Funny experiences

[Mameha]

Study a language requires a lot of practice at home like writing, reading and training pronunciation. Have you ever had some funny experiences about this, or did you ever do a poor figure with someone? For example the other day i was cleaning my room, my mom entered to help me and she found a pair of sheets of my notebook that were written in Korean (with explanations of the meaning) in where i wrote the alphabet and its rules. She was just like this--->  because she didn't even recognize what language was ahah, and i had to explain what it actually was. 

Sometimes it happens even that i go around the house repeating some words and my brother just stares at me in a really bad way. 

What about you? Some funny experiences?

[宇崎ちゃん]

I was practising Japanese on Skype for an hour and as soon as the 50 minute mark passed, my little sister came in complaining she can't find any food.
My teacher saw her on camera, laughed his arse off (even though he didn't understand a single thing what she said) and my little sister quickly faded out of the living room.
It wasn't as much of a WTF moment for me as it was for my teacher.

Another moment is more related to me directly:
I've been at a local Chinese restaurant, staring at a painting filled with Chinese characters.
A restaurant worker saw this and came to me.
I told him "such a bad handwriting, the moon (月), dog (犬) and that good/like (好) characters are way too wide", and he stared at me like "how the bloody fuck could he possibly guess them".

[Saholy]

Yesterday I wanted to tell someone I was washing my hair (Avy mandro ny voloko) But instead I said, 'I'm cooking my money.' (Avy mahandro ny volako.) The person just stared at me like I was crazy and walked away. It wasn't until later that I realized what I said. Thats the hardest part, the delayed response my brain has to recognizing error. I have also meant to introduce my husband by saying, 'Hello this is my husband (Vadiko)' but instead I would say, 'Hello this is your husband' (Vadinao) I have that one down now. So I guess these funny experiences help us keep our sense of humor which is also very important for language learning. Great idea for a post! I hope we get more like this. 

[Lingua Franca]

Anyone that speaks more then one language will use words from another language without realizing it. I can't tell you the amount of times I am speaking to someone and you just see the person crease their brow and just stare at me. I often have to back track trying to figure out which was the word that I used that the person didn't understand.

[Mameha]

Yeah similar words with different meaning are one of the most cause of experiences like this xD

I have to add the fact that sometimes i risk to answer in english or other languages to some friends (italians) because maybe the hour before a trained hard talking in english (or another language i study). This would be really weird and awkward actually to answer in another language to common people like this...  

[lushlala]

22 hours ago, Saholy said:

Yesterday I wanted to tell someone I was washing my hair (Avy mandro ny voloko) But instead I said, 'I'm cooking my money.' (Avy mahandro ny volako.) The person just stared at me like I was crazy and walked away. It wasn't until later that I realized what I said. Thats the hardest part, the delayed response my brain has to recognizing error. I have also meant to introduce my husband by saying, 'Hello this is my husband (Vadiko)' but instead I would say, 'Hello this is your husband' (Vadinao) I have that one down now. So I guess these funny experiences help us keep our sense of humor which is also very important for language learning. Great idea for a post! I hope we get more like this. 

Hehe @Saholy...that really cracked me up! I don't think I've ever had any hilarious moments in my learning process, but I'm certainly familiar with saying totally the wrong thing, or even worse, the very opposite of what I mean to say. I agree, the thing to do during those moments, is to laugh at yourself, move on and learn from it. I think it's these lighter moments that actually make learning a little fun, which to me is instrumental in my learning process. Fingers crossed nobody come on this thread questioning the validity of this sort of discussion  Honestly, some people can either be dense or simply need to lighten up. Thanks for the post @Mameha and for the giggles @Saholy  I can't wait to see what other people have experienced!

[宇崎ちゃん]

4 hours ago, Mameha said:

Yeah similar words with different meaning are one of the most cause of experiences like this xD

That reminds me to those 2:

 

[Mameha]

@Blaveloper yeah it's exactly like this ahah! 

[rz3300]

I think the funniest thing that I have had happen was trying really hard to learn Italian and meeting mostly English speaking people who were from England, and just because of the accent I kept thinking that we spoke different languages so like clock work I would ask "how do you say" and they would have to constantly remind me that we both spoke the same language.  It was a little embarrassing but really funny, at my expense of course.

[R34Linguist]

Oh god, where do I start... Recently, I was at an Indian cultural festival and decided that I would perform a play because I'm not half-bad at acting. If only I knew what I was getting myself into. The man who organized the play was very strict about pronounciation and accents, and he completely screwed up the way I talked. Once I listened to the recordings of my play, I realized that I sounded horrible. At the end, nobody applauded because they couldn't understand what I was saying.

[Mameha]

1 hour ago, R34Linguist said:

Oh god, where do I start... Recently, I was at an Indian cultural festival and decided that I would perform a play because I'm not half-bad at acting. If only I knew what I was getting myself into. The man who organized the play was very strict about pronounciation and accents, and he completely screwed up the way I talked. Once I listened to the recordings of my play, I realized that I sounded horrible. At the end, nobody applauded because they couldn't understand what I was saying.

Oh my god, this must have been a very awkward experience....if i was in you, i would have been so embarassed actually! 

[R34Linguist]

4 minutes ago, Mameha said:

Oh my god, this must have been a very awkward experience....if i was in you, i would have been so embarassed actually! 

Haha yeah, it sucked. Luckily I went out of the building as soon as it was done and took a few deep breaths to gather myself. I was about to cry from all the stress and pressure since everyone had an angry look on their face as if I ruined the whole thing. Oh well, at least I learned from the experience.

[Mameha]

Just now, R34Linguist said:

Haha yeah, it sucked. Luckily I went out of the building as soon as it was done and took a few deep breaths to gather myself. I was about to cry from all the stress and pressure since everyone had an angry look on their face as if I ruined the whole thing. Oh well, at least I learned from the experience.

I can imagine, since i am really susceptible...i coldn't have stand this situation probabily!  at least you learned and i bet that now your pronunciation is better!  Bad experiences are useful lessons many times.

[Trellum]

The first time I tried to practice Norwegian with a guy I was dating back then,  back when  I used to work and live in Norway.   I ended up saying something really embarrassing (I don't dare to say it here) , but thankfully he laughed it off and later explained me what I had just said.  So embarrassing, my face got red   Wish that was the only time, but I made a fool of myself so many times when I had just  started learning English and was learning it very actively (practicing).