Sara and Soli had two women over for dinner the other night. This is the conversation (translated to English of course):
One of the women talking while I was eating my dinner, watching the news, and trying to follow the conversation:
"Blah blah blah mandarina blah blah."
Upon hearing "mandarina", I thought:
"Awesome! I know what they're talking about."
So I chimed in with something in my life that is related to "mandarina":
"My sister, Erica, is learning 'mandarina' in school right now. Its a useful language to know."
At first I didn't register why Sara chuckled and was looking at me like that. She kindly corrected me:
"We're talking about the fruit, not the language."
Apparently the difference between the word "mandarina" (the little orange fruit) and the word "mandarín" (the Chinese language) is more subtle than I thought.
atleast you made the mistake with your host family and not out in public where it could have been a life or death situation haha. a subtle difference you won't soon forget I'm sure : ) - Ryan
ReplyDeleteThis so reminds me of the simple conversational mistake I made trying to say the word "embarrassed", and winding up getting slapped. You know the story.
ReplyDeleteLove,
Dad
Is the mandarinda the same as a tamarindo? Miss Ann
ReplyDeleteI think they're different... tamarindo come from tamarind but the mandarina is just the little orange.
DeleteOnly you Sydney. Reminds me of the time I insulted a friends family by saying the prawns we were eating were disgusting b/c in Mandarin "nan chi" literally means difficult eating meaning bad food. But these prawns were really difficult to eat as they had the hardest, tightest shells on them. The sauce they were in though was indescribably delicious.
ReplyDeleteJohn