Translation Missteps

During a recent dance class, we were struggling with a new step until Jazz started calling out the weigh shifts. “Ball Change! Ball change!” she’d shout in time with the drums. Our Malian dance teacher picked up on this and started calling it out as well. All the Malians started laughing, which we assumed was because he couldn’t pronounce fast enough and would say it on the wrong beats. Later, we learned that his mispronunciation was commanding us “To fart! To fart!” in the local dialect.