Lost in Translation

Being multi-lingual is not without its pitfalls. A similar-sounding word can exist in several languages - and mean different things! A speaker of those languages would know the various meanings... but might occasionally slip up. (And, of course, confusion ensues!)

In our part of Canada, where many people speak both French and English, it happens from time to time. I'll never forget the time my young son, who was learning French in elementary school, told me that there was glass in his juice. My immediate reaction was horror and shock, as I visualized him drinking bits of broken glass. Seeing my face, he quickly explained: Not that kind of glass! He meant "glace" which is "ice" in French.

I've done it, too. Once, negotiating a parking space with a French-speaking neighbor, I used the word "key" ("qui" - meaning "who") when I spoke to her in French. I didn't realize until later that I had used it for its Hebrew meaning, "because." I did notice her face cloud over. She didn't seem to understand what I was trying to say. Only later, re-playing the conversation in my mind, did I realize that I had accidentally tossed in a Hebrew word or two as I tried to explain myself in French!

It happens easily! In an English article recounting an interview conducted in French, the writer mentioned being in a church, then referred to sitting on a bank. Is this church located near a river bank? I wondered as I tried to picture the scene... I then realized that the writer probably had the French word "banc" in his mind - which in English could be translated "bench" or "pew."

What made me think of all these incidents was a strange confusion that occurred recently when a few of us retired teachers met for lunch. Someone asked if anyone knew how so-and-so, another retired colleague, was doing.

The last time I talked to her, one of our group replied, she had a sore foot. She had apparently stubbed her toe while preparing breakfast. After brief pause, she continued. You know, she said the strangest thing. She said it happened because she always walks around nude in the morning when she has her breakfast... 

Nude?!

Hmmm. Did she mean "barefoot" - which in French ("pieds nus") literally means "nude" or "naked" feet? ... (I doubt that any of us has the courage to ask!)