Paradigm Shift

Before you enter a country where things are significantly different than in the US (the language), you know you are going to commit some cultural faux pas, inadvertently yet repeatedly butcher someone else’s mother language, obliviously ignore important points, get lost, and generally make a fool of yourself being the foreigner that you are. There is nothing that you can do about this in advance to protect yourself; it will happen, you know it, and you are helpless, so you might as well accept it. You can only attempt damage control. Now on to my story:
So far, I’ve been doing well at displaying my fair share of ignorance. For example, in my language class, we were discussing fruits and vegetables, including nuts. Most nuts translate into German without significant differences from the English version, such as the Walnuss (walnut) and Cashew (cashew). Additionally, we had the Kokosnuss. I looked hard at the little, photocopied black oval, which looked just like all of the other photocopied nuts, claiming to be a Kokosnuss, and couldn’t figure out what the English translation was. I was assuming that it was some sort of coffee or chocolate bean, and then our teacher said the nut is named just as it is in English. I kept thinking, “coco nut…must be the nut for coffee or cocaine or chocolate, but none of those really makes sense in this context since coffee and chocolate nuts are not an easily identifiable snack nut like cashews or walnuts and they wouldn’t put anything having to do with cocaine in a-learn-to-speak-German packet. Hmm.”
By now, I’d imagine that most of you already know what the nut is, as did everyone else in my class. The pressure of ignorance eventually convinced to break down, risking embarrassment and reputation damage, and ask someone.
“Pssp, what is the ‘Kokosnuss’ in English?”
Coconut. Since coconuts are big, hairy, and have milk inside, I had never regarded the tropical treat as a nut. It sounds more like a mammal than a nut with that description. I'd never even noticed that the word “nut” appeared in its name. In retrospect, I suppose it does appear alongside of almonds and other nuts in popular candy bars. C'est la vie.