Comical Misunderstandings

• Comical Misunderstandings. Tell a story about a funny misunderstanding due to a cultural or language barrier. What did you learn from this incident? How was the barrier overcome or how could it be overcome in the future?

There has been many comical misunderstandings throughout my time here in Spain. But one that sticks out the most made my host mom, Jaclyn and I laugh. 

All of the food I have experienced with host family is beyond what I had expected in all good ways. Everyday we have tostada y aceite, some fruit and palmeritas. At first it was hard to get used to all of the carbs for breakfast but now I love it and have adjusted. The big meal is el almuerzo so breakfast is not as important as our lunch feast. In the beginning of our stay here Jaclyn and I realized that our stomachs would defiantly be growing here because of our huge portions. We always try and finish all of the food even if we are super full because it is delicious and we do not want to waste any. One night our host mom spoke pretty fast and basically said something along the lines of, "wow you girls ate it all, would you like more I have more for you all but you're probably full, tienes mas hambre" and right away Jaclyn and I just went into some type of automated response and said "si si si si si si." We thought she asked us if we were full. But I guess it was pretty obvious that we were very very full after eating two full plates and a basket of bread we practically couldn't move. She repeated the question and we laughed about it because we most definitely did not need anymore food. We all laughed when we realized this was definitely a misunderstanding.

Now every night or every time we finish our plates our host mom makes sure to ask us very slowly if we have anymore hambre and we all laugh a little.

This most important part of encountering a misunderstanding or language barrier is to make sure you eventually understand, you eventually get your point across, and you remain confident in your skills. Sometimes it can be hard to remain confident when you speak because I have said somethings so wrong with such confidence. For example, called a purse a pulsera instead of a bolsa very confidently. This is how you learn not to make these mistakes again.