Bitch?
I was trying to to explain to my students the imperfect tense in Spanish. The song “María Isabel” was perfect for it. I translated “playa” into English, pronouncing it as “bitch”. When the class started to laugh, I wrote “beach” on the board and my students taught me an important lesson in enunciation. Since that day I made sure I said “beach” and not “bitch”.
Talita 
I was sharing some of these stories with my daughters grandmother, as she is from Mexico, and she was excited to learn that you had the same difficulties pronouncing the same words that she did when she first arrived in this country. I think your story about the beach made her happy.
I’m so glad the my story made you happy. The priocess of learning a foreign language is an interesting and advents one.
At dinner tonight my friend asked me what “puta” meant, and I carefully explained the meaning to him. Excited by his new toy, my friend began exclaiming “punta! punta!” I had to stop him, and correct him, explaining that he was saying “point” and not what he actually wanted; perhaps I should have allowed him to continue, after-all who cares about a person screaming “point, point” in Spanish! That’s not rude or inappropriate, just a little insane! It’s funny how curse-words can be so easily confused and mixed up.
I really find this to be funny because there are lots of words that get confused for curse words just from how different people say them. I personally get confused when some people say “bench” because it sounds like they’re saying “bitch”.
My gosh, I wish I was in this class. That is too funny! I wonder how many things I butcher in Spanish that may sound like a swear. If you hold your tongue and say beach it is well… bitch. lol So I’d say they are very close and it is likely a common mistake. 🙂
A veces, cuando una persona va de ida y vuelta entre dos idiomas, es fácil de pronunciar mal las palabras. Es muy divertido que usted estaba diciendo realmente una mala palabra en Inglés. Estoy seguro de que sus estudiantes tenían una buena risa, pero también sabían lo que realmente quería decir.
Que risa profe!
Me rio por que esto me paso a mi mas de una vez,. La enunciacion es algo que las personas que aprenden Ingles como su segundo lenguaje nunca dejan de aprender. Todavia es algo que practico dia a dia, y trato de mejorar.
hilarante! Never would have thought of that
Esto es muy divertido! Puedo ver donde podria ser confuse.
Gracias por compartir esta historia. Esto fue muy interestante y divertido.
Al leer este blog que realmente me hizo reir! Créeme que entiendo porque cuando trato de pronunciar palabras casi siempre se pronuncia les mal. Apuesto a que la clase tenía una risa muy buena fuera de eso, pero al menos ahora que nunca olvidará Cómo pronunciar correctamente!
My mom and I had this same problem, my mom still has the same problem. It may sound funny, but especially for native speakers, it’s hurtful because they want to learn the language. It can be funny, but I find it mean