It’s inevitable that whenever you’re speaking a different language, there are going to be misunderstandings along the way.
So when Claire, my French housemate, asked me what animals I didn’t like, I thought, yeah, I can answer this one. I replied ‘les souris’ – partly because I don’t like mice, and partly because it was the first word I thought of without rushing for my dictionary. So far, so good. Except Claire’s face fell, there was an awkward silence, and in my head I’m frantically trying to work out what I’d said wrong.
Turns out she asked me what food I didn’t like. That explains why she looked at me like I was crazy when I started talking about mice.
Thankfully we had a good laugh about it afterwards! And at least now I’ll always remember that the word ‘aliments’ is NOT to be confused with the word ‘animaux’…
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