I've only had two rather amusing mistranslations here so far- most of my mishaps involve incorrectly declining my nouns and having a sentence with three subjects and an indirect object or something equally nonsensical.
слушать (slooshat)- to listen
слышать (sleeshat)- to hear
Through a very easy mistake, I accidentally told my host mother that I wasn't listening to her when I was trying to explain I couldn't hear her very well. She seemed rather taken aback before my host sister stepped in. (On a side note, I wish more languages had a progressive and affirmative tense. I do listen, I listen, and I am listening are all VERY distinct to me. I don't listen vs. I'm not listening- also very different.)
Much worse, however: Russian has at least two (often more) verbs for every English equivalent. There are, I think, four verbs that mean "to finish." One of them, I had been told, ends up meaning "to orgasm" if you don't use it with a direct object. So last night I'm taking a taxi home and am making conversation with the driver. He asked me if I was in the university, and I ended up replying, "Oh, no, I just orgasmed in May." Based on his reaction, and the fact that he very quickly said ZAKONCHILA (a different word meaning "to finish"), I realized I'd guessed the wrong one... Oops.
Why does it seem like half of my instances of language-botching results in me saying something sexual? I've told my French host father I was "aroused (excited) to meet him," my French host mother that I didn't want any more food because I was pregant (full), a German roommate that I was horny (hot), my French class that I wouldn't want to f*** (kiss) a smoker because I don't like smoker's breath. (There was a legitimate context to that last one, I swear.)
Sigh...
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