Portuguese Language Misunderstanding #2

Simone and I walked to a small church this morning for a 9 AM service, then came back for lunch and relaxation.

So I went to church again tonight for a 6 PM service, arriving late with a friend at 6:37 PM. About ten minutes later, after the choir closed their books, the gentleman announcing church events said something about me in front of the congregation.

Who me? (I motion to myself and quickly whisper to my friend if I´m supposed to say something)

So, it turns out he was just commenting that I was a second-time visitor.

PHEW!

Then, a few minutes later, he motions for me to approach the pulpit.

Ok, wait a second. I usually have to wave or stand up at the most. I hope someone told him I don´t speak much Portuguese.

Again, I turn to my friend Alesson to ask what I´m supposed to do. He tells me "canta uma musica em inglês" (Sing a song in English!)

Great Jehoshaphat! That´s not what I was expecting. [queue quivering legs and pale face] As I reach for the microphone, I´m frantically scanning my memory for songs I know by heart.

Let´s rewind to the 9 AM service, when I was talking after church with some church leaders. They asked if I would sing next Saturday (or so I thought) at a youth service because my friend Simone told them I sang. Turns out that they were talking about TODAY.

So I took the mic and mumbled something like "Vou cantar uma musica em inglês. Então..." (I´m going to sing a song in English, so...) and then I sang what many in my situation would likely sing..."Amazing Grace." That song never gets old to me, but somehow I forgot the second half of the second verse, so I just repeated the second half of the first verse....Hopefully, nobody noticed. When I sat back down I grinned out of pure amusement because this same thing happened to me eight years ago when I started learning Spanish. The only difference between this story and the one eight years ago is the language that I obviously did not understand. I´m starting to think I need to be prepared for being unprepared....

I just had to smile big and shake my head, thinking "God, I´ll have to take this up with you later ..." :)

Moral of the story: Never say "yes/sim/si" to something if you don´t know what you´re consenting to! I guess I still haven´t learned that lesson, but I´m hopeful that after Portuguese Language Misunderstanding #142, I will.

Still, this anecdote is not nearly as bad as one that I recently heard. Note the following vocabulary differences:

Embarrassed (English) = feeling a shameful discomfort
Embarazado/a (Spanish) = pregnant
Embaraço (Portuguese) = perplexed; embarrassed

A young lady visiting from the USA was embarrassed because of something the pastor said in a Spanish-speaking church. When she said "Es que estoy embarazada y es culpa del pastor", she thought she was saying "I´m embarrassed and it´s the pastor´s fault"...
The shocked congregation understood: "I´m pregnant and it´s the pastor´s fault!" 

Talk about embarrassing...