooper was when we were eating at their house and they were asking if King Jo drinks beer. I said in Spanish, "No, he doesn't drink "servietas" which means napkins/dishtowels, instead of saying, "serviesa" (beer).