Embarrassing events (which all happened to be language-related) of Vickie in descending order, less embarrassing first.

(5) I once mispronounced “pretentious” as pre-TEN-tee-ous instead of pre-TEN-cious when I was angry. What sound argument. </sarcasm>

(4) When some of my ex-classmates asked what “plagiarism” meant and how it was pronounced, and in order to prove to them that the English pronunciation was really easy, I broke the syllables into play-gee-AIR-rism by mistake, when I knew the word should be pronounced as PLAY-jar-rism. I sincerely hope that they’ve completely forgotten that word now.

(3) I once said clutches when I meant crutches. “Clutches?” “Yes, clutches.” In a formal presentation.

(2) I never knew lasagne was not pronounced as la-SAHG-na, until I said it out loud in front of 3 friends. Now I can’t eat lasagne without remembering that event and blushing.

(1) When I came out to an old friend (oh that was ages ago), she asked whether I’d come out to my parents as well. I didn’t know what “come out” meant back then and replied, “Yeh, we’d probably dine out.”

Unrelated to languages; but if my parents somehow discover Trusty #1 and Trusty #3 among my luggage later, that would so top the list…