Hacklog: Blogamundo — poking holes in the language barrier since approximately 1 month from now

This is kind of random:

So I was buying groceries. The local supermarket has one of those self checkout thingies that are starting to catch on, where you scan stuff yourself.

Well, I accidentally hit the Spanish option, so, off I go, scanning in Spanish. Which was actually pretty fun, maybe I subconsciously did it on purpose.

The system where I buy groceries requires you to select produce from a touch-screen, so I leave that to last and do the bar-code stuff first. The only produce I happened to have were limes and lemons.

Well, moment of terror―there were people waiting in line behind me (already looking at me, a redheaded dude, rather quizzically, while the automated voice read off the prices in Spanish), and I realized I didn’t know how to say lime.

The lemons, of course, were limones, no problem.

I thought. But then I had one of those highschool flashbacks where you remember a long-forgotten mnemonic that goes It’s backwards from what you think! Lemons are limes! Limes are lemons!

Wait, Lima. No no, that’s the capital of Peru.

I mean Perú.

I mean… oh no! Everyone is waiting…

It had to start with an “l,” right? Push the “l” tab!

Okay, phew, there’s a picture of a lime. And it says lima. Okay whatever, crisis averted. Limes = limas, lemons = limones.

Interestingly enough, a friend of mine later explained to me that the translations in fact do vary depending on country, as this thread on the excellent Wordreference.com forums attests.