Lost in Translation

So here are a few of the sentences/phrases that got lost in translation on my student's test.

1. We were learning the difference between homophones (words that sound the same and might even look the same but have different meanings) so they had to write a sentence or a definition to tell me they knew the difference. Here are a few answers they came up with.

Dear- a husband; to mom ; my preesent
Waste-not wise; to spill things up; to use a lot; waste typing; making time unpreciously
Waist-half of the body( the outside); make time slower
Dye- S's mom(so saying a parents name here is like cursing. This particular student can't stand this other kid, doesn't make it right but hey 10-12 year old are mischievous. )
Flour- I can clean the flour?

2. We were working on using indefinite pronouns (someone, anyone, no one, etc). These are the sentences they came up with.

Someone is in the toilet( I got this one a lot)
Can I like somebody?
I want nobody nobody on you (this is from a song but the actual words are I want nobody nobody but you)

So the other day I was trying to learn how to say couple or match and it is the same word as rest but a little different (like so many of Lao words, unfortunately no matter how hard I try they all seem to sound the same). Anyways, it made me laugh 4 expats standing around trying to say it and one Lao person trying to help us understand the difference. I began to laugh because I thought of how funny , if I were Lao, it would probably sound to me and what it would be like if our roles were reversed.

Learning Lao has taught me how to have patience and empathize with my students also to understand why they make the errors they do in English. I am so thankful for laughter, friends, teachers and patience. May I never quit learning until the day I die for there is so much potential in everyone and thing yet to be discovered.