Mynydd neu Bryn

Over the weekend I helped a friend of mine with her learning of the English language, by watching a film. Since the film was mostly dialogue anyway, I have bravely taken it upon myself to summarise it.

Here's how the conversation didn't go...

Hugh Grant: Erm, err... gosh, we've come to err... measure your hill here.
Barman: Brilliant, but it's a mountain rather than a hill. Us Welsh people value our mountains quite dearly.
Hugh Grant: Well err, erm... let's see about that shall we.
The Other Cartographer: If it's over 1,000 feet then it's a mountain. Let's go and measure it.
...
Hugh Grant: Erm, err... gosh, it's a ... hill.
The Priest: A hill?
The Other Cartographer: Yes. So we're off.
...
All The Villagers: We've put a load of mud on top of the hill, thus making it higher than 1000 feet.
Hugh Grant: Erm, gosh... turns out you're right.
Mandatory Love Interest: Great. Let's get married.
The Priest: Don't spoil the plot now, will you?
All The Villagers: Well the outcome is implicit in the title, but we didn't tell everything now, did we?
The Priest: Fair enough.

Got Milk?

Moving to a new country or even city can present plenty of communication problems, but even when you think you're getting the grip of the local language, some situations can still throw you off balance.

I've broken the 'made up conversations' rule already because this exchange did actually happen, although I've embellished it somewhat. When one of the five random women standing around talking approached me, here's how it went...

Yo: Hola.
La mujer: Hola.
Yo: ¿Tienes leche?
La mujer: silencio
Yo: Erm...
La mujer: Dime.
Yo: ¿Tienes leche?
La mujer: ¿Que?
Yo: Leche. ¿Tienes?
Otra mujer: Ah, LECHE. (Como lo he dicho)
La primera mujer: Ah, vale. Toma...

At this point I didn't even check what type of milk it was (i.e. I took the risk of buying skimmed) and just paid, so I could get out of the shop and home to a well-earned cup of tea.

Now, you might suggest that maybe my pronounciation isn't up to scratch but I've since been told it's fine, so I have no idea what it was all about.

p.s. If you trust my Spanish translation, here it is in English:

Me: Hi.
Woman: Hi.
Me: Do you have any milk please?
Woman: silence
Me: Erm...
Woman: Tell me what you want.
Me: Do you have milk?
Woman: What?
Me: Milk. Do you have any?
Another woman: Ah, MILK. (How I said it)
First woman: Ah, ok. Here you go...