s/o "You know those moments..." Language Messups

[elenetxu]

I had a good chuckle about the "excited" comment on the "You know those moments" thread, so I was wondering what other language problems you've all had.

In Spanish:[/i]

Dad once exclaimed to a nice taxi driver "Estoy caliente!" Thinking he was saying "I'm hot!" Unfortunately, my dear father had told the taxi driver quite excitedly that he was horny.

Then there's Mom, who wished my DH a "Feliz ano nuevo" or, "Happy New Anus" (the meaning changes drastically when you don't use the ñ.)

Always remember: embarassed does not translate into embarazada (which means pregnant).

[Cheesecake]

hehe, in Italian anno and ano are year and anus. In writing you can tell the difference, in speaking you really need to pronounce correctly. One of my classmates regularly announced that he has 34 anuses... Love it!

[crimsonandclover]

In Germany, the only difference between "humid" (weather) and "gay" (homosexual) is the umlaut over the vowel, and many foreigners can't hear the difference, so they don't differentiate when speaking. You can imagine the Germans' amusement when foreigners talk about the gay weather outside (the song "It's raining men" always jumps into my mind when I hear it...)


And for those INs in Germany who are reading this thinking , schwül (with umlaut) is humid, and schwul is gay. Use with caution :-)

I've got other language stories, I just have to remember them...


edit: spelling

[crimsonandclover]

I just remembered another one.

In German one verb can change its meaning drastically depending on the prefix (true in a lot of languages). Once when I mixed one up, instead of talking about a car being towed, I told my SIL that my car had been kidnapped. I realized my mistake when I saw her trying to contain her giggles.

[crimsonandclover]

And another one. Tell me to stop if they get tedious.

This one happened to a German friend of mine when he was visiting me in the States. We went out to eat at a Tex-Mex restaurant that had things including fish tacos. My parents asked him what kind of food he liked to help him pick something on the menu.

Mom: "Friend, what kind of food do you like?"

Friend: "Not seafood."

Now say that fast, and put the emphasis on "not"





Yes, it totally sounded like he said "Nazi food," and we all kind of looked at him for a second before it clicked and we realized what he meant. We were in hysterics, poor guy. He was a good sport about it, though.

[elenetxu]

Oh, oh dear!

Then there was DH who messed up "coke" and ordered a "diet cock" at a small town restaurant. The waitress took it in stride. Dad told him just to order pepsi in the future.

[EllieT]

After a really good dinner at a restaurant my mother once told the young (and very hot) male server: My compliments to your cock!

(chef in swedish is kock)

[clickerish]

Someone I knew asked an elderly Spanish gentlemen neighbour where his "cojones" were instead of his "cajones" thus making her life very complicated for about five minutes before they figured out she was looking for items to use moving clothes out of the apartment and not trying to insult his masculinity.

[bugabean]

My first visit to Denmark, my MIL asked me over dinner if I douched. Fortunately, thanks to context and my knowledge of French, I knew that she MUST have been asking if I had showered, so I answered appropriately. But then SIL leaned over, whispered something in MIL's ear, and MIL turned bright red. It was especially peculiar since the Danish word for shower is not remotely close to douche, and MIL doesn't speak French. I'm not sure why she thought it was the English word!

[CheshireGrin]

These stories are cracking me up! I'm not actually an international, but I love languages.

I hope I'm not intruding on your board; it's just that everyone in my time zone is asleep.

[crimsonandclover]

May 15, 2012 2:43:13 GMT -5 bugabean said:

My first visit to Denmark, my MIL asked me over dinner if I douched. Fortunately, thanks to context and my knowledge of French, I knew that she MUST have been asking if I had showered, so I answered appropriately. But then SIL leaned over, whispered something in MIL's ear, and MIL turned bright red. It was especially peculiar since the Danish word for shower is not remotely close to douche, and MIL doesn't speak French. I'm not sure why she thought it was the English word!

Haha - yeah, the German word for "to shower" is "duschen" (pronounced "douche-en"). DH sometimes likes to speak Denglish to be funny, and once he actually said "Are you going to douche?" I had to explain to him between giggles why that was not an appropriate Denglish sentence. :-)

[elenetxu]

May 15, 2012 2:54:31 GMT -5 CheshireGrin said:

These stories are cracking me up! I'm not actually an international, but I love languages.

I hope I'm not intruding on your board; it's just that everyone in my time zone is asleep.

Welcome! Your sig made me crack up