when in rome ........being a roman can be tricky !

speaking a language when you only know a few words in it can be dangerous, or hilarious ..depending on whether the other person has a sense of humour ;)...and writing even more so .
I haven't yet had any experiences with french yet but some rather, hilarious/embarrassing depending on whose side you are on ! , experiences with Estonian :).

So one fine morning, fresh with the hangover of a two hour french class and an informal estonian learning session the linguist in me took a deep breath and i felt the inherent urge to communicate.
My landlady is swiss and she speaks some weird version of french which is so different from the one our french instructor speaks that i found it wiser not to shower my french on her. Iiris, the estonian girl, was still asleep.

Never the one to give up, i picked up a pencil and wrote the only two estonian phrases i remembered.
good morning -terrehomickunst
and i love you (!!) - Ma armistan seent . (its a kind of joke between us so ;) )
and with the smug, self satisfied smile of a man who didnt give up I shoved the note into the fridge and rushed off to catch my metro.

After lunch i got a short email message - with more rolling-on-the-floor-laughing icons than words-
from which i quote (without permission ! )

"....Because you wrote to me in Estonian : Ma armistan seent, which means I scar the mushroom"...
the rest of the email was errr.....awkward :D

apparently i love you is written as : "ma armastan sind"
I mean come on !!!!! how much difference can and 'i' for an 'a' and an 'nt' for a 'd' make !!! ;)




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