The good news for me is that my return visit to language school in Cusco has seen my teachers telling me how much I've improved while I've been away and how pleased they are with my progress. It's a pleasant contrast to my memories of learning French at school where I never enjoyed it and always felt I was rubbish at it.
However all the nice words don't mean that I'm anywhere near perfect and increased speed of speech has led me into some interesting situations recently where I've used the wrong word....for example the Lonely Planet Latin American Spanish phrase book warns you against false friends such as thinking that "Embarassed" is "Embarazada", actually it means pregnant. However, I've got some more to add for any learner Spanish speakers out there.
Despierta / Abierta - Awake / Open. How they laughed when I described the time I woke up, as the time that I opened....
Peine / Pene - the first one is a comb, the second one penis. Quite important not to muddle them up but at least it amuses the teacher when you inadvertently use the second instead of the first
Tomar - to take a drink or to take a bus or other form of transport. But I've learnt the hard way that you cannot use it in Peru to describe taking a person, as it means something rather more sexual! Fortunately the response of the person I was talking to, was to fall about laughing and some time later when they could breathe again, they explained my little mistake!
Fortunately my mind has blanked out any other recent incidents but as a public service if more occur I'll let you know.
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