Your post reminded me of an experience I had when I was in Junior College & a girl from church had returned from Peru with her Spanish speaking exchange family. I had taken 5 years if Spanish in school between high school & college so I thought it would be fun to speak in all Spanish to them...after all I remember at that time I was sitting in church & translating the sermon into Spanish in my mind.

I was trying to teach myself how to play the church organ for a sunday school performance that was planned & I was talking to them about having to use my feet to play the pedals on the organ......well, in spanish, there is the word "pata" & the word "pie" (P-A). I managed to use the word "pata" for my foot....but the word "pata" means animal paw or the leg of a table.....while "pie" is the human foot which was the word I really wanted to use but ended up using "pata". Needless to say....I got a lot of laughs from that as they pictured this dog paw playing the organ pedals.

It definitely does help to have a good knowledge of the appropriate nouns so as NOT to embarrass one's self.....I'm sure it's the same with learning German....lol....I did that after 5 years of studying the language