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Funny Language Mixups? | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : General discussion |  | |
| rdearman Senior Member United Kingdom rdearman.orgRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5239 days ago 881 posts - 1812 votes  Speaks: English* Studies: Italian, French, Mandarin | Message 1 of 4 19 October 2014 at 1:13pm | IP Logged |
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In my Mandarin log I was recently talking about how I spoke Mandarin to someone for the first time and managed to bugger it all up by mixing up I and You, and asked someone "Do I speak Mandarin?". Duke100782 commented he'd mixed together two languages and asked someone "你 habla Espanol?" and insulted shopkeepers in China by asking them if they could speak Chinese. I'm constantly mixing Italian in with my French during lessons, which gives other students a laugh.
Have you ever mixed up your languages, or muddled your sentences so badly people question your sanity? 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| drygramul Tetraglot Senior Member Italy Joined 4471 days ago 165 posts - 269 votes Speaks: Persian, Italian*, EnglishC2, GermanB2 Studies: French, Polish | Message 2 of 4 19 October 2014 at 2:19pm | IP Logged |
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I don't know if that counts, but I'm sometimes so much concentrated on how I'm gonna say something that I mix up what I'm gonna say. Yesterday for instance I asked some guy at the strain station:
"Ist der Zug nach Köln schon abgefahren?" (Is the train to Cologne already gone?) The guy looked at me puzzled "Wir SIND in Köln" (We ARE in Cologne) I WAS in Cologne. I mixed where I was with where I wanted to go, and I'm sure that something like that never happened in my native language. 6 persons have voted this message useful | |
| liammcg Senior Member Ireland Joined 4607 days ago 269 posts - 397 votes Speaks: English* | Message 3 of 4 19 October 2014 at 3:56pm | IP Logged |
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Recently while talking about a child's birthday party, a learner of Irish informed me
that the children were "ag ithe caca". Caca is the genitive of cac. A quick dictionary search will clear up why I struggled not to burst out laughing. The importance of vowel accents cannot be over stressed if you enjoy eating cáca (cake). 6 persons have voted this message useful | |
| soclydeza85 Senior Member United States Joined 3910 days ago 357 posts - 502 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German, French | Message 4 of 4 19 October 2014 at 10:14pm | IP Logged |
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I've heard of some funny stories. A group of people from an American company were having a business lunch-meeting in France with some French affiliates. I guess one of the French guys meant to ask (in English) when they were going to eat the mid-course, but instead asked everyone when they were going to have intercourse.
In German, some nouns are similar to English but require an -en to pluralize it. An American guy was at a company party (of some sort) over in Germany and was looking for some nuts to eat so he went around asking "Wo kann ich ein paar Nutten finden?" Good guess on his part, too bad he really asked "where can I find some hookers?" I forget the rest but I'll report back when I remember. 4 persons have voted this message useful |
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