A few years ago, we were invited to speak at the World Tourism Forum in Istanbul. On the first night, there was a dinner with government officials. I was seated next to a Slovenian diplomat. When I introduced myself, her reply was, “Your name is Yoshke? Really?”

I said yes and then she asked if I had a business card, so I handed her one. Yoshke, the card confirmed. The diplomat looked at it and mumbled, “Hmmmm. Interesting. That is very interesting.”

I found her reaction puzzling but I didn’t dig into it. I was too nervous (as I always am at formal social functions like this), so I just shrugged it off. We got along really well, exchanging experiences. She asked me questions about travel blogging and she shared stories about the places she had visited. The dinner went on without incident. It was a pretty fun night.

That dinner didn’t pop in my head again until two months later when I received an email from a Slovenian follower. It was a friendly message about how our blog helped her travel even though she’s not from Asia. She ended her message with this:

“P.S. Yoshke (spelled joške) in Slovenian language means B O O B S.”