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Funny Mistakes

  Tags: Joke
 Language Learning Forum : Cultural Experiences in Foreign Languages Post Reply
30 messages over 4 pages: 1 2 3 4  Next >>
timinstl
Triglot
Groupie
United States
timsviajes.com
Joined 6876 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 
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."
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timinstl
Triglot
Groupie
United States
timsviajes.com
Joined 6876 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 
Okay, not as popular as I thought it would be. That's okay.
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Sir Nigel
Senior Member
United States
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 Message 3 of 30
16 September 2005 at 6:01pm | IP Logged 
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 6876 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 
Thank you Sir Nigel for the link. I'll have a look.
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orion
Senior Member
United States
Joined 6780 days ago

622 posts - 678 votes 
Speaks: English*
Studies: German, Russian

 
 Message 5 of 30
18 September 2005 at 1:46am | IP Logged 
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 6997 days ago

683 posts - 757 votes 
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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 
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.

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dmg
Diglot
Senior Member
Canada
dgryski.blogspot.comRegistered users can see my Skype Name
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Speaks: English*, French
Studies: Dutch, Esperanto

 
 Message 7 of 30
19 September 2005 at 6:15pm | IP Logged 
The BBC's language site has a large collection of user-submitted stories:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/languages/yoursay/lost_for_words.shtml

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DonbertK
Diglot
Newbie
United States
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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:

Quote:
Twelve hundred Turkish prisoners were mistakenly killed in 1799 by Napoleon after he ordered them set free. He complained about a coughing fit he was having, but his words, "Ma sacrée toux," (my confounded cough) were misunderstood. Instead his men thought he uttered "Massacrez tous" (kill them all), so they opened fire, killing every prisoner.



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