Misunderstandings

There are many, but here are two examples:

I am meeting a guy today for an intercambio (language exchange) and telling my host mom about it went like this:

Amanda: Hoy, tengo un intercambio.
Lucía: ¿Con el hombre de la discoteca?
Amanda: No, otro hombre. Se llama Andrés, un amigo de Kelly.
Lucía: ¿Es colombiano?
Amanda: No, porque?
Lucía: Es de Cali, una ciudad in Colombia.

Amanda: Today, I have a language exchange.
Lucía: With the guy from the club?
Amanda: No, different guy. His name´s Andrés, a friend of Kelly´s. ("de" also means from)
Lucía: He´s Colombian?
Amanda: No, why?
Lucía: He´s from Cali, a city in Colombia.


When out on Saturday night, we gringos tried to speak Spanish together. It was mostly for the benefit of the chilenos who were out with us, but it was also really good practice. I was explaining to my friend that I can´t imagine dating a Chilean guy because most young people here live with their parents until they´re married. She was super confused and asked why I prefer guys who live alone. Then I was super confused because I figured it was obvious why I wouldn´t want to get tangled up with someone else´s padres.

Turns out it was a classic case of V and B sounding the same in Spanish. I was saying "viven", which is the 3rd person plural for "to live" and she thought I was saying "beben", which means "to drink". She couldn´t understand why I was saying that most Chilean guys drink with their parents and that I prefer them to drink alone!