Confusion is likely to come in, when you are in a country where you don't speak the local language fluently. I often try to practise my Arabic language skills with the local staff here, who again want to practise their English with me. This sometimes results in sentences with an uncommon combination of Arabic and English words mixed together. I can assure you, that in moments of 'emergencies', this can be slightly confusing. A few days ago, one of the guards came running upstairs and said: "
Keys, keys, I need keys!" I could tell that he was quite desperate, so I immediately started to help him with his search for these apparent much needed keys. "
I need many!" he continued while searching in the kitchen. I thought it was a bit odd that he searched for keys in the cupboards of the kitchen, but well, you never know where they might turn up. I looked around in the other rooms and asked which colours and shape the keys had.
"Doesn't matter!" he answered. A bit surprised by his reply, I inquired where he actually needed the keys for. "
Water tank is broken and I need keys to put in the pipe to stop water from coming out!". I started smiling when I realized that all this time he had meant 'kis' (-which is a plastic bag in the local language) while I had been looking everywhere for a bunch of keys! I straight away got him a couple of these bags and he rushed back to the leaking water pipe. I was left behind with a smile of astonishment:
keys or
plastic bags, what's in a name?
