Severe Consequences For Incomplete Homework

My mom shared this account from when she was explaining the consequences of not doing homework to Spanish-speaking ESL students:

"As I was scolding students in my combined 4-5-6 grade ESL class in Sunnydale Elementary for not turning in their homework assignments, I tried to strike fear in their hearts by saying they could flunk. Unfortunately for me, the word I chose was fallacer. I had read it somewhere and seen it translated as 'to fail'. I found out a couple of days later from one of my little girl students that I had pronounced a death sentence on them all, because fallacer means to fail in health [to the point of death]. I asked the girl how many of them had gone home and told their parents what I said, and she smiled and said she knew of a few. The word I should have used was either fracasar or to tell them they would have to 'repetir un grado'. Live and learn. I use that story now to encourage my students to use as much Spanish as they can, knowing that we all make mistakes, even the teacher."

If that's what you put in the food, I'm not eating it!

My mother shared the following language blooper with me recently:,

"I was caught by the ano vs año problem in a unique way. The instructors in our Foreign Service Institute classes warned us that at some point we'd make the mistake of telling someone we had multiple 'anos' when trying to tell our age. I determined never to make that mistake. But I still had my turn when I was asked to list the ingredients of a recipe as part of a class exercise. I was trying to tell them garlic (ajo) and managed to announce that my dish included 'ano'. "

For those who are not familiar, the word "ano" in Spanish means anus. Whoops!