Hi! This is Greg from OnlineLanguageAcademy.com
and in this video I want
to speak to you about 5 very funny
false friends between Spanish and
English. So let's go...
Right, I'm English but I've lived in Spain
for 8 years. When I went to Spain I
had a very low level of Spanish and now
I speak it fluently. I've also taught
English to Spanish speakers for about 15
years. But in this video I want to talk
about 5 of the funniest false
friends between the two languages. Before
I start, if you want to win 5
conversation classes via Skype with
OnlineLanguageAcademy.com then just
SUBSCRIBE to my YouTube channel. I will
select one winner from my subscribers to
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native teachers, so just click subscribe
or click the link in the description. So, first,
what is a false friend? Well, a false
friend is a word in a foreign language
that looks similar to a word in your
language but actually it means something
different. For example "sensible". You know
the word sensible exists in English and
you know it's written exactly the same
as 'sensible' in Spanish but it doesn't
mean 'sensible' OK? It means 'sensato'.
So that is a false friend. Now let's have
a look at 5 funny false friends
between the two that I have experienced
in my life. Number 1: I remember in my
first year living in Spain there was a
very sweet little cute girl who was
trying her best to speak English to make
me feel at home because my level of
Spanish wasn't great at the time. It was
spring, the flowers were coming out on
the trees, it was a nice sunny day,
everything was perfect! But then, she said
to me "Oh I'm sorry,
at this time of the year I'm always
constipated!" ...Too much information!! What
she thought she was saying was 'siempre
estoy constipada en la primavera', but
what she actually said was 'siempre estoy
"estreñida"
en la primavera'. It was a difficult
situation I'm going to be honest with
you. I didn't really know what to say.
What she wanted to say was 'I'm always
bunged up' or 'I always have a cold' at
this time of the year. False friend
number 2: I went scuba diving last week.
My friend John in Mexico also went scuba
diving last week! Wow, what a wonderful
"casualty!" ...Oh no!!! Is everything okay?
"Casualty" is not the right word here. If
you have a casualty you have a very
serious injury... or death! So saying that
it's a wonderful casualty is not the
appropriate thing to say. It would be
like saying, "Wow, vaya accidente maravilloso". Now, what you wanted to say was
"Wow, what a wonderful coincidence!"
Coincidence means 'casualidad'.
Number 3... and it's a big one!
A Spanish girl once said to me, "Ah, sorry,
I can't drink alcohol at the moment
because I'm embarrassed" And I thought,
'what are you embarrassed about? Don't be
embarrassed
don't be ashamed'. Of course, embarrassed
is not embarazada.
It actually works better in reverse. So
let's take the example of my dad -
true story - who went to a restaurant in
Spain once. Now, it was one of those
restaurants where you put your food on
your plate and you have you take it to
your table, and my dad tripped and his
food fell on the floor everywhere. And my
dad said to the waitress in his best... my
dad doesn't speak very good Spanish but
he speaks a little bit of Spanish... and he
said to the waitress in his fantastic
accent,
"Ah, ah, lo siento mucho pero mi comida
esta el techo, estoy muy embarazada".
Yeah, he also confused 'techo' and 'suelo'! Oh man!
False friend number 4, and this is
another one which is best if we look at
it in reverse, because I once went to a
Spanish friend's house for breakfast and
their mother had made jam... very delicious!
So I had jam on my toast and I said
to the mother, "Está muy rica la mermelada.
¿Lleva algún preservativo dentro?"
Awkward!!! Because
'preservative' in English means 'conservativo' [conservante]
in Spanish. It was another
difficult moment. If you're watching and
you're not familiar with Spanish, what I
actually asked was if there was any
condoms in the jam. And finally number
5 is one that I've heard a lot from
Spanish speakers, and it always makes me
feel a little bit awkward again. So I go
to a bar in Santiago to watch the
football on the television, but when I
arrive the waiter - nice man - he puts his
arm on my shoulder and he says, "Oh, I am
very sorry but the bar is closing.
Sorry for molesting you!!" Molesting me??
I'm sorry but you didn't 'molest' me.
Of course, what he wanted to say was
'disculpa las molestias, que el bar',
cierra ya'. But actually, what he did say was,
'Sorry for molesting you'... This is like,
'sorry for sexually harassing you' / touch
an inappropriate, sexual way! What
he should have said it was, "I'm sorry for
the inconvenience."
So hey, false friends are there to make
language learning fun! You will make
mistakes that are a bit embarrassing but it
doesn't
matter. If you are able to laugh at your
own mistakes then just enjoy them! It's
all part of language learning and
sometimes you are so embarrassed that
you are never going to make that mistake
again!
Or, "a veces estás tan embarazada que nunca más
volverás a hacer este error'. Alright,
remember to subscribe to my YouTube
channel if you want your chance to win 5
conversation classes via Skype with
OnlineLanguageAcademy.com
All you have to do is SUBSCRIBE, so do it
now!
Alright, thanks for watching and I'll see
you soon... Bye for now!
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