In the early 90s I used to take year 7 pupils to France, who had only been learning the language for 8 months, so were not really able to communicate in French. I had one boy who was so keen and anxious to please all the time (think Bambi and those big brown eyes). One morning I allowed them a short walk round the village on their own. When they returned he was in tears and I couldn't get a word out of him. I asked the other boys what had happened and they told me that he had been going up to French people he passed and saying Hello, and they had all shouted back at him and threatened him. When I eventually pacified the boy and managed to get a word out of him it transpired that he had mangled the French word Salut with the English word Hello so it came out sounding like Salaud, which is a general term of abuse (bastard &c). Once I'd explained the tears dried up.