I have a small car... or not!
I'd never really learnt a foreign language. "I would like a kilo of apples, and a strawberry ice-cream" in French, and "I am 12 years old" in German. Literally those were pretty much the only 'foreign language' phrases I could remember, so I was excited to be learning Arabic. 'I have a little Arabic' - this was one of the first phrases I learnt before class started. Trying to cobble together some words I had picked up, I went around saying this to anyone who attempted to talk to me, or who I was trying to communicate with. It was slightly unfortunate that what I was actually saying was "I have a small car". One day I was surprised to hear my Muslim friend say something to her daughter about getting the "pastor on the wall". Not pastor, but actually a glass bottle - the two words being very close sounding. 'Cat' and 'church' were more close sounding words to my inexperienced ears. I told the teenag...