Lost in the Translation

"Do you ever use crack pot?"
Our 27 year old  friends, Darren and Arlene from Northern Ireland, dropped their jaws when I apparently asked this question as part of our dinner conversation recently.  What I really asked about in my Midwestern American accent was a 'crock pot,' you know--a slow cooker.
It was cold and rainy when we arrived at their home, so I had on sweat pants over jeans.  Forgetting that 'pants' means underwear over there, I said, " I gotta take off my wet pants." Darren guffawed. 

 (The first time I made this verbal blunder was when Darren visited as an 11 year old thru a program to get kids out of Northern Ireland for the summer.  It was really hot and he was wearing 'trousers' instead of shorts so I said, "Darren, it's WAY too hot to wear pants, no one wears pants here in the summer; I don't wear pants,  Steve doesn't wear pants, the kids don't wear pants.  Pants are WAY too HOT." He blushed furiously and, strangely enough, I rarely saw any underwear in the laundry.)

When we visited a few years ago we were watching the telly and Arlene asked my daughters what kind of soaps (soap operas) we have in America.  Alana replied, "Chicken noodle?"

Arlene and Darren visited us while 'on holiday' (their word for vacation) 3 years ago, and at a store the cashier asked why they came to America.  "For a holiday!" beamed Arlene.  The cashier looked perplexed as Fourth of July was well past and Labor Day a month away, "What holiday?"  Now Arlene looked perplexed, and thought, 'what a stupid question.'  "THIS holiday," she replied.  I don't think the cashier asked her any more questions.
Lots of good laughs--the universal language!
©1/2012  Jana B Patrick


P.S.  Many years ago my friend Carol W. worked with some Irish kids that had come over to Minnesota for the summer.    "Jana .. I HAVE to tell you one story! I was talking, as best I could, with one Irish lad and all of a sudden he looked at me funny and leaned over the bar and planted a big "wet one" on me! I'm STILL wondering what  I said!"