Friday, May 4, 2012

Lost in translation

I recently bumped into a batch mate B... we weren't the greatest of friends in Uni, but it was amazing how pleased I was to see him.

He - typically - had a comment to make about the extra weight, and jokingly said I had lost my "cute mousy look".

O_o

And then I remembered. 

New experiences do not generally faze me. During the first few weeks of Uni, much of the time reserved for dissections was spent wandering around the dissection halls, plugging into random conversations and generally making friends.

On one occasion, B was telling a story about himself... hilarious and told with much self-deprecating humour. After I finished wiping tears of mirth away, I patted him on the cheek and said ඔයා පවු (poor you!). Trust me not to realise that this can be taken as an incredibly personal gesture. Soon afterwards, he blurted out ඔයාට අය්තිකාරයෙක් ඉන්නවද? (do you have an "owner", i.e., boyfriend). The tubelight clicked, I mumbled a confused no, and then scuttled away.

B later told another (new) friend that " Angel මී පැටියෙක් වගේ cute" (Angel is like a cute little mouse). The friend decides to report this exciting new development, but unfortunately chooses English to convey this message of (what she assumed was) ardent admiration. She said:

"Angel, B said you look like a rat".

I spent the rest of the year giving B the stink eye.

______________________

Yes, some memories will make you cringe no matter HOW many years have passed.

9 comments:

The Puppeteer said...

LOL! Talk about insulted in translation :P
B would have been so confused!

Gutterflower said...

Aahahaha. Lost in translation indeed :D

Sakunthala said...

Oh my God! That was hilarious! :) poor you aney.. What it makes a great story ya? Once I told a friend that I was mad at him and he heard "mad about him" and AWKWARD!!! :)

GG said...

hahahaha!!

Knatolee said...

Oh dear, A LOT was lost in translation!!! :)

And no one should be commenting on your weight!!

Hoot-a-Toot said...

that was hilarious little mouse :D

Angel said...

Glad to spread some sunshine... and yes Knatolee, everyone and their great aunt comments on my weight.

Le sigh!

swijenaike said...

That's a funny story! Maybe you can nickname him Mickey Mouse.

Jack Point said...

Very funny:)