An awkward situation over the word “Casado”

So I was out on my language learning route, talking with a lady in a bookstore.  The topic was La Comida de Ticos (Costa Rican Food).  We were in the middle of her describing all different kinds of foods.  I was tracking most of the conversation but my comprehension is slow right now, so its difficult.

I have an irritating habit, or something (I don’t know what to call it).  When I’m in a conversation trying my darndest to understand, and I hear a word that is familiar to me, my mind grabs ahold of it and starts to play with it.  “Oh,” my mind thinks, “I know that word, that word means corner”, “He just said, turn left at the corner.” My mind continues these wonderful little games, “I learned that word 2 months ago, in class.” “That was interesting the way he pronounced it (as my mind sounds out the sounds), esqu-ina, no thats not it, e-squi-na, no thats not it, es-qui-na, yea thats it”  This goes on while the person continues to talk, of which I hear practically nothing because my mind was a coddling one of the few words that it absolutely knew.  It’s as if my mind was starved for meaning, and it finally found it in that word, and it ate it up, ravenously…totally oblivious to the feast of meaning that is surrounding it if it would only pay attention to the other words that are flying by…”Oh no!” my mind finally realizes…

…”what did she say, I just missed a ton of what she just said, what was that?  Casado, did she just say casado?  Why is she asking if I’m married, thats weird, we’re talking about food…” At this point I start feeling a bit awkward, and I stutteringly say “Uh, yes, I am married”.  She looks at me kinda funny and senses the awkwardness.  You could see it in her eyes, she was thinking, “If i did ask him if he was was married that would be awkard, but i didn’t, but he thinks i did, oh boy…”

Then she patiently explains that the word “Casado” has 2 meanings in Costa Rica.  One, as what I knew it as, means “Married” or “Married person”.  The other meaning, in Costa Rica,  is “Plate of food.”  Actually not just any old plate of food, but a plate of food that consists of typical Costa Rican food.  So it was entirely in context, we were talking about food and she was telling me about “Casados”.  But i had no idea she was talking about casado (food), i thought she was asking me if I was casado (married)!  I later found out that the reason Costa Ricans call this plate of food “Casado” is because that is the first food a newly married woman learns to cook for her husband.

The fun, and sometimes potentially disastrous, situations you can get in when learning a language!