Mistakes Made by Me and Others in Foreign Languages

When I was was taking a conversational French class we were telling our majors and why we had chosen them. I said that mine were French and Spanish and my reason was that I liked "les langues étranges" (strange languages) instead of saying what I meant which was that I liked "les langues étrangères" (foreign languages). It was an embarrassing but funny mistake. My high school teacher told us of a fabric store that was called "Jolies Fabriques" (Pretty Factories). Either they did not know that Pretty Fabrics in French is "Jolies Tissues" or they thought that most people in the area would not know. When in Prague I bought a towel at the Ikea store. It was made in India. The washing instructions intended for the U.S. are as following: "Machine Wash. No Bleach. Warm iron. Dryclean. Tumble dry. normal temperature." One of the English instructors at the school I attended in Prague said that a student said what sounded like, "What I want most in life is a penis." What he was trying to say was, "What I want most in life is happiness." Once I saw a bilingual sign outside of a place that sold hot hot dogs, but in Spanish it read "Peros Calientes" (hot buts) instead of  "Perros Calientes" (hot dogs). A common mistake that English speakers make when starting to study Spanish is saying "ano" (anus) instead of "año" (year). This is particularly funny when someone is saying their age, because what one says in Spanish translates literally into English as "I have ## years. They end up saying, "Tengo 18 anos." (I have 18 anuses.) instead of "Tengo 18 años." (I am 18 years old.) When I was teaching classes we were supposed to allow English to be spoken. I was surprised that sometimes when answering simple questions I would answer in Czech by mistake. I was not too embarrassed by this. It made me feel good in a way. I would have preferred learning Czech to teaching English anyway. I remember seeing a multilingual menu outside of an Italian restaurant in Prague, in English it said they had "freshly pastes" instead of what they actually had which was "fresh pasta." It is interesting that signs for realtors in Prague had signs that read "reality" instead of "realty." At work sometimes I start to speak Spanish to a coworker, and then I remember that the person I am speaking only speaks English. It is funny that the first job where I regularly use my language ability is a warehouse language is a warehouse job where I earn $8.00/hour. At least I am able to practice speaking and comprehending Spanish. Language can be fun and funny.