The Language Exchange

Every Tuesday at six, Pedro waited for Kate at a small cafe near Central Station in Sydney. Pedro was from Guadalajara and had come to Australia to study engineering. Kate was a nurse at a big hospital and was planning a trip to Mexico. They had met through a language exchange website, and the rules were simple: half an hour in English, half an hour in Spanish, and whoever arrived late paid for the coffee.

In the first few weeks, their conversations were polite and a little boring. They talked about the weather, their families and their favorite food. Then, one cold evening in June, Pedro arrived with a red nose and a tissue in his hand. "Sorry, I feel terrible today," he said. "I'm very constipated."

Kate almost dropped her cup. She looked at him, then at the people at the next table, and tried very hard not to laugh. "Pedro," she said quietly, "do you mean you have a cold?" When she explained what "constipated" really means in English, Pedro turned as red as his nose. In Spain, «constipado» just means that you have a cold. "I've been telling everyone at the university that I'm constipated for three days," he said, and he put his head in his hands.

Two weeks later, it was Kate's turn. During the Spanish half hour, she was describing a mistake she had made at work: she had called a patient by the wrong name in front of the whole ward. She wanted to say that she had felt very embarrassed. «Estaba muy embarazada», she said proudly, sure that she had found the right word. Pedro started laughing so loudly that the waiter came over to see if he was all right. "Kate," he said when he could breathe again, "you just told me you were very pregnant."

After that, they started a list in a notebook, which they called "The Dangerous Words." Every Tuesday they added new ones. Pedro learned that "actually" means «en realidad», not «actualmente», and that a library is a place where you borrow books, not where you buy them. Kate discovered that a «carpeta» is a folder, not a carpet, and that a «sensible» person in Spanish is sensitive, not sensible.

By the end of the year, the notebook was full, and both of them were speaking much more confidently. Pedro passed all his exams, and Kate booked her flights to Mexico City. On their last Tuesday before her trip, Pedro gave her a present: a small card with the ten most dangerous Spanish words and their real meanings.

Kate laughed when she read it. "If I had had this card in June," she said, "I wouldn't have told you I was pregnant." "And if I hadn't met you," Pedro answered, "I would still be telling my professors that I'm constipated." They both agreed that the coffee was on Pedro that day. He was, after all, five minutes late.