Entschuldigung...

In 2006, during my travels through Europe, I took a brief hiatus through Switzerland. A friend and I met up, and were staying in a hostel in Geneva. Tom was rooming with a German guy (let's call him Hans) who had wicked awesome hook-ups, and was trying get us tickets to the World Cup. Hans' English was pretty limited... and my German is pretty limited... so the two guys had their conversation in German whenever we ran into each other, and I pretty much just stood there, looking pretty.

On one particular occasion, however, Hans stopped mid-conversation and nodded his head towards me, saying something akin to, "Entschuldigung, ich unhöflich bin und auf Deutsch vor Ihrer Freundin spreche, aber mein Englisch sehr schlecht ist," roughly translating "I'm sorry I am being rude speaking German in front of your friend, but my English is very bad."

I, however, in my limited German, heard only "Deutsch, Ihrer Freundin spreche" or "German, your friend speaks?" So, I responded confidently, "Ja, kann ich auch sprechen!" meaning "Yes, I can speak also!" Hans looked at me, aghast; meanwhile, I just smiled proudly, thinking I had finally contributed to the conversation.

It wasn't until later that I understood that he had apologized for being rude, and I had just agreed that in fact he was being rude.

Cultural lesson 101: Always be able to laugh at yourself, because you will assuredly need that skill for your many social oopsy daisies!

Cultural lesson 102: Learn how to apologize in the language of the country you are in. :-) You will also need that skill.