Language misunderstandings can be amusing, puzzling, annoying, or downright dangerous.
In hospital misunderstandings by doctors or patients can cause trouble. I know this from my own experience.
Hospital in Corsica and The Radio
In 1984 I was knocked down by a car in Corsica. I was flown by rescue helicopter to the hospital in the capital Ajaccio. I spoke fluent French, I thought, as a second language. For the Corsicans, Italian was a first language and Spanish a second language.
Nobody could converse much with me. I was on a painkiller, morphine. I tried to speak to the woman in the next bed but she didn't answer. (I later discovered she had had an operation on her throat or jaw!)
So I asked if I could have 'un radio'. The nurse said she would ask. Later she came back and said she had arranged for me to have a radio in about an hour. Time passed. No radio appeared.
Meanwhile I was taken downstairs for an Xray. I came back and still no radio.
I asked again. Another nurse came back. She said, "The other nurse says you had a radio."
I asked, "Where is it?"
She went away and came back with a file of X-rays. On the cover was the word Radiography. The word radio in French was short for radiography, meaning X-ray.
Not only was there no radio. Not only that, I had asked for and received an unexpected X-ray.
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, language teacher.
In hospital misunderstandings by doctors or patients can cause trouble. I know this from my own experience.
Hospital in Corsica and The Radio
In 1984 I was knocked down by a car in Corsica. I was flown by rescue helicopter to the hospital in the capital Ajaccio. I spoke fluent French, I thought, as a second language. For the Corsicans, Italian was a first language and Spanish a second language.
Nobody could converse much with me. I was on a painkiller, morphine. I tried to speak to the woman in the next bed but she didn't answer. (I later discovered she had had an operation on her throat or jaw!)
So I asked if I could have 'un radio'. The nurse said she would ask. Later she came back and said she had arranged for me to have a radio in about an hour. Time passed. No radio appeared.
Meanwhile I was taken downstairs for an Xray. I came back and still no radio.
I asked again. Another nurse came back. She said, "The other nurse says you had a radio."
I asked, "Where is it?"
She went away and came back with a file of X-rays. On the cover was the word Radiography. The word radio in French was short for radiography, meaning X-ray.
Not only was there no radio. Not only that, I had asked for and received an unexpected X-ray.
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, language teacher.
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