Foreign Faux Pas = Sticky Situations
Posted on September 15th, 2013 by Melanie in Uncategorized | No Comments »
Body language is a great way to express yourself. The tilt of your head, position of your shoulders and hand gestures are just some of the ways you can use your body to convey your feelings to others. Whether you´re happy, irritable, confused or curious, it´s easy to make people understand your mood by looking at your body language.
To really make yourself understood though, there´s nothing quite like actually speaking with each other! Say exactly what you mean to quench their curiosity while ending their confusion and irritability and everyone will be happy…or will they? Not if you´re speaking in another language. You might think you´re pronouncing the words correctly, using them in the right situation and in the correct tense, but you might unknowingly be making a bit of a blunder with your conversation.
How many tourists have unwittingly asked for ‘polla’ instead of ‘pollo’ for some chicken in Spain? (I´ll let you look that one up!) When dining in a restaurant in Sweden, don´t tell the waiter you´re ‘ful’ as he´ll think you´re calling him ugly. Conversely, don´t be offended when the waiter answers ‘slut’ as he´s merely pointing out that that´s the end of your meal or conversation.
Have you ever found yourself in an embarrassing situation when you´ve innocently tried to make an effort at speaking a language? Share your foreign faux pas with everyone so that others don´t end up speaking themselves into sticky situations!