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Humorous Blunders in Your Target Language | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Cultural Experiences in Foreign Languages |  | |
| Sydney Groupie Yugoslavia Joined 6438 days ago 58 posts - 71 votes  Speaks: English* Studies: Serbian | Message 49 of 185 19 February 2008 at 1:04pm | IP Logged | ||
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Biene--
If only you had said that in America you could have gotten away with it as we don't call ovens 'cookers' as they do in the UK! It wouldn't have sounded <i>correct</i> but most Americans would also interpret a 'cooker' as a person who cooks, I daresay. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Volte Tetraglot Senior Member Switzerland Joined 6425 days ago 4474 posts - 6726 votes Speaks: English*, Esperanto, German, Italian Studies: French, Finnish, Mandarin, Japanese | Message 50 of 185 19 February 2008 at 1:16pm | IP Logged | ||
Questionable. I had to think for a while about what would be meant by cooker (as Biene's post suggested strongly that it meant something, but I didn't know what. My primary guess was some kind of instrument for cooking, but I was thinking more along the lines of a crock pot (which, looking it up, is also known as a 'slow cooker', apparently, although I never use that term). In context, I'd understand the meaning of 'cooker' as someone who cooks, especially as I don't have a strong association/definition of the word. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Captain Haddock Diglot Senior Member Japan kanjicabinet.tumblr. Joined 6754 days ago 2282 posts - 2814 votes Speaks: English*, Japanese Studies: French, Korean, Ancient Greek | Message 51 of 185 20 February 2008 at 6:34am | IP Logged | ||
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Well, since a person who cooks is always called a cook, I wouldn't get that confused with "cooker". Since I'm not British, the word "cooker" sounds to me like a stand-alone appliance for cooking in a particular way, like a rice cooker (where the word is actually used).
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| Sydney Groupie Yugoslavia Joined 6438 days ago 58 posts - 71 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Serbian | Message 52 of 185 20 February 2008 at 6:48am | IP Logged | ||
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I guess my point was, it would sound wrong to a native speaker of American English, but it wouldn't make the listener bust out laughing like in England.
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| Alfonso Octoglot Senior Member Mexico Joined 6847 days ago 511 posts - 536 votes Speaks: Biblical Hebrew, Spanish*, French, English, Tzotzil, Italian, Portuguese, Ancient Greek Studies: Nahuatl, Tzeltal, German | Message 53 of 185 20 February 2008 at 4:14pm | IP Logged | ||
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Someone had once the intention to say in Tzotzil: "Watch out! There are fleas on the bed" (K'elavil! Oy ch'ak ta tem), but he missed one subtle and almost imperceptible glotal sound so he changed completely the meaning without noticing. He wrongly said: "Watch out! There are buttocks on the bed" (!!!) (K'elavil! Oy chak ta tem).
Ch'ak: Flea(s) Chak: Buttock(s) Note that the plural is not required. Guess what this means: Oy ch'ak ta chak :)
I've got the impression that Tzeltal is the third most spoken native language in Mexico, after Nahuatl and Maya (Yucatec). Historically the native languages in Chiapas have been not very well known and studied until now. Mixteco and Zapoteco (placed third and fourth respectively in the official list of most spoken languages in Mexico) are rather groups of languages and not two single languages (they are not mutually understandable in many cases), as I've posted somewhere else in this forum. Tzotzil would be the fourth. Edited by Alfonso on 20 February 2008 at 7:14pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| cokezero000 Newbie United States Joined 6451 days ago 2 posts - 7 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish | Message 54 of 185 12 March 2008 at 4:41pm | IP Logged | ||
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This happened to someone else, but it cracks me up every time I read it.
I once told my husband's best friend, in my best Spanish, about my family's plan to go whale-watching. I told him, in my best Spanish, all about how my father & all my uncles were really into things like whales- the little baby whales especially, and how I hoped they would all come to Baja California to see the whales. It would be a big trip, but considering they'd get to see baby whales in Mexico, it would be totally worth it. Yep, I said, in my best Spanish, my dad sure is into whales. About that time my husband literally leapt into the conversation, waving his arms and saying hysterically, "Ballenas! Ballenas! No Vaginas!" I had confused the Spanish word for "whale" with "vagina." Highly unlikely my family would travel internationally to see exotic baby Mexican vaginas. And I'm glad for that. Oh, the shame... Two years later and I'm still "The American talked about vaginas.....!" I will NEVER say a word I am not 100% sure about ever again. 6 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Earle Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 6301 days ago 276 posts - 276 votes Speaks: English*, German Studies: Norwegian, Spanish | Message 55 of 185 19 March 2008 at 11:26pm | IP Logged | ||
While there are a couple of innocent meanings it can have, I don't remember seeing it outside a porn ad... 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Earle Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 6301 days ago 276 posts - 276 votes Speaks: English*, German Studies: Norwegian, Spanish | Message 56 of 185 20 March 2008 at 4:00pm | IP Logged | ||
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DELETE Edited by Earle on 20 March 2008 at 4:54pm 1 person has voted this message useful |
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