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Humorous Blunders in Your Target Language | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Cultural Experiences in Foreign Languages |  | |
| mashmusic11235 Groupie United States Joined 5485 days ago 85 posts - 122 votes  Speaks: English* Studies: Cantonese | Message 121 of 185 04 November 2009 at 11:09pm | IP Logged | |||||
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I made a blunder a few weeks ago. I was talking with a Rroma person in a forum. She had used several Rromani words in her last post. One word I had trouble on was 'Kai.' So, I politley asked what exactly a 'Kai' was. It turned out that 'Kai' was the name of her child! Luckily she wasn't offended!
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| Mirc Diglot Newbie Romania Joined 6064 days ago 14 posts - 28 votes Speaks: Romanian*, English Studies: German, French | Message 122 of 185 13 November 2009 at 2:14pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Here's something that happened to me ~1 month ago:
I was in my flat, talking to my (German) flatmates, but some (German) professors from my uni were also present - all listening to what I was saying. I wanted to say "I had to wait more than one hour in the queue", but I didn't know the German word for queue. I desperately searched my brain for equivalents in other languages, and I realized that most of the languages I know use some other word for this concept of "queue", and don't have a special word for it. In my first language, the word used for queue happens to be "tail" ("coada" - easy to see why, with the shape and everything). So I proceeded to translate this in German, and I said the magnificent phrase: "Ich musste mehr als eine Stunde am Schwanz warten". Everyone just burst into laughter on the spot - what I didn't know is that this word for tail is also a slang word for "penis" in German, therefore what I said was understood as "I had to wait more than an hour AT THE PENIS". Later I found out that the German word for "queue" is "Schlange" (meaning "snake"). I was not that far off! :))) 4 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| Halie Diglot Groupie United States Joined 6096 days ago 80 posts - 106 votes Speaks: English*, French | Message 123 of 185 14 November 2009 at 7:38am | IP Logged | |||||
That's funny... snake is slang for penis in English! 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| Mirc Diglot Newbie Romania Joined 6064 days ago 14 posts - 28 votes Speaks: Romanian*, English Studies: German, French | Message 124 of 185 14 November 2009 at 3:13pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Yes, that's quite funny! But I have to say that in German, it's a lot more commonly used than in English - it's by far the most widespread non-scientific word for it.
Keeping that in mind, I imagine the word "cocktail" must be pretty funny for someone who can speak both English and German, considering the "other meaning" of the word "cock" in English and the "other meaning" of the German word for "tail". Heh, never thought about that until now! 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| janalisa Triglot Senior Member France janafadness.com/blog Joined 6876 days ago 284 posts - 466 votes Speaks: English*, French, Japanese Studies: Russian, Norwegian | Message 125 of 185 15 November 2009 at 10:33am | IP Logged | |||||
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So this isn't about me personally, but the other day one of my students made a really funny mistake in English.
This student was talking about the fruit trees in his yard, and he wanted to say "The persimmons didn't do well this year." Everyone knew this because he said it in Japanese first. But when he started to say it in English, he said "The oysters..." And everyone burst out laughing. In Japanese, the words for "persimmon" and "oyster" are the same except for a difference in accent.=P 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| aionis Diglot Newbie United States Joined 5454 days ago 3 posts - 6 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: French, Russian | Message 126 of 185 21 December 2009 at 3:56am | IP Logged | |||||
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A former Spanish teacher told us a story of how her non-Spanish husband was trying to impress her while they were still dating by taking her to a Spanish restaurant and ordering all in the language. He got the word camarero (waiter) mixed up with camarón (shrimp) and didn't understand why the waiter got so annoyed when he tried to call him over...
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| ruskivyetr Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5467 days ago 769 posts - 962 votes Speaks: English*, German Studies: Spanish, Russian, Polish, Modern Hebrew | Message 127 of 185 21 December 2009 at 4:36am | IP Logged | |||||
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I couldn't stay away from this thread :). Ok so I was speaking a few days ago with my Czech friend (in my really awful Czech @ essentially baby conversation level), and I tripped. I'm half Polish, and I know a lot of swearwords in Polish. I let out a "Kurwa!". I had no idea that it was the same in Czech. I thought it was just a Russian/Polish relationship that had kurwa as the word for whore. Anyway my friend started laughing and she said she was surprised at how I knew swears already (she exaggerates my speaking ability like it's the most amazing thing on earth).
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| kyssäkaali Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5539 days ago 203 posts - 376 votes Speaks: English*, Finnish | Message 128 of 185 21 December 2009 at 11:27am | IP Logged | |||||
The word "schlong," which I'm assuming is pronounced the same as it "Schlange" in German, is also slang for "penis," at least in the southern US where I'm from. It's used almost exclusively in a humorous manner, but it exists. As for Finnish, hmmm... I've certainly made many blunders (who hasn't in their target language??) but none really humorous come to mind. I backed up into my language tandem's lamp once and exclaimed, almost instinctively, "VITTU!", thinking it would fall over and break. I was kind of proud that this word came out without even thinking about it, but I was still a bit embarassed. :P I didn't know the word for "scanner" in the grocery store, so I made one up: "skaneroi." The correct word is "skanneri," I believe. The chick responded back with an "Excuse me?" in perfect English. If there's one thing I found to be humiliating like nothing else on this planet, it's being responded back to in English when trying to speak one's target language. 2 persons have voted this message useful |
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