Although the submissions we have received span a variety of embarrassing situations, the most common types of faux pas are those which involve inadvertently saying something steaming with sexual innuendo. While the best way to avoid this sort mishap may be to memorize every possible word with sexual connotations and save them for an instance when you really need them, it's not always that easy. Many of you have found it's sometimes hard to know which words have double entendres until your foot is already in your mouth.

Take the case of Josh Simpkins, who was an exchange student in Germany a few years ago.

"While riding the school bus home one day, I became uncomfortably hot in the afternoon sun that was streaming through the bus windows. In a subtle effort to get the student sitting between me and the window to close the curtain, I casually asked, 'Bist du heiss?' (Are you hot?). Slowly, he turned and looked at me with a startled expression on his face. Meanwhile, another student behind us began to giggle. Nonetheless, the guy next to me closed the curtain but said to me, 'Next time say, "Ist dir heiss?"' I later found out that, rather than asking the guy if he was warm, I had asked him if he was [aroused]!"

The sad story of the cosmopolitan Monster member bendorg is another example of a linguistic faux pas:

"I had just moved to Japan and was at a welcome party in my honour - surrounded by my new Japanese coworkers and boss. I had been telling them about my semester abroad in Italy a few years back. When my boss and everyone else raised their glasses for a toast, I thought I'd contribute a little international flair, and exclaimed, "cin cin!" which means "cheers" in Italian. However, I soon found out by my colleagues' shocked expressions that "cin cin" means something completely different in Japan, namely, a small penis."

While bendorg's advice was, quite simply, "Do your research," it's not always so easy, especially when you're in an English-speaking country where you wouldn't anticipate the need to research the language. But, as the two linguistic mishaps below indicate, while we share the same dictionary, we certainly don't speak alike.

One Monster member wrote of her disastrous experience shopping for a pair of pants in Britain.

"I went into various stores and kept asking the sales clerk if they had any pants to match my blazer. I kept getting strange looks and each clerk insisted that they had nothing like that. I wasn't looking for an exact match on the material, just black dress pants. I went home with nothing. My brother later informed me that "pants" in Britain means underwear! I should have been asking for trousers."

Monster member davidgarcia also had some trouble with his native language while he was in Australia.

"In 1962 I was the only American at a university in New South Wales. While at a sporting match I asked a young lady which team she was "rooting" for. She looked at me with horror and walked away. In Australia, "rooting" refers to a sexual act. They "barrack" for a team."

Sometimes actions speak louder than words. But in general, the way to avoid getting yourself into a sticky situation is to stop whatever it is that you're doing if you hear someone shouting something like "Stop!" or "No!" Monster member stodgy indeed stopped upon hearing a frantic "don't," but the story still probably takes the cake -- or rather, doughnut -- for inadvertently committing the most shocking and offensive faux pas while abroad.

"During my first few weeks in Taiwan I went into a pastry shop and started taking doughnuts from a tray near the cashier. The girl at the counter started screaming and yelling, "Don't!" in Chinese. I couldn't figure out what her problem was so I just put the doughnuts back and left. Later I learned that the tray on the counter was reserved for the ghosts of their ancestors. At any rate, I was basically taking sacrificial food from the altar."

We hope that you got a chuckle out of these anecdotes, and that they may help you avoid any potential embarrassing situations while you are abroad. But if you find yourself flailing in the deep waters of cultural misunderstanding, remember that the Monster Work Abroad community is always here to help you laugh it off.