Language Blunders...

Well, I've already posted about my blunder in thinking that "dote" was a special pregnancy vitamin, instead of DIRT. Here are a couple more blunders to make you smile:

1) One day Blu told our neighbor he was going to the market for madada. (tomatoes) Our neighbor looked really confused and kept asking Blu to repeat himself. Blu told him that he had seen madada in the market around back and that he needed to buy five. Our neighbor looked skeptical and finally just said "ok..." and left. Blu walked to the market and asked someone for the "madada." Everyone just looked at him strangely, and some laughed. Blu finally said "you know! Tomatoes!!" Madede = tomatoes. Madada = ducks. :)

2) We had a HUGE dog when we lived in Zambia. He was a Bull Mastiff and his name was Tanner. Zambians are terrified of dogs, so most people with any amount of money keep one for security reasons. We were quite well-known in our village because of Tanner. Everyone knew about this dog and was absolutely terrified of him. He was probably the main talk of town.

One day some neighborhood kids came over and stood at the edge of our property. Tanner was chained up so they felt safe to come closer. They began to ask me some questions about him and comment on his size. They asked me why we didn't have a fence, and I told them that Tanner "u la konzya kuluka." (He is able to jump.) Their mouths fell open and they started gasping. One said "Sure??!! U la luka??" I responded with "inzya, maningi" (yes, very high!) The kids eyes were just growing and they finally ran off talking to each other in loud voices. Later, as I relayed the story to our friend, he politely informed me that I did not use the word for "jump." I used the word for "fly." I had told the kids that our dog could fly, yes, he could fly very high!! I'm sure Tanner was REALLY the talk of the town after that conversation!

(Here's another quick Tanner story. Because Tanner was so big, people would always ask us if they could bring their dogs over to mate with our dog. Blu refused and when they asked why he simply said "what if your dog has HIV?" The people just said "ah...you are right..." and that ended that conversation!)