Lost in Translation...

Speaking a second language is a fine balance between confidence to speak and the humility to sometimes be wrong. I've never really made a mistake in Chinese that kind of makes sense. Don't get me wrong, I make countless mistakes on a daily basis, but never really one like this. 

See the difference between these two words? See how that different is only the "g" at the beginning? ānjìng vs. gānjìng. These words could easily be switched for each other, right? Right?

安静

ānjìng

Quiet

干净

gānjìng

Clean

So we went to the Chinese National Museum yesterday on Tiananmen Square and before entering the museum you of course have to go through a security check station. The girl put my bag through the scanner and then asked me to open it up for her so she could have a look inside. I opened my purse and she grabbed a small Lysol disinfectant spray that my mom sent me for Christmas. (That's right, disinfectant spray for Christmas.) The girl asked me what it was and I told her in Chinese that it's a thing you use in the bathroom to make it more clean. Well...at least...that's what I thought I said. But I actually told her it's a thing you use in the bathroom to make it more quiet. 

The look on her face made me feel like I had said something wrong, but of course that language-learner-confidence kicked in and I just kept repeating it over and over and charading the use of a spray over a toilet seat. She was threatening me with confiscating my disinfectant spray! I had to defend the spray! I can't be without that stuff!

 "Make it quieter when you go to the bathroom! More quiet in the bathroom!" I kept repeating.

Her confusion was frustrating me so I turned to Bouk Goble (Beijing friend of ours who of course has way better Chinese than me) and said, "Do you know how to say germs or bacteria? I don't know how else to explain this to her besides saying that it makes the toilet more  ānjìng ." 

"You said  ānjìng? No, you need to say gānjìng! You just told her your spray makes it more quiet when you use the toilet!"

Awesome.

I'll just end here because all that followed was my correcting myself, their laughter, our laughter, I probably got all splotchy on my neck cause I was embarrassed...Yea, I'll just end here.