> > My favourite mistake was asking a German farmer for a place to set up my
> > tent: "Haben Sie ein platz fur mich zum kampfen?" => "Do you have a
> > place for me to fight?" (Dutch "Kamperen" != German "Kampfen").
> 
> Good one!

I seem to remember a possibly apocryphal story involving a major ballpoint pen
manufacturer which touted its new pen design as leak-proof by declaring in
Spanish speaking nations that it won't leak in your pocket and "embrazar" you,
"embrazar" being taken as the Spanish word for embarass.

Or so they thought.  The story goes on to say that "embrazar" in fact means
"impregnate", which naturally caused a good deal of confusion as to what
exactly was in the pens in the first place!

My meager Spanish is incapable of establishing the veracity
of this claim; Snopes has no easily found article on the issue and Babelfish
translates "embrazar" as "to embrazar", "impregnate" as "impregne", and 
"embarass" as "embarass".  Perhaps Babelfish isn't so good with single
words?  I'm sure someone will step forward and deny/verify.

Mike H.
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