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Humorous Blunders in Your Target Language | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Cultural Experiences in Foreign Languages |  | |
| Volte Tetraglot Senior Member Switzerland Joined 6219 days ago 4474 posts - 6726 votes  Speaks: English*, Esperanto, German, Italian Studies: French, Finnish, Mandarin, Japanese | Message 81 of 185 09 July 2008 at 12:57am | IP Logged | ||
I'd probably call it an "ape" - which, despite the amusing spelling, is approximately "ah-pay". 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| brozman Bilingual Tetraglot Groupie Spain Joined 5836 days ago 87 posts - 106 votes Speaks: Spanish*, Catalan*, English, Japanese Studies: Russian, Indonesian | Message 82 of 185 09 July 2008 at 12:20pm | IP Logged | ||
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I was with my host family in Japan when they asked me "how old is your cousin?". I wanted to answer "she is 9", which would be "kyuusai desu", but I said "kusai desu" instead, which means "she is stinking". You can imagine it, we laughed for hours!
Stupid Japanese and its double names for numbers! 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Pavilion Groupie United States Joined 5835 days ago 58 posts - 56 votes Speaks: English* | Message 83 of 185 10 July 2008 at 8:05am | IP Logged | ||
That's very funny! 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| qklilx Moderator United States Joined 5966 days ago 459 posts - 477 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Korean Personal Language Map | Message 84 of 185 10 July 2008 at 4:25pm | IP Logged | ||
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This is more of a blunder regarding my target language rather than being in my target language.
I was walking with a couple of friends across the street from my Korean university campus last year, speaking English. At some point in one of my sentences I said the word "shit" as an interjection. Since I was quoting someone there was nothing after this, especially after what happened next. I noticed a high school girl in the corner of my eye. Her face completely elongated with shock and surprise at what I had just said. See, in Korean there is a word "ssibal," which is the equivalent of most of the vulgar English interjections, even the bad ones. You can shorten it to just "ssi" if you want. I saw the girl talking to her friends and pointing at me and I realized what had happened after I had passed and I made a very big "NO" hand gesture at her. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| sajro Senior Member United StatesRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5776 days ago 129 posts - 131 votes 1 sounds Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish | Message 85 of 185 10 July 2008 at 11:08pm | IP Logged | ||
qklilx, I can usually decipher what your meaning is on IRC, but this post has me stumped! How did 'ssi' and 'shit' get mixed up (or did they?) and why was this so severe a blunder? 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Olympia Triglot Senior Member United States Joined 5761 days ago 195 posts - 244 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, Portuguese Studies: Old English, French | Message 86 of 185 13 July 2008 at 5:26pm | IP Logged | ||
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A few years ago in a Spanish class, we were learning about archaeology and ruins and vocabulary like that, and I
wanted to say, "El archaeologo buscó entre las piedras y encontró el tesoro." ("The archaeologist looked in between the rocks and found the treasure.") Instead, I said, "El archaeologo buscó entre las piernas y encontró el tesoro." (The archaeologist looked between the LEGS and found the treasure.) I will never forget the look on my teacher's face. Luckily, I realized my mistake immediately and corrected myself without her having to explain my mistake to the whole class. Edited by Olympia on 13 July 2008 at 5:27pm 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| qklilx Moderator United States Joined 5966 days ago 459 posts - 477 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Korean Personal Language Map | Message 87 of 185 14 July 2008 at 3:29pm | IP Logged | ||
Like I mentioned, I was outside the campus. I should have mentioned it was pretty crowded, so there were many, many people conversing. I should also mention that "ssi" is pronounced "she." That's how they got mixed up. And as I said, "ssi" is a shortened form of "ssibal," which is a very bad word in Korean. I guess the confusion doesn't make this humorous anymore. =( 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| mytamk Diglot Groupie United StatesRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 6058 days ago 64 posts - 68 votes Speaks: Cantonese*, English Studies: Mandarin, Japanese | Message 88 of 185 16 July 2008 at 4:31pm | IP Logged | ||
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My Japanese instructor told us she had a relative visiting the U.S. from Japan to practice his English. Since Japanese do not have "Si" in their language, only "Shi", he was telling the dog to "Shit". "Shit". When he actually meant "sit, sit".
3 persons have voted this message useful |
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