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Funny Mistakes | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Cultural Experiences in Foreign Languages |  | |
| timinstl Triglot Groupie United States timsviajes.com Joined 7116 days ago 88 posts - 92 votes  Speaks: English*, Spanish, French Studies: Italian, Mandarin | Message 1 of 30 16 September 2005 at 1:08pm | IP Logged | ||
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I don't know about the rest of you, but I love to read about funny translations and interpretations. Would it be okay to have a thread containing these interesting mistakes?
In my marketing class, my instructor was telling us about a Pepsi campaign in Japan that essentially told people to "drink pepsi, it will bring your ancestors back from the dead," instead of "Come alive with the Pepsi Generation." 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| timinstl Triglot Groupie United States timsviajes.com Joined 7116 days ago 88 posts - 92 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, French Studies: Italian, Mandarin | Message 2 of 30 16 September 2005 at 5:42pm | IP Logged | ||
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Okay, not as popular as I thought it would be. That's okay.
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| Sir Nigel Senior Member United States Joined 7103 days ago 1126 posts - 1102 votes 2 sounds | Message 3 of 30 16 September 2005 at 6:01pm | IP Logged | ||
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Some aren't as funny as others, but I like the local restaurant where I live that has an exit and "entering" door. Oh and I get my latest updates from engrish.com. Pretty funny stuff.
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| timinstl Triglot Groupie United States timsviajes.com Joined 7116 days ago 88 posts - 92 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, French Studies: Italian, Mandarin | Message 4 of 30 16 September 2005 at 11:41pm | IP Logged | ||
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Thank you Sir Nigel for the link. I'll have a look.
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| orion Senior Member United States Joined 7020 days ago 622 posts - 678 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German, Russian | Message 5 of 30 18 September 2005 at 1:46am | IP Logged | ||
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I was speaking to some Russian friends once. I intended to say, "I need a beer" (menye noozhna piva). I used the word pizda instead, which refers to a part of the female reproductive anatomy. As you can imagine, the Russians found this quite entertaining!
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| ElComadreja Senior Member Philippines bibletranslatio Joined 7237 days ago 683 posts - 757 votes 2 sounds Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish, Portuguese, Latin, Ancient Greek, Biblical Hebrew, Cebuano, French, Tagalog | Message 6 of 30 18 September 2005 at 9:35am | IP Logged | ||
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I recall that Pepsi flub, although I thought it was China, and Coke. Anyway, I think the original phrase was supposed to be “Pepsi adds life,” Which may give you a better idea of how the words got twisted around.
I need to research this, but I seem to remember a cola campaign in Japan that was supposed to be something like "Enjoy coca cola" and it came out "bite the wax tadpole" This was a translation flub I recall hearing about that was caught before it went out. Even though it's essentially the same language. The “Snickers” candy bar when sold in Britain had a name change or something because it sounded too much like the British word for women’s underwear. I really should look some of this stuff up. :( I think the Russian learners should get this one: Someone tried to say in Russian "Can you write it for me?" and instead asked about a bodily function. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| dmg Diglot Senior Member Canada dgryski.blogspot.comRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 7010 days ago 555 posts - 605 votes 1 sounds Speaks: English*, French Studies: Dutch, Esperanto | Message 7 of 30 19 September 2005 at 6:15pm | IP Logged | ||
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The BBC's language site has a large collection of user-submitted stories:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/languages/yoursay/lost_for_words.shtml 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| DonbertK Diglot Newbie United States Joined 7217 days ago 23 posts - 24 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: Japanese | Message 8 of 30 19 September 2005 at 6:55pm | IP Logged | ||
This is from Snopes.com, though it's not real:
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