When I went to study in Salamanca, Spain in 1984, I found it challenging to find a few things that were common in the US. One item I needed and could not easily find was double A batteries for my small cassette player.
One day, after I had been living in Salamanca for five months and was very confident with my Spanish, I went into a store in the Plaza Mayor. Like in many of the smaller shops, you couldn’t wander around by yourself. You had to tell the salesperson what you were looking for. When I was asked what I wanted, I replied, “pieles.”
The woman gave me a puzzled look and asked me to repeat. I repeated what I had said in what I thought was perfect Spanish: “Yes, I want skins,” I said a bit more forcefully this time. She was still puzzled and kindly asked me to repeat again. I did, still certain I was asking for batteries.
The woman then pinched the skin around her wrist to indicate that I had asked for ‘skins.’ I am certain I turned bright red. I was so embarrassed that not only did I not buy batteries that day I never went back to that store. Now I can look back and laugh, but at the time I was mortified that I had used the wrong word, pieles instead of pilas, and was unable to laugh at myself.
We would like to thank Colleen Sheehan for submitting this amusing story. She currently teaches Levels I, IV and V Spanish at the Cobleskill-Richmondville High School in New York and has taught Spanish for 20 years.
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