I’m taking an English class twice a week after work. My teacher says that mistakes are important to becoming fluent in English. Without mistakes, we cannot learn. I really agree with his idea. I’m learning a lot from my mistakes. One day, I learned the word “wordsmith” in his English class. This word reminds me of one mistake I made a long time ago. I leased a car when I lived in New Jersey. I had a bunch of terrible experiences related to that car. I got a flat tire 3 times. Someone broke into my car. The car broke down in the middle of an intersection. I especially remember one episode.
One day, I went shopping at Woodbridge shopping center which was the nearest shopping mall to my apartment. When I returned to the parking lot, I realized that I didn’t have my car key. I looked around everywhere, but I couldn’t find it. Finally, I found my key on the passenger seat of my car, but the door was locked. I had locked myself out! I began to panic. I walked around for a while and calmed down. I decided to call the car rental company. I called up the salesperson who was responsible for my car. I explained my situation. Since I didn’t know the expression “lock oneself out,” he hardly comprehended what I meant. Eventually he understood and told to me that he couldn’t help at all, and to please call Lock Smith. I simply hung up and I called the car rental company again. The conversation was as follows:
Me: Can I talk to Lock Smith? Reception: There is no one here who is named Smith.
Me: I heard from Mr. XXXX. He said that I should call Smith.
Reception: I’m sorry. I don’t know of any Smith in this office. Are you sure XXXX told you to call Smith?
I explained my situation to him again. All at once, he burst into laughter. I couldn’t understand what happened. He started to explain the meaning of a locksmith to me and told me the phone number of a locksmith. I called the locksmith company and asked to have it opened. A guy from the locksmith company was really kind, and I told him my story about the previous 2 hours. He said that he hoped he would not see me again in his business. I learned many things that day by paying $70 to a locksmith. I made a lot of mistakes in speaking English, but in the end everything turned out to be fine.
This is a great story! Thanks for sharing it. I think that when people are scared of making mistakes, they miss out on a lot of great learning experiences!
ReplyDeleteWhen I lived in Japan, a friend of mine drove me to the train station one day, and as I got out of the car I turned to her and said, "hajimemashite!" She laughed, but I didn't know what was so funny. Later, she told me that people use it only when they meet people for the first time. (I had known her for a few months.) In my mind, I had translated it as "it is good to see you." I was wrong and felt kind of stupid. Now I'll never forget how to use that phrase! :)
Hi Blythe,It was really hard and funny experience. In Japanese, the situation “lock oneself out,” is called “in key”. It’s a Japanese-English word. Since I used this word, the sale person was even confused.
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