# Culture shock - gaffes and faux pas **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [April 14, 2008, 7:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/culture-shock-gaffes-and-faux-pas/445345 "2008-04-14T19:28:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Can\_Handle\_the\_Truth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Can\_Handle\_the\_Truth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Can_Handle_the_Truth)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2008, 1:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/culture-shock-gaffes-and-faux-pas/445345/61 "2008-04-19T01:15:15Z")
[QUOTE=An Gadaí] Once, when I was in New York City I asked a pretty waitress in a restaurant “May I make love to you and impregnate you?”. She slapped me in the face. I forgot that that means something completely different on the other side of the pond. Boy was my face red. [/QUOTE] What does that mean in Ireland? ---
**Author:** ![Ximenean](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/aca169/32.png) [@Ximenean](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ximenean)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2008, 1:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/culture-shock-gaffes-and-faux-pas/445345/62 "2008-04-19T01:32:24Z")
“Make love to” means “kiss (on the cheek)”, and “impregnate” means “leave an impression on”. It’s a traditional way of flirting, among the Irish. Young boys and girls would “make love” and “impregnate” each other, and in some cases marriage would ensue. ---
**Author:** ![An\_Gadai](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/d6d6ee/32.png) [@An\_Gadai](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/An_Gadai)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2008, 1:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/culture-shock-gaffes-and-faux-pas/445345/63 "2008-04-19T01:59:53Z")
[QUOTE=Can Handle the Truth] What does that mean in Ireland? [/QUOTE] Ah, exactly the same thing. Was tryna whoosh. Dunno if it worked. :dubious: ---
**Author:** ![guizot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guizot/32/3636_2.png) [@guizot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/guizot)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2008, 7:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/culture-shock-gaffes-and-faux-pas/445345/64 "2008-04-19T07:27:43Z")
I would put a language error in a different category from faux pas. Yes, language is part of culture, but it’s just making a technical error because of a lack of fluency (or less known regional lexicon)–it’s not a social error. If you stumble while going up a flight of stairs, I wouldn’t call that “faux pas” (even though it’s the literal translation of the French). I would say faux pas or gaffe is more like kissing a woman’s hand when she’s wearing gloves. ---
**Author:** ![E-Sabbath](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/e19adc/32.png) [@E-Sabbath](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/E-Sabbath)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2008, 12:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/culture-shock-gaffes-and-faux-pas/445345/65 "2008-04-19T12:27:37Z")
Make love to _used_ to mean be sweet and kind and express loving feelings towards. It’s a bit shocking to read 18th century novels and hear about small girls making love to a whole household. ---
**Author:** ![vivalostwages](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/d07c76/32.png) [@vivalostwages](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vivalostwages)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2008, 4:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/culture-shock-gaffes-and-faux-pas/445345/66 "2008-04-19T16:56:53Z")
[QUOTE=Jennshark] Not so much faux pas’es, but a grappling with regionalisms here in NJ/PA: It took a few times to understand that “war’dur” = water Same with “dar’dur” = daughter “Down the shore” = “go to the beach” No one here knows what an “elastic” is (rubber band) “War’dur eyez” = Italian slurpy-drink Tomato pie = pizza with nuthin’ on it\* \*And, asking for pineapple on a pizza is treated like a mortal sin. Can’t help it, I’m from California. [/QUOTE] Some folks just don’t know how good it is, do they? BJ’s Sweet Pig Pizza (ham, pineapple, tomato) is delicious. ---
**Author:** ![Yorikke](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yorikke/32/4335_2.png) [@Yorikke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yorikke)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2008, 9:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/culture-shock-gaffes-and-faux-pas/445345/67 "2008-04-19T21:39:55Z")
[QUOTE=CalMeacham] "Tomato Pie’ was already pretty archaic when I was a kid, and i haven’t heard it in NJ since the 1960s. [/QUOTE] The only place I can recall “Tomato Pie” (I’ve been away from Trenton for 12+ years) is at [DeLorenzo’s Tomato Pies](http://www.pizzajoints.com/United_States/NJ/Trenton/Delorenzo's_Tomato_Pies1030200218) - the BEST plain cheese pizza I’ve ever had. Joe ---
**Author:** ![Lust4Life](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/ecc23a/32.png) [@Lust4Life](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lust4Life)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2008, 3:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/culture-shock-gaffes-and-faux-pas/445345/68 "2008-04-20T03:32:47Z")
[QUOTE=Sierra Indigo] Not quite so crude. “Fanny” is more analagous to “vagina”, though somewhat more infantalised, than it is to “cunt”. You’ll usually only hear kids saying “fanny”, though adults will still rip on those crazy yanks who talk about “scratching their fanny”. [/QUOTE] It cracks me up when I’ve heard a Yank saying I’ve been shagging my fanny which as far as I can make out means that he has been working very hard. Fanny means the same to us Limeys as the Oz version and shagging is a politer slang version of fucking. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/culture-shock-gaffes-and-faux-pas/445345.md?page=3)