Oh, for a moment I thought Nicole had rejoined us But it was actually fun to revisit this thread. How do they sleep with themselves--HA!

Wanted to add a favourite family equivalent of "how do they sleep with themselves" courtesy of my French-Canadian mother, who has a hilarious history of mangling certain phrases. The best took place over a formal dinner when she was trying to explain Dad's pentient for making friends with locals when travelling. She couldn't decide whether to say he enjoyed "shooting the breeze with the locals" or "chatting up the locals" and wound up telling the assembled company that dad enjoys shooting up with the locals. She thought she'd clarify things once the guffaws died down, but wound up digging herself deeper when she changed it to shooting up the locals!
Other amusing slips from her include "that mafia show, the Pianos" (instead of Sopranos) and describing "Skaters," that obnoxious breed of baggy-pant-wearing teenage boy from the mid 90's, as "Walkers." Love Mom!

HA! HA! HA! Michelle, that's TWICE in one day. You crack me up. (I wrote back to you in the pregnancy question thread).

My Eurasian Mum was the same - learnt English phonetically by ear. She would often say: "May I enjoy you?" instead of "May I join you?". She mixed up tomatoes with potatoes, and of course couldn’t say “th” so words like “thank you” became “senk you”. Mum oozed charm though, and got away with her broken English. Sounds like your Mum is just the same, Michelle :0)