Diversion vs diversión (fun)
Learning a new language is fantastic. It enables you to communicate with an entire new section of the population and, somehow, when you hear people speak in their mother-tongue, you understand a lot more about their personality from their choice of words, expressions and intonation. It also opens up an unknown world of foreign films, literature and music.
However, on the road to mastering a language, one has to dodge all sorts of mines in the battlefield of linguistics. Full of literal misunderstandings, faux pas and double-entendres, the use of the wrong word can be either:
a) embarassing b) mortifying or c) hilarious.
As an English Teacher, some advice I give to my beginner level students is just to try, to not be afraid of making mistakes and when in doubt, invent. This usualy works quite well when two languages are relatively similar, and 70 % of the time it's worked for me from English to Spanish too. The problem is the remaining 30%. This advice of "invent!" should come with a caveat: Beware the false friends!!
False friends are pairs of words in two languages or dialects that are similar in appearance and pronunciation but have different meanings. Here are a few examples of such amigos falsos.
Don't be shocked when you hear people saying constipado. They are not, in fact, constipated and having problems with digestion but rather simply have a cold. You may then remark that this is an embarrassing situation, to which they might respond "Felicidades" (or Congratulations) because embarazada means that you are pregnant, not embarrassed!
Your complexión is not your skin tone but your physcial build and decepción has nothing to do with a deception but is a disappointment. When you contestar you answer, when you asistir you attend a class and when you molestar you annoy. And when you hear Rafa Nadal talking about " having illusions" he is not talking about a false idea or image, but that he is, indeed, hopeful (~me hace ilusión).
So next time you try and guess the foreign word, remember that it's not a disgrace, it's just a desgracia (= a misfortune!)
