When I lived in Spain, some Spanish friends of mine decided to visit England by car. Before they left, they asked me for advice about how to find accommodation. I suggested that they should stay at "bed and breakfast" houses, because this kind of accommodation gives a foreign visitor a good chance to speak English with the family. My friends listened to my advice, but they came back with some funny stories.
"We didn't stay at 'bed and breakfast' houses," they said, "because we found that most families were away on holiday."
I thought this was strange. Finally I understood what had happened. My friends spoke little English, and they thought "VACANCIES" meant "holidays", because the Spanish word for "holidays" is "vacaciones". So they did not go to house where the sign outside said "VACANCLES", which in English means there are free rooms. Then my friends went to house where the sign said "NO VACANCLES", because they thought this meant the people who owned the house were not away on holiday. But they found that these houses were all full. As a result, they stayed at hotels!
We laughed about this and about mistakes my friends made in reading other signs. In Spanish, the word "DIVERSION" means fun. In English, it means that workmen are repairing the road, and that you must take a different road. When my friends saw the word "DIVERSION" on a road sign, they thought they were going to have fun. Instead, the road ended in a large hold.
English people have problems too when they learn foreign languages. Once in Paris. when someone offered me some more coffee, I said "Thank you" in French. I meant that I would like some more, However , to my surprise the coffee pot was taken away! Later I found out that "Thank you" in French means "Mo, thank you."
vacaciones与holidays用法区别
当我住在西班牙时，我的一些西班牙朋友决定开车去英国。在他们去之前，他们向我请教如何找到住处。我建议他们应该住在“住宿加早餐”的房子里，因为这种住宿方式给了外国游客一个与家人说英语的好机会。我的朋友们听了我的建议，但他们回来时讲了一些有趣的故事。
“我们没有住在‘住宿加早餐’的旅馆，”他们说，“因为我们发现大多数家庭都在度假。”
我觉得这很奇怪。最后我终于明白发生了什么。我的朋友几乎不会说英语，他们认为“VACANCIES”的意思是“holidays”，因为西班牙语中“holidays”是“vacaciones”。所以他们没有去外面写着“VACANCLES”的房子，在英语中，这意味着有免费房间。然后我的朋友们去了一些写着“NO VACANCLES”，因为他们认为这意味着房子的主人不会外出度假。但他们发现这些房子都满了。最后，他们住进了酒店！
我们笑了，也笑了我的朋友们在阅读那些标志时犯的错误。在西班牙语中，单词“DIVERSION”的意思是有趣。在英语中，这意味着工人正在修路，你必须更改线路。当我的朋友们在路标上看到“DIVERSION”这个标志时，他们以为他们会玩得很开心。相反，这条路的尽头是一个巨大的障碍物。
英国人在学习外语时也会遇到问题。有一次在巴黎，有人再给我一些咖啡，我用法语说“谢谢”。我的意思是我想要更多，然而，令我惊讶的是，咖啡壶被拿走了！后来我发现“谢谢”在法语中的意思是“不用了，谢谢你。”