There are a lot of words in the Bulgarian language that sound very similar, but mean very different things. This has been a problem more than once. An example of this are the two words "samolet" and "sladoled". "Samolet" means "airplane" and "sladoled" means "ice cream". When I first arrived in Koynare and started teaching, my students asked me how I got to Bulgaria. I wanted to say something ridiculous like, "I walked/swam/ran all the way here." or "I was dropped off my some aliens on their way to Mars." or "Wait a minute. You mean I'm not in America?" Unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on how you look at it) my brain didn't work that quickly in Bulgarian yet. Instead, I went for the truth. I told them confidently, "Az patoovam tuke sus sladoled." That's right, I said, "I traveled here by ice cream." It wasn't until my class erupted in laughter that I even realized what I had said. I quickly retracted my statement. I told them that I meant to say "samolet" NOT "sladoled". We all had a good laugh and I'm grateful that it didn't go the other way and I didn't accidentally say that I liked to eat airplanes. That probably would've been worse (though just as funny).
Another time was also in front of a class when we were going over the alphabet. We were playing a game and I wanted them to go around the room and say one word that begins with each letter of the alphabet. One person says a word that begins with the letter "A" and then the next person says a word that begins with the letter "B" and so on and so on. When I was introducing this game, I told the class that we were going to be playing a game with "oboofki"...which is the word for "shoes". They looked at me like I had a disorder and I was completely oblivious to my mistake. They asked "What?" and I repeated myself, feeling falsely confident (again). Then one student said "Do you mean "bookvi?" I couldn't help but burst into laughter. "Yes", I answered. "That's exactly what I mean." The word "oboofki" means "shoes" and the word "bookvi" means "letters" (like the alphabet, not the kind that you get in your mailbox. That's a whole new word that we won't worry about right now).
There was another time when I told my friend Beti that I had to go home because I had "robots tomorrow." I meant to say that I had work tomorrow and the words are basically the same ("roboty" and "rabota"). The only difference is an intonation and the letter "a". She corrected me and I told her that she didn't know and that maybe I DID have to do something with robots tomorrow. Luckily now, for the most part, I get along much easier and my brain can function in Bulgarian. Now that I've said that I'll probably have another mishap this week...
