Heaven Is A Place On Earth...just not in England

Had a funny linguistic blip the other day. My gym is frequented by the local obachan (elderly women) contingent and they always seem bemused/ intrigued by the presence of a half naked foreigner (me).

The other day one of the ladies started talking to me about how hot it was...I nodded and agreed. She then continued into unknown vocab territory and started talking about "tengoku". I continued to nod. She then asked me if I understood and without thinking I replied with a hearty "yep, sure do!".

She then asked me "So, how do you say it in English?". Fearing I would look ridiculous if I was honest (" Oh actually, I lied, I can't understand a ruddy word your saying, lady ") I opted for the language learner's "Get Out Of Jail Free Card" and mumbled something about it being difficult to translate because it didn't really exist in England.

She laughed, I laughed...we were internationalising on an epic scale.

I got home to discover that "tengoku" actually means "heaven/ paradise" - qeul idiot!!!