Thanks to everyone for sending in your language slip-ups!

Cactus and Rough Guides had a good laugh at all your language blunders so thanks to everyone who sent something in. Inevitably, some were too rude to put in our newsletter but a big thanks for sending them anyway! It just goes to show that your language teacher is not joking when they say pronounciation is extremely important! Here are some of the funniest entries, each person has received a Rough Guide Phrasebook to help them avoid any future embarrassment:

Malcolm Walrond
"I was abroad for the first time in my life, a language student starting a year as an English Assistant in France. I went diffidently and on my own into a restaurant. The waitress took my order then asked "Pour boire?" which I interpreted as "pourboire" (well, you can't hear the space between words, can you?) Hence my stupid reply -"Déjà?" I still blush!"

Fuschia Hutton
"When I was studying abroad in Italy, people would ask me how long I was going to stay there. My pronunciation was quite bad, so I excitedly told them that I was in Italy for the whole of the anus, not that I was there for the whole year. They all laughed at me but wouldn't tell me what it meant so I had to go home and look it up in my dictionary."

James Daley
"When I accepted my friend Gilles's invitation to "discuter" Irish history with his student friends in the English language course at the Sorbonne. When I sat down among the students, expecting them to start a "discussion", the professor came over and escorted me to the podium, where he invited me to give a scheduled one and a half-hour lecture, one in a series which was being given by distinguished lecturers. I should add that I was in an open-necked shirt and jeans: as somebody said, giving my best Brendan Behan impression."

Carol Norbury
"Well it's a little bit rude so I hope that's ok, but whilst living in Japan I made a bit of a faux pas. The Japanese are well known for their politeness but this isn't always true, the language is largely bereft of insults which is a good thing but ocassionally they are necessary. To cut a long story short I wanted to insult somebody by saying that they had a little willy which would be "chin chin chisai" instead I said "chin chin kudasai" which means "I would like some willy please" and led to red faces all round. Perhaps the moral of the story is not to insult people. I must add that I don't make a habit of abusing people in foreign languages."

Lisa Haveron
"On my GAP Year in Uganda I was standing in front of about 200 people, practicing my limited Luganda (their local language). I was talking a bit about myself and it was all going well until I tried to say "Ngenda kufuuka..." (I am going to become...). What I actually said was "Ngenda kufuka" (tiny difference in sound). I got a lot of chuckles from the people and a Ugandan friend came up to me and told me instead of saying "I was going to become", I had told the crowd "I was going to urinate"!!!! I was very embarrassed, but it was very funny at the same time!! I never made that mistake again!!"

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