Multilingual Mishaps

Once, on a business trip in French-speaking Europe, my father asked the person working at the front desk when the cruise ship (navire) would arrive to take him to the airport – except that he really meant to say shuttle (navette). Tonight, I spent some time with my first official Chinese friend, Gaotian. I am helping her with French, and in return, she is helping me with Chinese. Now, in China, when you go out to dinner with someone, you are supposed to argue over who pays the bill. Everyone is supposed to want to pay. So once we finished eating, I tried to tell her I should pay since she came to my apartment, and at my apartment she is my guest. The word for “guest” is keren. However, the verb qing means “to invite,” so I thought, not knowing the word keren, maybe the word for guest was qingren. I was wrong, though; when I told her she was my qingren, she started laughing hysterically because I had just called her my mistress.