Language Blooper:  (Continued From Ooops! Page 1)

 

Once my apartment was found, I had to purchase a bed, a mattress, a kitchen (yes, there was absolutely no kitchen; just pipes sticking out of the wall), etc.  I went to IKEA to purchase my bed.  I walked up to the sales lady and told her “I need a sailor (Matrose) for my bed.”  She gasped, chuckled, and then gasped again.  I repeated myself a little more firmly this time, “ Yes, I need a sailor (Matrose) for my bed”.  As I am saying this, I see the mattresses (Matratze) out of the corner of my eye and point to them.  She exclaimed with a hint of relief, “OH, a mattress (Matratze).”  It was not until later in the day that I learned what I had truly said.  My colleagues, through breaks of laughter, told me my blooper. I honestly thought “sailor” was the word for “mattress”.  I had never officially learned either word, I was just relying on natural osmosis.