faux pas

Following an hour and a half of extra Polish classes this week, I have now become acquainted with the Instrumental Case (and consequently am one up in grammar terms on the BF, who only knows Latin. Yes!!). The instrumental is where you change the ending of an adjective which describes who or what something is (just bear with me, it'll lighten up in a minute), e.g. 'he is an English student'.
Our teacher played a little game with us, suggesting a name (e.g. 'Michael Jackson') so we could identify the nationality and profession. Now, I am dreadful with names, and was doing appallingly in comparison with my classmate. Of course, I'm not a competitive person, now that I've left school and nobody is writing report cards for me any more, but I Hate It when other people (especially male people) score better than me.
After various French actresses, German politicians and American dentists, the teacher pronounced 'Lech Kaczynski'. Eager to score some points by knowing a Polish person, I leapt in without looking:
-jest polskim aktorem... ?
She gave me a strange look:
-no. This is the Polish president.
-...

I have made a step forward in my quest to practice social Polish: the other night my flatmates had some friends round to watch a popular Polish series about a lawyer called Magda. During the commercial break an advert was shown, where a man is sitting on the sofa next to his somewhat wrinkly canine companion. The guy goes out of the room, eats a Polo mint or something and comes back, with such fresh breath that the dog, in delight, leaps up and kisses him full on the mouth.
The perfect opportunity to slip in a casual 'what a charming dog!'.

I am now going to start hanging around televisions, waiting for the right moment...