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Humorous Blunders in Your Target Language | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Cultural Experiences in Foreign Languages |  | |
| darklucia Diglot Newbie United States Joined 4704 days ago 7 posts - 7 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: Japanese, Russian, German | Message 169 of 185 08 June 2011 at 9:43am | IP Logged |
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When I was in Spain a few years ago I asked the waiter for "servicios" (restrooms) instead of "servilletas" (napkins). Not sure how I got those confused...
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| Diara Diglot Newbie France Joined 4703 days ago 10 posts - 12 votes Speaks: French*, English Studies: German, Italian, Spanish | Message 170 of 185 08 June 2011 at 2:22pm | IP Logged |
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The story I'm gonna tell you is very popular in my family (Sorry Grand-Ma, I'm gonna make fun of you once more):
I live in France, very close to Spain. So my Grandma, who doesn't speak Spanish, was in a restaurant in San Sebastian with her 2 daughters and her husband. She wanted to order a cake. A "gateau" (pronunciation = guato), in french. A lot of Spanish words are very close to french, so she said: "Un gato, por favor". Wich means "A kitten, please." Everyone laughed. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| maydayayday Pentaglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 5001 days ago 564 posts - 839 votes  Speaks: English*, German, Italian, SpanishB2, FrenchB2 Studies: Arabic (Egyptian), Russian, Swedish, Turkish, Polish, Persian, Vietnamese Studies: Urdu | Message 171 of 185 09 August 2011 at 2:55pm | IP Logged |
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Very posh restaurant in Spain I asked for rodilla (knee) rather than rodaballo (turbot) ..... and I had just read the menu!
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| Gatsby Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5944 days ago 57 posts - 129 votes Speaks: English*, French Studies: Dutch | Message 172 of 185 21 August 2011 at 7:13am | IP Logged |
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I was once in a French conversation class with a mixture of intermediate and advanced students. The teacher was telling us how, when she was young, there was a French naval base near her home. Certain young women in the town (those looking for a handsome naval officer for a husband) would patronise the local club where the officer candidates hung out.
For whatever reason, these women seemed to dress similarly, always finishing their 'look' with a headband in their hair. The young women who did not frequent the naval candidates used to mock the husband-hunting group. Then the teacher said what I thought was 'they called the headbands - réducteurs de couilles' (reducers of b****, slang for testicles). I started laughing thinking that this must be a French equivalent to someone being a b***buster. No one else laughed, so the teacher asked me to explain the joke to the others. When I repeated, with further explanation, what I thought I had heard, the teacher started laughing at me. She said, no, no, I said 'réducteurs de Q.I.' (reducers of I.Q. - intelligence quotient). For those who don't speak French, the prounciation of 'couilles' is somewhat similar to the pronunciation of 'Q.I.' if said quickly. Of course now that my ears are more finely tuned, I'm sure I would hear the difference, but back then, not so much. Edited by Gatsby on 21 August 2011 at 7:39am 2 persons have voted this message useful | |
| AriD2385 Groupie United States Joined 4632 days ago 44 posts - 60 votes Speaks: English* Studies: French | Message 173 of 185 22 August 2011 at 12:03am | IP Logged |
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On another forum I said "Je suis excitée"...to learn such and such language. But "I am excited" in French definitely
does not have the same connotations as the same phrase in English. Comme j'étais gênée ! Thankfully, it was on the internet and not in person. It only reinforced the idea that online forums are great ways to test out your language skills, as it's better to be corrected by someone online than someone in person. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| B_Hutt Newbie United States Joined 4738 days ago 32 posts - 39 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Japanese, Korean | Message 174 of 185 09 September 2011 at 1:05am | IP Logged |
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I see this hasn't been written in in a few weeks, but I'm bringing it back because I love reading it!
I don't have any of my own (yet) because I am super hyper-embarrassed to make mistakes and get really embarrassed to even mispronounce words, not even necessarily mix them up in front of my Dutch boyfriend, BUT, he was telling me about how when he and his Spanish family were altogether several years ago (He's half Dutch, half Spanish) in Scotland, they went through a drive thru, and his Spanish family doesn't know English that well- instead of saying "I want a Spite", his grandma leaned out the window and said "I am Sprite." Which I think is hilarious and adorable :D 2 persons have voted this message useful | |
| learnvietnamese Diglot Groupie Singapore yourvietnamese.comRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4731 days ago 98 posts - 132 votes Speaks: Vietnamese*, EnglishC2 Studies: French, Mandarin | Message 175 of 185 09 September 2011 at 11:27am | IP Logged |
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"Do they drive a bike?"
It totally floored the listener. I couldn't be more embarassed when I discovered the mistake. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| jarm Newbie Australia Joined 4694 days ago 33 posts - 55 votes Speaks: English* | Message 176 of 185 09 September 2011 at 4:00pm | IP Logged |
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learnvietnamese: you'll appreciate this one!
In my early days of Vietnamese, I was talking to my teacher, and I asked something about her daughter. Gi and d (and r in the North) in Vietnamese is 'z' in English, but g by itself can also be 'g'. I was confused, and thought the word for girl was giái, not gái. The word giái is actually spelt dái, and means testicle. 2 persons have voted this message useful |
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