A friend was recently visiting Burundi doing voluntary work and got laughed at when she introduced herself?

Question

Her name is Helen, so she introduced herself by saying: "mitwa (may have spelt that wrong) Helen". It must mean something funny in one of the local languages over there - does anyone have any idea why they laughed, so Helen may be in on the joke too?

Answer 1

She may have inadvertantly mispronounced the word and it came out meaning something totally different than her intention.

Answer 2

Well, it's sad when one tries to speak the local language and gets laughed at . I would think that she may have  mispronounced what she was trying to say and it may have either sounded funny to them or she said it in such a way that it was a totally different meaning. Regardless I would think that the friends she was with could have helped her. I give her credit for trying to make others feel more comfortable and showing that she tries to speak the language.

Answer 3

Miriwe (good afternoon) is what she was probably trying to say. This happens many times where I work.  We have many different employees from different countries coming into our office and they will start by saying "Ummm, how do you say it?" and then when they say what they think is right, it's way off and means the wrong thing.  If these people were professional, someone would have pulled her aside and told her how to properly say it the next time she wanted to use the word.