“Serving overseas as a small-town boy from America is intense, stressful and humorous! Enjoy a light-hearted story with me from our last 20 years overseas!”
—Matt
Goats & Spoiled Milk
Have you ever said a word or phrase you would like to take back? Maybe better to ask if there is a sent e-mail or text you’d like to delete. Well, there is also the world of rude language and cussing that takes on its own form and style. Today’s modern media has expanded the possibilities to express oneself in creative and rude ways.
Living overseas added communication challenges with a new language for me. Words that were unintelligible gibberish to a Hoosier, meant really bad things to these locals, but sounded just like garbled up sounds to me. Even seemingly innocent words and phrases meant really nasty things to locals, even though they carry no special meaning to us in Indiana.
Every culture has animals that have bad connotations, if you call someone it or attribute the animal’s characteristics to a person. I learned in my new location overseas that goats carried really bad meanings to them. Through error, I figured this out, and it was goats that you never associate with a person. I made the mishap of complimenting a local friend and runner by saying that he could run like a goat on the rough mountain trails. He graciously understood my ignorance and corrected me.
I learned much of my new language through conversations with locals in daily life and not only in the classroom. Natural learning has many advantages and drawbacks. I was with local friends in a café, and someone mentioned that another person was “spoiled milk.” “Spoiled milk” seemed like something as innocent as could be. I understood it to mean that the person was grumpy. The best way to learn a new vocabulary word/phrase is to use it, so when at church the next Sunday I practiced my new phrase. I was in a group conversation and it seemed like the right context to say, “that person is spoiled milk.” Wow! The group of people went silent, and all had very shocked faces. One of the men pulled me aside and said “spoiled milk” was liking saying a very nasty four-letter word to their ears. I stopped using that milk phrase from then on.
I have decided to just talk about goats and milk when in Indiana.
Something similar ever happen to you. Contact me and let me hear your story!
mattsmishaps@gmail.com Matt’s Mishaps, PO BOX 114, Grabill, IN 46741
