That's what I said, but not what I meant.

So here's something that happens a lot- I say something, but I don't really mean it. And it happens all the time with language-learners. Students at the Institute love to swap stories about things that they have said, but didn't really mean. For instance, embarazada could seem like a cognate for embarrassed, but it actually means pregnant. Arboles penes does not mean pine trees, as one student learned this week (this has become a running joke among most of the professors). Instead of telling Beatriz that I eat a hamburger and lots of desserts on the Fourth of July (Un hamburgesa y dulces y dulces y dulces), I just told her that I eat dozens and dozens of hamburgers (Un hamburgesa y doce y doce y doce). I also told her this morning that the fish I ate was like salmon, which sounds just like the Spanish word for semen. She got a kick out of that and told me to check my dictionary. And my favorite blooper so far was ordering a coffee and with "crema" on the side. I thought I was ordering cream for my coffee, but instead, I was ordering a plate of whipped cream. Of course I ate it. It was glorious.

Love and inappropriate cognates,
K