I loved that movie. But I tend to get the idea that it was something else lost, not the language. I guess that was the point.

I’m sure there are 100’s of good language confusion stories where we wish we had Lingopal. Here is one of mine.

I was staying in a backpackers in Sweden and walked into the shared bathroom. There were two guys there speaking German (I think). I was about to walk into the shower cubicle when I thought about tinea (athletes foot) and decided to ask the guys what they thought.

“Do you need to wear thongs in the shower?” I asked.

“Sorry?” one replied.

“Thongs, is it a good idea to wear them in the shower?” I answered.

“Um, I’m not sure. I guess it’s up to you.” he said in a very puzzled voice.

So I decided, what the heck and had a shower anyway. As soon as I was in my shower cubicle, I heard them starting to laugh. I picked out the word flip-flops in their discussion and realised my mistake.

In Australia, we call flip-flops, those casual rubber shoes you wear to the beach, thongs. But in most of the world, a thong is a G-String.

Um, yeah.