Giving up a bad habit (Spanish/English)
English is not my first language ... when a friend of mine was helping me right after I arrived in the US, I said: "Thank you, I don't want to molest you anymore!" I borrowed the Spanish verb (molestar, bother) and anglicised it. He was very surprised! Later on, I realised that the verb "to molest" means "to bother, to annoy", and it only obtained its sexual connotation in the past 50 years or so.
Sent by: Godot
Comments
Oh! That usually happens when people try to speak in English thinking of Spanish. All you have to do is learning to think the English way. Ask yourself, 'how would a native speaker say this?' For example, if you say 'it's raining jugs' people may get the point but not fully understand you, while if you say 'it's raining cats and dogs' they'd quickly know that you mean it's raining heavy.
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