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Bilingual Jokes | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : General discussion |  | |
| Aapo Diglot Newbie Finland tarpeet-on.blog Joined 6411 days ago 29 posts - 40 votes Speaks: Finnish*, English Studies: Swedish, Japanese | Message 17 of 76 08 April 2007 at 5:58pm | IP Logged | |||||
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"Ahti Karjalainen and Urho Kekkonen (*) woke up in a hotel room. They had
apparently spent the last night drinking, and couldn't remember anymore where in the world they were. Kekkonen asked Ahti to find it out. Ahti went outside the room, came back and said: - I think were in India. - How so? - There's a sign in the corridor that says: WC liegt an der anderen Seite des Ganges." (* Late Finnish politicians who were notoriously bad with foreign languages.) 9 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| AlexL Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 7026 days ago 197 posts - 277 votes  Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: Italian | Message 18 of 76 08 April 2007 at 6:15pm | IP Logged | |||||
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A Spanish one:
A man who speaks no english walks into a clothing store. The manager comes to meet him and asks what he's looking for. After realizing that the man does not understand English, the manager begins to run through every item in the store. Consistently, the customer says, "No, eso no." (trans: no, not that.) Eventually the manager comes to a pair of socks. He points to them and the customer exclaims, "Eso si que es!" (trans: THAT'S what it is.) To which the manager replies: Well, if you knew how to spell it all along...... (Eso si que es is pronounced like the English S-O-C-K-S). A french one: Q: Why do the French only eat one egg for breakfast? A: Because in France, one egg is un oeuf. (pronounced "enough" with a French accent...) This one is Latin, sort of. It's a limerick having that we learned to help remember the Latin phrase "De minimis non curat lex", or "The law does not care for small things." There is actually a Latin translation that rhymes, but it escapes me right now. Here's the poem: There once was a senator named Rex, who had a small organ of sex. When charged with exposure, he replied with composure, De minimis non curat lex. And of course, the famous Latin joke: Semper ubi sub ubi. (Always where under where). (sounds like Always wear underwear). 5 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| allesgeht08 Diglot Groupie United States Joined 6686 days ago 42 posts - 44 votes Speaks: English*, German Studies: Russian | Message 19 of 76 08 April 2007 at 6:58pm | IP Logged | |||||
I don't get it. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Raincrowlee Tetraglot Senior Member United States Joined 6644 days ago 621 posts - 808 votes Speaks: English*, Mandarin, Korean, French Studies: Indonesian, Japanese | Message 20 of 76 08 April 2007 at 10:43pm | IP Logged | |||||
WC liegt an der anderen Seite des Ganges = The toilet is on the other side of the hall. But hall (Ganges) looks like the name of the river in India. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| fanatic Octoglot Senior Member Australia speedmathematics.com Joined 7088 days ago 1152 posts - 1818 votes Speaks: English*, German, French, Afrikaans, Italian, Spanish, Russian, Dutch Studies: Swedish, Norwegian, Polish, Modern Hebrew, Malay, Mandarin, Esperanto | Message 21 of 76 09 April 2007 at 12:28am | IP Logged | |||||
I would understand Gang to mean corridor or passage in this case. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Raincrowlee Tetraglot Senior Member United States Joined 6644 days ago 621 posts - 808 votes Speaks: English*, Mandarin, Korean, French Studies: Indonesian, Japanese | Message 22 of 76 09 April 2007 at 7:07am | IP Logged | |||||
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hall = hallway = corridor = passage
Both corridor and passage sound more formal (to American ears), but all are correct. 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| FuroraCeltica Triglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 6807 days ago 1187 posts - 1427 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, French | Message 23 of 76 09 April 2007 at 9:40am | IP Logged | |||||
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A man living in France says he wants to draw the letter S on the top of his car, which he plans to drive around the city very slowly, so everyone can say "Look at that S car go!" (escargot = snail)
:) 5 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| fanatic Octoglot Senior Member Australia speedmathematics.com Joined 7088 days ago 1152 posts - 1818 votes Speaks: English*, German, French, Afrikaans, Italian, Spanish, Russian, Dutch Studies: Swedish, Norwegian, Polish, Modern Hebrew, Malay, Mandarin, Esperanto | Message 24 of 76 09 April 2007 at 6:46pm | IP Logged | |||||
That is something I hadn't realized, despite many visits to north America. In Australia we use hall to mean an auditorium, but we do use hallway to mean something closer to the above. American television should have alerted me to the American meaning of hall but it just didn't register. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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