When we use language, whether it is in writing or speaking, there exists the possibility for us to make mistakes. This is an inevitable fact of life, and while these language mistakes can sometimes create problems, the question arises, what was learned from the mistake? As for me, I have been an active participant in countless language mistakes that have produced learning moments. 
In this blog I will share three of these that were especially memorable for me. They come from different points in my life and involve different languages.
The fan is doing what?
When I was in junior high school, my parents had one of their friends over who, we came to learn, had the tendency of using incorrect words. It was summer, and we had a stand fan moving the air. This woman proceeded to ask my parents, “Where did you get that ovulating fan?” I did not notice anything odd about this, but my parents’ wry smiles and quick glance at each other told me that something was off. After the woman left, the conversation turned to the ovulating fan, and I learned that the fan was not ovulating but instead it was oscillating. Due to this woman’s mistake, I learned very clearly the difference between ovulating and oscillating.
You’re already married?
In high school I studied Spanish, and my teacher took any students who wanted to go down to Mexico for real life language practice. I went my first year with 10 other students and our first night in Mexico, we went out to a restaurant. The waitress was friendly and was engaging us in simple conversation. She asked me how I was to which I replied, “Estoy casado.” 
She smiled and congratulated me and asked if I had children. The other students and my teacher started laughing and of course I turned red with embarrassment. My teacher then explained that I had said that I was married (estoy casado) and that I probably had wanted to say that I was tired, “Estoy cansado.” While embarrassing at the moment, I have not repeated this mistake and clearly know that tired is ‘cansado’ and married is ‘casado’.
I’ve made that mistake for over 10 years.
My last example happened just a couple years ago. Being an English teacher in Japan, I have, at times over my 15 plus years teaching here, had to remind students not to write their names using the Japanese writing systems. I would confidently say, “Please write your name in romanji” all the while oblivious to the fact that I was making a mistake. In an elementary school class I told a student,
“Please write your name in romanji” only to have another student boldly say, “Not romanji, romaji.” I was taken back and clarified with her what she had said and learned that I had been mispronouncing ‘romaji’ all those years and no one had ever corrected me up until then. In in English, ‘romanize’ is used hence my saying ‘romanji’. Needless to say, I have learned from this and now say “Please write your name in romaji.”
Mistakes of all sorts are part of life, but when we take time to learn from them, we grow and become better because of them. There is a saying, “A mistake is only a mistake if you don’t learn from it.” What mistakes have you learned from? Erik