When I lived in Spain,some Spanish friends of mine decided to visit England by car,before they left,they asked me about how to find accommodation（住所）．I suggested that they should stay at “bed and breakfast” houses, because this kind of accommodation gives a foreign visitor a good chance to speak English with the family．My friends listened to my advice,but they came back with some funny stories．
“We didn't stay at bed and breakfast houses,”they said．“Because we found that most families were away on holiday．”
I thought this was strange．Finally I understood what had happened．My friends spoke little English,andthey thought “VACANCIES” meant “holidays” because Spanish word for “holiday” is “vacations”．So they did not go to houses where the sign outside said “VACANCIES”,which in English meant there are free rooms．Then my friends went to houses where the sign said “NO VACANCIES”,because they thought this meant the people who owned the house were not away on holiday．But they found that these houses were all full．As a result,they stayed at hotels!
We laughed about this and about mistakes my friends made in reading other signs．In Spanish, a word very similar to “DIVERSION” means fun．In English it means that workman is repairing the road,and that you must take a different road when my friends saw the word “DIVERSION” on a road sign,they thought they were going to have fun．Instead, the road ended in a large hole.
English people have problems too when they learn foreign languages．Once in Paris,when someone offered me some more coffee,I said “Thank you” in French．I meant that I would like some more．However,to my surprise the coffee pot was taken away! Later I found out that “Thank you” in French means “No,thank you”．