in the kitchen

actual conversation between me and one of the mexican chefs:
him: hola bonita! como estas? (hey pretty girl. how are you? - he always says this to me)
me: estoy cansada. (i'm tired. - it was towards the end of my shift)
him, looking perplexed: you're married?
me: huh? what?
him: oh, i thought you said "casada." that's married.
me, laughing: oh no. no, i'm not married.

end of conversation.
let's just look at the conversation from his side:
"hey how are you doing?"
"i'm married."
ooooookay. what a difference a letter makes.

reminds me of the story one of my crew teammates told me in college. she was in china on a student exchange trip. while at mcdonalds she asked for a refill on her drink of 7-Up. the worker recoiled in disgust/confusion - "what?" but then understood once my friend pointed at the soda machine. when she got back to her table and told her teacher about it, she was informed that she had asked for a "raining vagina."

okay, that phrase is going to get me all sorts of random visitors from google searches. oh well.