I think I already shared about my experiences in Nepal learning language... At one point, I was calling out "alcohol, alcohol!" to our taxi drivers... because the word "roksi" is very similar to the word "stop" which is actually pronounced "roknus".
In Thailand, the language was tonal, so the same word "chang" with an uptone instead of a swinging tone means elephant instead of 'repairman'. Yeah... I called our A/C guy an elephant (and people there get offended instead of understanding?)
In Indonesia the ubiquitous word "naik" can be used to go upstairs, drive, ride, walk, or even get mad if you "naik derah (blood" (basically means rise/elevate your blood)... And the words perawat/pesawat mean nurse/airplane respectively. Needless to day, one day in class I talked about "naik perawat" which means "getting onto, climbing, or riding a nurse" and was told this was unacceptable.
Every languages has differences.. even when you aren't just messing it up like I did above... I've got a few new interesting facts about the language here though, they are as follows:
cinta monyet (monkey love) - same meaning as puppy love
tidur ayam (chicken sleep) - just like a 'cat nap' in the states.
kalinci mencoba (rabbit experiment) - being a guinea pig
Then there are just some words that are similar and cause my mind to get confused:
air (ah-eer) means water
baik (bike) means good
There are more - and we'll keep learning more... maybe I'll post more later.
Check here for our thoughts, photos, and more about life in South East Asia!