InsaneJournal

Exams are fun! (No, really.)
My boyfriend had an English vocabulary exam earlier this week, and I took a peek at it today. OMG one of the questions in the exam:

(Pick the right explanation for the word / phrase underlined blahblahblah...)
All it takes is some TLC.
a. concentration
b. gentle attention
c. lubricating oil

B is obviously the right answer. But... C??? ROTFL!!!! TLC could be a euphemism for lubricating oil in certain circumstances. *snicker* I'd laugh out loud if this had been in my exam... I have a really pervy mind. :D

I remember when I had my first English vocabulary exam at Stockholm Uni. I'd been in Sweden for less than a year then, so for me the exam was more like a Swedish vocabulary exam than an English vocabulary exam. They had questions there where you had to pick the right Swedish translation of a word, so while I understood most of the English words (or could guess their meaning from the sentence), I had to often just pick the Swedish word randomly. So a lot of times I just tried to guess some of the meanings from the (little) German I knew, or tried to "feel" the right answer.

Anyway, the horrifying moment came when we had to translate a Swedish word into English, and I wasn't completely sure about the Swedish word. I think the sentence went something like this: "Some say that ______ (onani) should be taught in schools." The word onani is Swedish for masturbation. The problem was that I wasn't sure then that it was correct. Masturbation isn't exactly one of the words you learn first when you learn a language. I felt horrible when I handed in the exam. I kept worrying what the person correcting the exam would think if onani didn't mean masturbation, and some weirdo (me) wrote that word there. I mean, most people taking the course were Swedes, or grew up in Sweden, so it'd really look creepy if masturbation wasn't the right answer. O_O

So, what embarrassing things did you (or almost did) write in an exam? :P