Are there any common English words which in other languages are obscene or “off color”? I know it works the other way; years ago in eastern europe (I forget which country) I saw a pastry called “Shitt”.
Anecdote:
I work at the Renaissance Faire, and of course one of the things we exclaim all the time is “Huzzah!” Well, one of my friends was leading around a group of students, and he noticed that one of the Asian girls - a fairly recent immigrant, from what he could tell, would blush and giggle every time he or anyone else would shout it. He managed to get her to acknowlege that “Huzzah” meant something different in her language (Korean, it turned out), but she wouldn’t say…
He then checked with one of his outside-of-Faire buddies who is also Korean, and his buddy said that “Huzzah” sounds very similar to a vulgar term that translates roughly to “Let’s get it on!” or “Let’s do it!” I believe that the Korean term sounded more like hut-tzah, but very close.
HazelNut Coffee or anyone else who speaks Korean, can you confirm this?
An even more common example is the European drink Pschitt that I saw back in 1970. I;'ve read about it (and people’s reaction to it) on the internet many times.
I don’t know the answer to your question, although i know I’ve heard of many common words 9usually slang) in english that mean body parts in other languages. I can’t recall any right now, though.
Bite (pronounced as “bit”) = dick in French.
I believe the common English word “cool” sounds quite like the French word for “ass”. Is that right?
Henry V, Act III, Scene IV consists of a lengthy exchange in French between Princess Katherine of France and her maid, Alice. Katherine is to marry King Henry, and she asks her maid to teach her English words. Much of the scene is taken up with English words that sound similar to French profanities. “Foot” sounds much like the French “foutre”, and “gown” sounds much like the French… well, never mind.
Very funny bit if well played. Emma Thompson and Geraldine McEwan did a nice job in Brannaugh’s 1989 movie.
The well known movie star (that I’ve just made up) by the name of Julie Lomo sounds awfully like “fuck your mother” in Cantonese.
Maybe not all that obscene, but the english word “kiss” means “pee” in swedish. 
Not at all. “Cul” is pronounced as [ky], using a vowel sound totally unheard of in English.
Other way around, but American tourists giggle like mad on the Autobahn because all sorts of highway words have “fahrt” in them in German.
Hug; means shit in Punjabi
Lull; both a name and a slang term for penis in Punjabi.
No big deal, we use the very word foot to mean ‘football’ (i.e., soccer).
I used to work with a woman whose maiden name was “Lautfahrt”. “Laut”, of course, is German for “loud”. I sometimes wondered if she would have gotten married just to change her name.
I think I read that “puff” is a slang for a brothel in German, and that there was some snickering when Puff’s tissue was marketed there. (Maybe that’s an urban legend, though.)
Here’s a link to a “wacky marketing mistakes” article that mentions it:
http://marketinghackz.com/10-product-and-campaign-blunders-to-learn-from/
I’m told that “Take it easy” sounds like Arabic for “fuck me in the ass”.
Amazingly, the innocuous name “Zachary” means “penis” in the west African language Fulfulde. I’ve known a few Zachary’s who ended up in Fulfulde speaking areas and they have had to come up with pseudonyms.
Indeed, because Fulfulde conjugates verbs with “i” or “a,” many common names have extra meaning. Timmy means “finished.” Maya means “in the process of dying”. Andi means “to know” and also “breasts.” Bailey sounds to them like “has become angry” It can be pretty funny.
The Korean word for penis sounds like “Chachi”…which gives the show “Joanie Loves Chachi” a whole new meaning.
Huzzah!
In Dutch, “lul” (pronounced as “lull”) means dick. Also “kut” (pronounced as “cut”) means cunt.
Time for that Austrian road trip you’ve been putting off: Fugging - Wikipedia