Jophiel said:
“While in France, a guy (American) in the same hotel was eating breakfast next to me. When asked by the waitress if he wanted more coffee, he replied “Si.” I don’t think the waitress even blinked.”
Probably because he was not making a mistake. Although ‘Si’ is Spanish for yes, it’s also French for something like “indeed” or “yes, sure”. Those are not exact translations, but let me give you an example.
“Avez-vous mangé des pommes ?” (Have you eaten apples ?)
“Si, j’ai mangé quatre pommes.” (Yes, I’ve eaten four apples.)
So, the ‘Si’ response might not have been as logical as just saying “Oui”, but the waitress probably did not think the guy was talking Spanish to her.
Shirley said:
“To say " Have a good trip.” in German is “Habe eine gute farht.” (Have a good fart, for you linguistically challenged)"
I see the humour in that… reminds me of the times that good ol’ Kevin Schwantz was introduced by the announcer on the German Granp Prix 500CC every year. The crowd always laughed when announcing his name. Reason ? “Schwantz” is the German word for tail, and… dick.
My two cents: our prime minister (The Netherlands, that is) is called Wim Kok. Pronounced “cock”.
I’m just glad his first name isn’t Dick, otherwise Clinton, Blair & Co. would CERTAINLY have a hard time keeping a straight face when introducing him to the press, etc…
My friend, who was born and raised in America, stepped into Chemistry class one day and declared, “It smells like incest in here!” The whole class stopped dead in their tracks.
Turns out she meant, “It smells like * incense * in here.”
Don’t know if this counts, because it has to do with a guy who spoke with a Yorkshire accent, which isn’t really a foreign language (although it might as well be).
Any way, he was in the habit of saying ‘‘bloody hell’’ all the time, which many of the people I lived with in England found offensive. They asked him to say ‘‘flipping heck’’ instead.
He complied. This was all before I moved in, so by the time I arrived, ‘‘flipping heck’’ was a regular part of his vocabulary. But for weeks before someone explained it to me, I thought that when he swore, he was saying: ‘‘Flip an egg!’’
I was doing my first stint of charity work in Nepal and was still trying to learn the language. I was the only woman in a meeting with 15 or so men. As we were wrapping things up, I was asked what I thought of Nepal. I meant to say, “The Nepali people are very nice”, but what I actually said was “Nepali men are very sweet”. In Nepali, that carries even more of a sexual connotation than it does in English. I still see some of those men and they still tease me about it.
Don’t get me wrong–I love life. I’m just finding it harder and harder to keep myself amused.
A friend of mine doing his missionary work in Japan was asked if he would like more food. he wanter do say he was full, (ippai) but rather said no thank you I’m pregnant (oppai).
Similar to the above post, my aunt was in England and had a wonderful huge meal with some friends, at the end of which she leaned back and said “Well, I’m stuffed.” To her surprise the room rang with congratulations! It wasn’t till later that it was explained to her that “stuffed” is slang for pregnant.
I was on a high school trip to France and Germany. I only spoke a little French and no German. When I tried to ask “how much does this cost?” it came out “how much do you cost?”
These posts are all real good; I never encountered most of them, especially the Oriental languages!!
In Yorkshire English “till” is used where the rest of us would say “while.” This caused a disaster when a Yorkshire foreman told his southern English helper not to build a fire under a boiler “till” it was empty!
“If you drive an automobile, please drive carefully–because I walk in my sleep.”–Victor Borge