Spanlish funny moments
Do you have any Spanlish funny moments? If yes, let’s share it. I have one, and it happens every time someone asks me “¿De dónde eres?” Before I begin, it is important to explain that “Leicester”, a big city in the middle of England, is pronounced like “Lester”. But I don’t come from that area, I am from the eastern part of the UK.
So the conversation would go something like this: Amigo - ¿De dónde eres? Yo - Soy del este de Inglaterra. Amigo – Ah , ¿Lester? Yo – ¡No, el este de Inglaterra! Amigo – ¡Lester! Yo – ¡No, no Lester, el este!
It has happened so many times that I have given up saying “el este”. I just say the county I’m from, which is Norfolk, in the east of England.
8 Answers
I was working for a sheriff department in the county jail one day when we had a new inmate to book in. He was an illegal alien from Mexico and we were trying to fill out his information. The other officer and I neither knew much if any Spanish so when we got to the part about family she asked - very slowly - do you have a seester? She was serious and thought he would understand. I laughed so hard I fell down.
I've got one!
My husband and i had recently moved and we were eating for the first time at a local authentic Mexican restaurant. I was practicing my spanish and ordered flan for dessert. Since it is served warm in the restaurant in my hometown, i asked for it prepared the same way. A little warmed up. I said "Quisiera flan con calor por favor" which i thought meant I would like warm flan. After seeing the look on the server's face, i tried again... "Quisiera flan con color". Nope. No luck. She now was looking at me like i was crazy. After several more tries, i gave up and got cold flan. Though it was still delicious, the fact that i didn't know what i had said bugged me.
A few months later, my husband and i were visiting our hometown and we stopped by Montoya's which is where my husband went to eat every week since he was a baby and was dandled on the knee of the restaurant owner. Since we knew them well, i asked them about the incident at the other restaurant. They asked me what i had said and i repeated, "Quisiera flan con color". Much to my surprise, they all started laughing at me. "What?" I asked. They told me that i had asked for "flan with color" (like colors of the rainbow) rather than warm flan. Apparently, i should have said, "Quisiera flan calientito". While i felt a little silly, it certainly made more sense of the look on the poor server's face in the other restaurant when I ordered my flan. I thanked them for the information and proceeded with my order of "Margarita frases" for which I got a laugh and a gentle correction of "Margarita fresas, unless you really do want a margarita made out of sentences instead of strawberries." On the bright side, the restaurant owner took pity on me and told me to come in whenever i wanted and she would practice with me. 
I can remember another real situation that happened in a classroom: The teacher was Carlos, a native speaker of Spanish. Being a teacher to varying groups of students, he was probably accustomed to hearing wierd and inaccurate pronunciations and was constantly making allowances for it. Natalie, a near beginner to Spanish , was originally from Dundee, Scotland, and she spoke English with a Scottish accent. As an exercise, Carlos was going round the classroom, asking the question “¿De dónde eres?” to every student. He reached Natalie and asked, – ¿De dónde eres? Natalie. Natalie, – Dundee. Carlos, thinking Natalie had said “donde”, which signalled to him that Natalie did not know the word, he spent the next few minutes trying to explain what "donde" meant. Thinking that he had done a good job, he then asked Natalie again, – ¿De dónde eres? Natalie. Natalie, – Dundee. Carlos, being very sympathetic and patient, started to explain the word “donde” all over again. This time the whole classroom had realised what was happening, and everyone burst out laughing. They had to explain to Carlos that Natalie came from Dundee and she had understood “donde” all along and had answered his question twice already. Carlos then saw the funny side. He just grinned and put his face in his hands. This was a true story.
I shared this earlier on here, but I'd like to share it here too 
I was having a nice conversation with a recent Mexican immigrant to my school, and we got to this part of talking about my family.
"Cómo es tu hermana?"
"Ella es bonita, bondadosa... etc. Oy, ella es pregunta también."
"¿Pregunta?"
"Sí"
At this point, we go to English and she explains and motion withs her hands etc. that pregnant means "question"...
"¡Lo siento! Oy, estoy embarazado."
I could've died. Ha ha. "embarazado" for those that don't know, means "pregnant"... gar.
Todos los cuentos son muy graciosos.
Well Pierre, I am from Leicester and I've had a similar experience. I met some Spanish girls in Birmingham.
Me: "Soy de Leicester"
Them: " ¿El este?
Me: "No, Lester es una cuidad pequeña en el este del país"
Them: "¿Este?
Me: "Ehhhmmm, sí soy del este"
etc etc etc.
I've shared this recently, but my funny moments came when traveling with people who knew no Spanish. They tried to blend in with the locals by adding "o" to the end of many words. One of the guys actually said to young boy we were working with "Are you finishedito?" And he was not trying to be cute. Another woman learned the word "vamos" and thought it was an all purpose word she could use to direct young children. You should have seen the expressions on their faces when she used that word to try to make them come to her, move over, sit down, etc.
Also, there was the classic, "I'll speak very loud and slow and then you will surely understand me" bit. In addition, adding an "accent" seemed to work.(jeje) The "vamos" woman, whose name was Robin, introduced herself everywhere as Rubin. Her husband Dan became Don.
Fun times!! You can imagine the fun I joking around about this in Spanish with the locals!
Well, what is funny in Spanish for us, Brazilians, is that Portuguese is very similar to Spanish and most of the words are the same. Sometimes we don't know how to say something in Spanish and when we get to know the word it's the same thing.
- Spanish: importante; dificil; comida; casa; buenos días; etc.
- Portuguese: importante; difícil; comida; casa; bom dia; etc.
