Humor

Robin and I usually speak English with each other.  His English is really good but every once in a while there is a word that doesn’t get pronounced quite right.  One word in particular makes me giggle every time.  Button.  The other day Robin asked me if I had pressed the button to close the garage door. It didn’t sound like button though… it sounded like bottom. Of course I was confused… ummm, Robin, what ‘bottom’? I did figure it out. We laughed. Since then, a similar dialog has happened more than once, with plenty of laughing from both of us.

For every word Robin has a problem with, there are about 10 I struggle with. Two examples:
Cake – Kuchen: the ‘hen’ part comes from the back of the throat and I can only say it if I way it very slow and over pronounced (kuc—HEN)… it never sounds normal (and just to make things confusing: Kuchen is cake, Küche is kitchen, and kochen is to cook…they all sound similar)
Bundt Pan – Gugelhupf: if I have to say it, it is usually followed by a giggle – google-HUP-f
Apple – Apfel: should be pretty easy, but somehow when I say it, it sounds more like Abfall, which means trash

There are plenty of other words in English and German that Robin and I laugh about… we mix the languages frequently and sometimes forget words in our native language.