The joy of learning other languages

So, last week I was at the European Baptist Convention that was held in Rome. I was there because the Italian Baptist Union has put together a band and I play drums for them. We were the music for the convention. We spent all day practicing and working on music and would have worships services in the morning and after dinner. It was a fun time and I enjoyed getting to play music.

What does that have to do with language? Well...

One day during practice I walked up on the altar and picked up a prayer book. Since we live in Italy, we were at a Catholic retreat center and therefore in a Catholic church for worship times. I thought it would be funny to read in my best Italian accent from this prayer book. It's not very funny considering the fact that it was a prayer book, but I didn't think about that until after.

The story:

I picked up the book and read, in my dramatic Italian accent

"Io per te ho flagellato"

which means something like I have suffered or endure floggings for you

what I saw and thought in my head was

"I for you have flatulence"

which I then interpreted to mean I have farted for you. It doesn't mean that, and it's not even really that close. But that is how it happened in my head. Needless to say, I laughed real hard at something that wasn't really funny. And everyone thought I was crazy.