"Learning a new language is fun" they said. It will enrich your life" they added. True, but my move from English speaking Canada to the Italian speaking area of Switzerland did not come without the odd blooper reel worthy gaff! 

These Costly Errors Have Come in Two Forms

• 1. The highly embarrassing "faux pas" in which the cost is a red face and an awkward squirm.
• 2. When the use of the wrong word ends up having an actual price tag attached to it.

Me in my office contemplating my latest language gaff! Was the cost shame, money or both?

Let's Take a Look at a Couple of my Best Bloopers From Each Category!

1. The Faux Pas: a slip or blunder in etiquette, manners, or conduct; an embarrassing social blunder or indiscretion.

When meeting new people I like to be friendly and polite. In order to break the ice I'll ask some questions to get the conversation going. Once, in a highly formal setting I was impressed by what a man was saying about himself and so I turned to his wife and said: "He seems like he's the man of the year!"

In Italian, year is "anno" and when you say it you've got to stress the sound of the double n. I unfortunately said ano which means "arsehole" or "anus". What I had literally told the man's wife is that her husband seemed like an arsehole! I guess that explains why they walked away in a huff!

2. The Mistake That Costs Money!

A couple of headlight bulbs had blown out on my truck and since I was passing by a mechanic I popped in to ask him to change them quickly.

"Hmm let me think, how do you say headlights in Italian?" I reasoned that it must be "candele" because that’s a word that I had heard when people were talking about cars and it sounded like candles so it should have been correct! I went with it. BIG mistake!

When I asked the mechanic if he could change the "candele" for me he said that it would take quite a bit of time and that I'd have to leave the car. That seemed strange. "How hard could it be?" I thought. To make a long story short I went off to "kill" some time and when I went back to pick up the truck, the headlights were still burned out but my engine was purring like a kitten.

You see, by asking him to change the candele I had actually requested that he change the sparkplugs! Instead of a bill for 20 Frs or so I was faced with a bill of a few hundred Francs and I still had my original problem! Of course, I was too embarrassed to admit my mistake and so I ended up searching for the light bulbs at our local DIY store and I did the job myself! The cost ended up being a lot of time and money.

Such is The Life of an Old Dog Learning a New Language! 

I must say that I've improved but I'm not immune to these costly blunders which I pay for in either shame or cold hard cash!

Points to Ponder!

• Have you ever made a "faux pas"?
• Was it highly embarrassing and what shade of red did YOU turn?
• What costly errors have you made?
• What was the price? C'mon you can tell us. We're all friends here!

I hope that you enjoyed this story about my Costly Language Bloopers!

Until next time,

@kus-knee (The Old Dog)

Remember, I reward the best comment(s) on each of my posts with my "The Old Dog is Throwing You a Bone" program! So please re-steem and follow so that we can spread the wealth!