"Zwei Frauen" - Two Women or Two Wives?

Here we are in Bangkok, Thailand (Morgan, 2 girls, Josie, and me - yes, sometimes I (Tim) do some of the blogging). Josie joined us the day after we arrived in Bangkok and will be with us for our three-week trip thanks to some very cheap airline tickets. If you have any intentions of travelling in Asia, check out http://www.airasia.com/ for great deals on tickets. They're the "Southwest Airlines" of Asia, but cheaper. Josie is crashing with us in our hotel room, but we will let her "pay" some by babysitting! So it should work out well, we have an extra set of hands to help a bit and she gets to join us in seeing some amazing places!

So we had just boarded a very full river taxi (150 people or so on the boat). Bangkok was built along the river, and these ferries (see pics below) are a very cheap and convenient way to get around in the city. It's also a beautiful way to see the city - 200 years ago only Buddhist temples and palaces were built on the land, the people actually lived on the river on bamboo rafts. We'll show some pics of our trip to the "floating markets" later.

Morgan had noticed a few seats way in the front and so the five of us headed that way. We were speaking our nice American English as we were getting everybody settled and the strollers put away. There were two retired German couples across the aisle on my left, and a Chinese family sitting on my right. I was getting a kick out of listening to both conversations and understanding them both!

The Chinese conversation paused for a moment, so I went back to listening to the German conversation. They were talking about "zwei Frauen," which means two women. Then something clicked in my mind, that the word "Frau" not only means "woman," but also "wife!" They weren't just talking about the two women, they were talking about me and my two wives!!

I was shocked, I didn't know what to do/say, so I just looked at them and started talking to them:
Me: Entschildigung, Sie haben zwei Frauen gesagt, nicht wahr?
Lady: I'm sorry, I don't understand what you're saying.
Me: Ich habe gehoert, Sie haben ueber zwei Frauen gesprochen, denken Sie dass ich zwei Frauen habe?
Lady: (Shocked) Nein, das haben wir nicht gedacht, wir haben ueber verschiedene zwei Frauen gesprochen.
Me: (just looking at them, smiling, because I caught them)
Man: (starts laughing) Wir haben das doch gedacht, dass Sie mit Ihrem zwein Frauen und zwei Kindern sind!

Basically, I asked the lady in German hey, you were just talking about having two wives and she thinking that I was just another typical American who can't speak a foreign language so she can talk about me, was thinking I was speaking in English and didn't understand what I said to her.

So I said it again, but this time telling her that I knew that they thought I had two wives. She realized that I not only spoke German, but spoke pretty dang well, and her eyes got so big, it was classic! She then tried to make up a story to cover herself by saying “No, we were talking about two others,” but her husband just laughed and said, yup, that's what we thought - it looked like you were there with your two wives and two children. I then had a conversation with them explaining who everybody was. They probably still didn't believe me because Adayla looks like a little Josie, but whatever, it was really funny - they got busted!

After that conversation, the Chinese family on my right moved in closer to make room for other passengers, so I started a conversation with them by having Adayla speak Chinese with them. That then launched a fun little conversation with them, but meanwhile I was still listening for the Germans to see if there were going to say anything about Adayla looking like Josie - they didn't, but they did notice that I was speaking Chinese with this family and remarked that I not only spoke German but also Chinese (had they said Japanese I would have corrected them!). For a couple minutes there I actually felt like I could speak three languages, and that was fun. Maybe in another year and a half I actually feel that I do in fact speak Chinese, but now, even after a year and a half of intensely learning the language I often feel intimidated by the language.

What would have been really funny is if I had told the German folks that I learned my German while on a Mormon mission, but I think they would have told all their friends back in Germany that they saw a Mormon with two wives in Bangkok - it was probably better that I didn't mention that part!! At least they can tell their friends in Germany that they met an American in Bangkok who can actually speak a couple of foreign languages.

We unfortunately don't have pictures from that particular time on the river taxi, but here are a couple of picture of us on the river taxi: