Language bloopers

Learning a new language is always a tricky business and everyone has a story to tell of a slip up that landed them in trouble or caused them major embarressment. Thankfully I've been doing quite well with minimal embarrassment and trouble. The biggest issue that I've had to deal with is the word for "friend" (ka-I-bigan). The problem is that exactly the same word emphasised differently (KA-i-biagan) can mean "lover". This means that instead of saying "ka-I-bigan kita" means "You are my friend" whereas "KA-i-bigan kita" means "You are my lover". Not a mistake you want to make! Thankfully I have not made this one yet. But almost made one just as bad.

A few weeks ago I was driving near my place in Munoz, Nueva Ecija and saw a billboard that said, "kam-BING-an". I wasn't sure what it meant so I said it out loud so I could hear it and figure out if it was the same as "ka-I-bigan". When I said it I realised that they weren't the same but my filipino friend and tagalog teacher thought that I was confused and called him "kam-BING-an" (a goat dish - taken from the word for goat "kam-BING") instead of "ka-I-bigan" (friend). I managed to convince him that he was my friend rather than food so now we have a little joke about it when we use the word "ka-I-bigan".