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Humorous Blunders in Your Target Language | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Cultural Experiences in Foreign Languages |  | |
| Walshy Triglot Senior Member Australia Joined 6928 days ago 335 posts - 365 votes  Speaks: English*, Spanish, German | Message 17 of 185 26 August 2006 at 8:45am | IP Logged | ||
I think 'geil' means 'randy' or 'horny' if used in a certain way :). Edited by Walshy on 26 August 2006 at 8:47am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Pilar Triglot Newbie United States Joined 6644 days ago 14 posts - 16 votes Speaks: English*, SpanishC2, Italian | Message 18 of 185 04 September 2006 at 11:30am | IP Logged | ||
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When I lived in Madrid, there was a clothing shop I used to frequent, and I got to know one of the clerks pretty well. I asked her where she lived, and she told me. I didn't recognize the name of the community, so I asked her, "Oh, vives en los suburbios?" thinking that "suburbios" was a cognate for "suburb". She said no, that she lived in a little community outside the city.
Imagine my horror when I got back to my (host family) home, looked in the dictionary, and learned that "suburbio" really meant "slum." The word I was looking for was "afueras." 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Darobat Diglot Senior Member Joined 7174 days ago 754 posts - 770 votes Speaks: English*, Russian Studies: Latin | Message 19 of 185 04 September 2006 at 12:31pm | IP Logged | ||
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At one of my Russian lessons, as an excersise we were pretending I was at a restaurant, and I needed to order some vegetables. So I said:
Дайте мне, пожалуйста, свежие обуви. (Dajte mne, pozhalujsta, svezhije obuvi.) That means, "I'll have some fresh footwear". The last word should have been "овощи" (ovoschi). Was rather humerous at the time. Edited by Darobat on 04 September 2006 at 12:32pm 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| SamD Triglot Senior Member United States Joined 6645 days ago 823 posts - 987 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, French Studies: Portuguese, Norwegian | Message 20 of 185 06 September 2006 at 12:04pm | IP Logged | ||
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I was in Spain and trying to find the word for people from the USA. I figured that "usanos" was close enough. Unfortunately, the people I was talking to thought I was saying "gusanos," which is the word for worms.
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| George111 Diglot Newbie Australia Joined 6650 days ago 9 posts - 13 votes Speaks: English*, French | Message 21 of 185 12 September 2006 at 3:03am | IP Logged | ||
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My favourite language blunder story of all time was when my host brother from France visited me and came to school with me. My geography teacher asked him what his favourite country in his travels so far had been and he replied that he just absolutely adored the Nether Regions! It took us about 10 minutes to stop laughing and explain to him that the word was actually the Netherlands and that the correct meaning of the nether regions was, well you know ... I have never seen anyone look so embarassed in my life! Edited by George111 on 12 September 2006 at 3:04am 5 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Serpent Octoglot Senior Member Russian Federation serpent-849.livejour Joined 6583 days ago 9753 posts - 15779 votes 4 sounds Speaks: Russian*, English, FinnishC1, Latin, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese Studies: Danish, Romanian, Polish, Belarusian, Ukrainian, Croatian, Slovenian, Catalan, Czech, Galician, Dutch, Swedish | Message 22 of 185 05 December 2006 at 11:23am | IP Logged | ||
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My German friend who studies Russian told me she once wrote я писаю instead of я пишу - "I'm pissing" instead of "I'm writing" :D
I haven't actually had really funny blunders... except that when one of my most favourite Finnish bands, To/Die/For, was in Moscow, I got their autographs on the photo I took in Kouvola (the hometown of the band), and I also asked if the thing in the photo means something [or is it just a beautiful thingy]...but instead of saying Mitä se merkitsee I said Mitä se tarkoittaa, which is more like "What is this for?" :D If I understand correctly tarkoittaa means "mean" in sentences like What do you mean? Mitä tarkoitat? but not in my sentence... my story is not so funny as others out there :( 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Sydney Groupie Yugoslavia Joined 6438 days ago 58 posts - 71 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Serbian | Message 23 of 185 31 October 2007 at 8:17pm | IP Logged | ||
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One friend of mine, non-native English speaker, announced, "I'm going to the chicken" when they meant the kitchen. Just the mental image of him going to the chicken cracked us all up (including him when he realized his mistake).
My most embarrassing moment comes courtesy of a video tape-- this was in the early days of living in a foreign country. At a family gathering someone asked me in the local language if I wanted to go for a walk with them and I didn't understand in the least and just smiled benignly and they said (though I had no clue-- was only later when I saw the tape after my language improved that I could understand) they said, "She doesn't understand us!" and were laughing, and I did that horrible thing where when other people are laughing I laugh, too, even though I have no clue what they are laughing about. When I saw the tape later on I realized I looked like a right moron. :) It's like, "Want to go for a walk with us?" My response: idiot's laughter. UGH! That tape must be destroyed! :) 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| rafaelrbp Pentaglot Senior Member Brazil Joined 6999 days ago 181 posts - 201 votes Speaks: Portuguese*, Spanish, English, French, Italian Studies: German | Message 24 of 185 31 October 2007 at 9:47pm | IP Logged | ||
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I was in a restaurant in Paris last month. I asked to the waitress, pointing to a dish: "Est-ce que cette sauce est sale?" (Literally: is this sauce/covering DIRTY?)
I meant: "...salé" (stressing the last syllable, it means salty). Fortunately, after receiving my first blank stare in Paris, I was able to recognize my error, so I asked it again. This time I even told her "...doux ou salé?" (sweet or salty). 1 person has voted this message useful |
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