One Wrong Step- when you have misunderstood a foreign word or phrase

[cateycloggs]

Mildly amusing memories of not knowing the meaning of foreign words that seem commonplace to others or in my case Lacking Latin.

When I began University as a mature student in the 1980s I was studying the student handbook where I noticed many,if not most, of the lecturers in my department had (Cantab) after their degree qualifications. Later I remarked to my flatmate in the 3rd year of the same degree that it was remarkable so many had been to Canterbury University as I had considered applying there. She kindly told me Cantab is the short Latin form of Cambridge University. So fortunately I was spared the faux pas of commenting to my tutor.

Not me, but my teacher when I was briefly learning Italian, told us a story about how, when she was in Italy she made such a mistake.

She was talking about how much she liked figs, that they were sweet and juicy.

Unfortunately the word for fig and vagina in Italian are very similar....

Ha Whatsetshortfor, the student who became my friend made a similar mistake. She was invited to dinner by one of the lecturers(Cantab) mentioned above, they were having a suitably Eng Lit conversation in which she pontificated about DH Lawrence comparing a cut grape to a vagina. Except it is as your Italian teacher said it's the halved fig supposed to resememble female parts.