As a young 17 year old, posted to Fiji for 18 months, I thought it important to learn Fijian. Second night, leaving the bar after a couple of beers two Fijian girls offered to start teaching me. their language. I grabed the chance, so they taught me 'please' and 'thank you'.
A couple of nights later, in one of the senior Fijian's homes , in the middle of tea I asked the lady of the house 'please' pass the salt,'thank you'. There was a loud clatter knives and forks being dropped, the head of the house grabed me by the scruff of my neck and draged me out into an ajoining room."Do you know what you just said?".
I explained how I had been taught these words and the meaning of them. He then told me the first was a portion of a womans body, and the second , what it was used for. With a red face I appologised to the company and was careful where I used those words from tnen on in.