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Funny Mistakes | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Cultural Experiences in Foreign Languages |  | |
| cbashara Senior Member United States adventuresinspanish. Joined 7128 days ago 186 posts - 188 votes  1 sounds Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish | Message 17 of 30 30 October 2005 at 10:28am | IP Logged | ||
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This happened when I was living in Spain for the summer and going to school there. I was in Spanish Culture class and we got on the topic of pasta and we were naming the different kinds and I shouted out "Penne". The male teacher looked at me very confused so I started to demonstrate the cylindrical shape of Penne Pasta with my hands. The more concerned and confused he looked the more furiously I made my hand motions. He finally told me that *Pene* in Spanish refers to a certain part of the male anatomy.
Another blunder was commited by my friend Andrew with his Spanish host family. He told his host dad "Quiero un Cubano" while puckering up his mouth as if smoking. He didn't realize two things. First, Spain has the same embargo on Cuban products that America has. Also he was saying he wanted a Cuban man while making a very lewd gesture. 4 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| maydayayday Pentaglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 5218 days ago 564 posts - 839 votes Speaks: English*, German, Italian, SpanishB2, FrenchB2 Studies: Arabic (Egyptian), Russian, Swedish, Turkish, Polish, Persian, Vietnamese Studies: Urdu | Message 18 of 30 24 October 2013 at 9:28pm | IP Logged | ||
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In a Spanish restaurant last week the lady on the table beside me asked for the "Cachalote" <sperm whale> but she was pointing to a chalk drawing of a "caracol" <snail> ----- it took a couple of seconds for the waiter to catch up with her.
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| milesaway Triglot Senior Member Russian Federation Joined 4330 days ago 134 posts - 181 votes Speaks: French, English*, Russian Studies: Finnish, Sign Language | Message 19 of 30 03 February 2014 at 12:49pm | IP Logged | ||
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I told my student that I was going snowboarding at Farthead mountain. He snickered, but
kept his cool (laughing at your teacher's mistakes would be a bad thing here). It was only when I got home that my brain clicked. Bless his soul. He should've told me though! 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| yantai_scot Senior Member United KingdomRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4801 days ago 157 posts - 214 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German | Message 20 of 30 11 February 2014 at 6:55pm | IP Logged | ||
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Our German teacher told us this anecdote:
He was in Germany for a few days for business (this was before he had learned any German). As he had time to spare, he decided to go for a short walk. To make sure he found his way back he made note of the street name and headed off. He finally found the guesthouse 3 hours later. The sign he read had said 'Einbahnstraße' or, in English, One-Way Street... Edited by yantai_scot on 11 February 2014 at 6:55pm 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| tristano Tetraglot Senior Member Netherlands Joined 4046 days ago 905 posts - 1262 votes Speaks: Italian*, Spanish, French, English Studies: Dutch | Message 21 of 30 16 February 2014 at 12:43pm | IP Logged | ||
Eheh about the first story I guess it's a pronunciation problem. In Italian penne is the pasta and pene has the same meaning that in Spanish. But the two words are very different because of the double consonant n and the e are in one case é and in the other è. I don't know Spanish but maybe it's something similar :) -- Third day of work in the Netherlands. We have time sheets to compile everyday but the software was not working with my user. Keep in mind that still I don't know the difference in pronouncing I and ee and I was not very confident with my English. I told by telephone to the service that "I want to save my sheet". My colleague started to laugh really loud while the person at the phone was really serious and professional... Outstanding! 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| t1234 Diglot Newbie South Africa Joined 4137 days ago 38 posts - 83 votes Speaks: English*, Afrikaans Studies: Turkish, Polish | Message 22 of 30 16 February 2014 at 12:49pm | IP Logged | ||
Reminds me of the story about Ireland's worst driver: Ireland's worst driver 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| SamD Triglot Senior Member United States Joined 6658 days ago 823 posts - 987 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, French Studies: Portuguese, Norwegian | Message 23 of 30 17 February 2014 at 5:48pm | IP Logged | ||
Once I was in Italy and telephoned a friend and said that I would meet him at the Cafe Messico. He didn't recognize the place, so I told him that it was near the train station in his small town. He later told me that there was no cafe with that name; I had seen a billboard advertising Cafe Messico, a brand of coffee, and assumed it was the name of the cafe. 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Bakunin Diglot Senior Member Switzerland outerkhmer.blogspot. Joined 5129 days ago 531 posts - 1126 votes Speaks: German*, Thai Studies: Khmer | Message 24 of 30 17 February 2014 at 6:51pm | IP Logged | ||
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One evening on a bike trip through France, I arrived in a small town not very far from Montagne Noire, a mountain range in Southern France. It was already getting late and I needed to find a place to stay. So I followed a sign saying 'Hôtel de Ville', but I couldn't find anything looking like a hotel. I drove around the quarter a few times, getting pretty confused that I couldn't find the hotel even though there were quite a few signs. I finally went down another road and found a place to stay. It was only later that I learned that 'Hôtel de Ville' means town hall in French.
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