Learning a new language and trying to communicate in country can be a big learning experience.

In today’s story, we hear from a woman who was in Germany and made a big mistake in her communication with German patients.

Let’s see how the story plays out…

Her patients were NOT shy

Years ago, a friend of mine was working as a research assistant in Germany.

German is not her first language, but she was trying her best to learn it.

For one study, she meant to ask the patients to come to their weigh-ins and blood tests without having eaten anything.

The friend made a big mistake.

The German word for “shy” is schüchtern.

The German word for “unfed” (literally “empty”) is nüchtern.

Of course, it wasn’t detected by the spelling checker. And guess who made that small error in her emails to the patients?

Only a few of the patients took advantage of the mistake to mess with her.

You can imagine how shocked my friend was when her patients showed up and began joking with her; oversharing tiny details from their day, telling her about their bowel movements post-operation, and so on.

Fortunately, it was only a handful of the hundreds of patients that she emailed who teased her about not being “shy” and everyone else who commented on it was kind.

Definitely a lesson well-learned 🙂

At least the patients understood what she meant to say, and it’s great that they had a good sense of humor about it.

Let’s see how Reddit reacted to this story…

This reader points out another word that’s weird for people learning German.

This person doesn’t think the patients were being malicious.

Spell check doesn’t solve everything.

Another reader shares a stereotype that is often true.

Sounds like a simple mistake.

No harm done, as long as the patients realized what she meant to say.

If you liked that post, check out this post about a rude customer who got exactly what they wanted in their pizza.