> I'm slightly addicted to jokes that have to do with the oddness of the English language. Therefore, I chose two sets of words that sound the same, or nearly so, but have entirely different meanings. One of my favorite words is "bow/bough." I can't think of a joke right now, but here's an example: "Jack, who was sitting on a large bough and holding his bow, bowed to the captain standing on the bow as the boat passed beneath him."
> Sometimes I'm amazed at the number of people who learn English as a second language when they have to deal with things like the example above. I read an anecdote in Reader's Digest about a foreign student who gave up on English when he saw the following newspaper headline: "Bazaar Pronounced Success."

Oh my. I help my friends at work (most are from Mexico) with their English. Most of them catch on pretty quickly (way more quickly than I know I would learning English), but it's still hard not to laugh sometimes. I was teaching one of my friends the names for pieces of silverware, and she kept trying to say "fork" like the f-word. It was so cute, but I didn't dare laugh. I don't normally think obscenities are funny, but this was hysterical, especially since she kept repeating it, trying to get it right (she eventually did).

Vida