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Humorous Blunders in Your Target Language | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Cultural Experiences in Foreign Languages |  | |
| Deji Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5226 days ago 116 posts - 182 votes  Speaks: English*, French Studies: Hindi, Bengali | Message 137 of 185 03 January 2010 at 8:14pm | IP Logged | ||
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Once, visiting Calcutta, I decided to amuse my teacher's wife and daughter by imitatiing Bengali. They listened
straight-faced as I went on with nonsense bengali " ami sube shone jake dishe shono shabe etc. etc." Suddenly they both fell over laughing. I had said "Beshi khabo beshi hagbo" ( I will eat a lot, I will sh**t a lot). The funny thing was, it had actually made sense! I also read about a man in Japan who was asked to give a speech to his child's Boy Scout troops' parents (eg moms) about the United States. In the midst of his speech, he tried to say that the sky was a different color in the US. Unfortunately the word for sky is very close to the word for excrement. (I no longer remember what the word was) Which was the word he used. He wrote that the funniest thing was that the moms didn't bat an eyelash. (Foreigners, you know, talk about the weirdest things). 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| psy88 Senior Member United States Joined 5377 days ago 469 posts - 882 votes Studies: Spanish*, Japanese, Latin, French | Message 138 of 185 20 May 2010 at 4:46am | IP Logged | ||
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I am not sure if this fits the category of humorous blunders but:I have been studying Spanish and recently added French as my second target language. I met a woman whose first and last name appeared to be French or at least of French heritage. She spoke English with a slight accent which I assumed to be French. And, yes, when you "assume" you really do make am "ass" of "u" and "me". So I approached her with a short greeting in French, and she responded politely and smilingly in French. After a very brief conversation ( I am only starting my French study) we switched to English. It turned out she is not French, despite having a French name. She is from Chile. Her native language is Spanish, but she is also fluent in Italian and English and "can get by" in French.
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| quendidil Diglot Senior Member Singapore Joined 6098 days ago 126 posts - 142 votes Speaks: Mandarin, English* Studies: Japanese | Message 139 of 185 20 May 2010 at 1:29pm | IP Logged | ||
I think I read that article before. He wasn't talking about the sky - rather he was trying to say "grass" （草、くさ） which he mispronounced as 糞 (くそ） 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Guido Super Polyglot Senior Member ArgentinaRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 6314 days ago 286 posts - 582 votes Speaks: Spanish*, French, English, German, Italian, Portuguese, Norwegian, Catalan, Dutch, Swedish, Danish Studies: Russian, Indonesian, Romanian, Polish, Icelandic | Message 140 of 185 28 May 2010 at 7:37am | IP Logged | ||
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I was giving some geography lessons to a friend of mine from Ecuador. When I finished, she asked me: "¿Ya acabaste?" (in
standard Spanish this means "Did you already finish?"). In Rioplantese it means "Did you already cum?" and I said: "Yes. Do you want more?". After that, I explained her what she had said. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| ladanoise Groupie United States Joined 5079 days ago 45 posts - 46 votes Speaks: English* Studies: French, Danish | Message 141 of 185 01 June 2010 at 8:18pm | IP Logged | ||
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When I was a child visiting family in Denmark, I went on a field trip with my cousins class. I told a boy in the class that "Jeg spise engelsk". I meant to tell him that I speak English, but instead told him that I eat English - he thought that was hilarious.
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| William Camden Hexaglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 6058 days ago 1936 posts - 2333 votes Speaks: English*, German, Spanish, Russian, Turkish, French | Message 142 of 185 05 July 2010 at 4:11pm | IP Logged | ||
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While speaking Turkish recently, I confused tava ("frying pan") with tavan ("ceiling").
1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Quabazaa Tetraglot Senior Member United States Joined 5395 days ago 414 posts - 543 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, German, French Studies: Japanese, Korean, Maori, Scottish Gaelic, Arabic (Levantine), Arabic (Egyptian), Arabic (Written) | Message 143 of 185 05 July 2010 at 5:40pm | IP Logged | ||
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Oh god I just remembered one I said in German a few weeks ago. I was talking to my German friend, explaining how the New Zealand team hadn't been to the World Cup for 28 years.. But you know, Fußballweltmeisterschaft is such a long word that I thought I would shorten it. But instead of saying "WM" which is what I should have said, my brain shortened it in English and so "WC" came out of my mouth...
So I actually said something like "Wow, I can't wait! It's the first time in 28 years that the New Zealand football team has been to the toilet! Can you believe it?" 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| g.polskov Triglot Newbie Canada Joined 5038 days ago 37 posts - 50 votes Speaks: French*, English, Spanish Studies: Portuguese | Message 144 of 185 09 July 2010 at 3:13pm | IP Logged | ||
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Until I remember one of mine, I'll post one a guy I know did. (hey, let's put the others to shame before). He is american from a hispanic family, so sometimes tend to blend (false) cognate words in the two languages without really thinking too much about it.
So we're going fishing with a peruvian guy who tells us he is taking us to a good spot he's been to earlier this week. My friend wants to say "Did you catch a few fishes" and says "Cachaste unos pescados?" The guy did not answer and kept paddling. Needless to say he was embarassed when I told him he just asked him if he had sexual intercourse with a few fishes. Ha! ha! Edited by g.polskov on 13 July 2010 at 5:37pm 3 persons have voted this message useful |
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