When I was working in construction, I was surrounded by guys from Mexico that spoke mostly  

Spanish. So I decided I’d try and learn Spanish too. I would study at night, then practice during the day. Well early on in the learning process, I was talking with one of the guys, whose name I can’t remember right now, but everyone called him Chaparrito- shorty. What I wanted to say was that his boss Mateo (Matt) paid him every friday, Mateo te paga cada viernes, but I mistook the word pega (hits) for paga (pays). So the conversation went something like: 

Dave: Mateo te pega cada viernes, si? 

Chaparrito: No, Mateo no me pega. 

Dave: Si, Mateo te pega.. Cada viernes… 

Chaparrito: No, No, Mateo no me pega. 

We did a few rounds of this before one of the Mexicans who spoke better English told me: Dave, you’re saying Matt HITS him every friday; pega! The word you want is paga, PAGA.  

If you’ve ever tried to learn a foreign language and tried speaking it in a real-life situation, you’ve probably run across this type of mistake.