Funny mistakes you made in a new language

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StringerBell
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Funny mistakes you made in a new language

Postby StringerBell » Wed Aug 15, 2018 2:00 am

I have decided to fully embrace all the ridiculous mistakes I make when speaking Italian instead of getting frustrated...which is good, because I have a knack for coming up with some really wacky stuff now and then.

The other day my husband was in my way in the kitchen and I thought I'd use a new Italian word I'd just picked up to tell him, "move it!" (Spostati) but instead I ended up ordering him to "get married!" (Sposati). When I said that he burst out laughing and said, "I already am!"

What funny stuff have you come up with lately?
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Re: Funny mistakes you made in a new language

Postby NoManches » Wed Aug 15, 2018 5:30 am

There is a restaurant in Ensenada, MX (baja California sur) that I would frequent very often. Well it was a food stand when I would go there and now I think it's an actual restaurant. This stand is very famous. It's been featured on TV shows and many articles have been written about it The woman who runs it is a legend. Here's a link to an article about the place. It's called "La Guerrerense"

https://www.forbes.com/sites/geoffreymo ... ac14925c11

One day I ordered my food, and the owner, Sabina Bandera, was running the cash register. She asked me what I ordered and instead of telling her I ordered "pata de mula" I told her I ordered "PUTA de mula". And to make things worse, I said it again not realizing the horrifying mistake I was making.

I remember her not laughing or making a joke about it or anything like that...which I really appreciated.

For those who are curious:

http://sargazo.com/?product=almeja-pata ... angre-roja
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Re: Funny mistakes you made in a new language

Postby Deinonysus » Wed Aug 15, 2018 3:51 pm

I met some French people who had just been to New York City. I said « ah, la grande pomme de terre ! »

Edit: Explanation for non-French-speakers: "The Big Apple" would be « La grande pomme ». A « pomme de terre » (lit. apple of the earth) is a potato.
Last edited by Deinonysus on Wed Aug 15, 2018 7:45 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Funny mistakes you made in a new language

Postby Denzagathist » Wed Aug 15, 2018 6:00 pm

These were several years ago, but still some of my favorite mistakes. Both were made while living with a host family in Croatia.

During my first week living with the family, I intended to confirm with my host mother that a particular bath towel was mine to use. I showed her the towel and said, "Je li ovo moj ručak?" ('Is this my lunch?'), having confused the words ručak ('lunch') and ručnik ('towel'). I was met with a very confused stare.

Around the same time, I told my host family that I was going to take the bus into town because I needed to go to the kupaonica ('bathroom'). My host parents gave me a weird look, and said something like, "Well, you know we have a bathroom here at the house that you can use..." My confusion was due to having mistaken the root of kupaonica to be the same as in kupiti ('buy') rather than kupati ('bathe'), so I thought I had said I was going to the 'buying-place' (aka, the store), rather than the 'bathing-place' (aka, the bathroom). :lol:
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Re: Funny mistakes you made in a new language

Postby IronMike » Wed Aug 15, 2018 7:09 pm

I think I've told this story already, but since this thread exists...

I have two:
1: Upon arriving in Moscow for our first time there (late 2009), the wife and I wanted to go out and experience Moscow. We stopped in a coffee shop and imbibed. After we got the bill, I asked my wife: Do we tip here? Hmm...unsure. We don't remember talking much about tipping during our refresher classes, and our DLI basic course by this point was WAY in the past.

We also didn't want to be those Americans who left 15% and then all waiters there start expecting that much! 10%, 5%, nothing? We really weren't sure. So, I decided I'd ask the manager. She wasn't our server, so I felt I'd get a more objective answer.

Сколько мне надо заплатить за чайник? How much do I need to pay for a tip? (Understand, Russophones, I know this isn't great Russian, just stick with me for a few more lines.)

Не знаю. How the hell should I know? (I'm liberally interpreting here)

I pushed and pushed, but she kept telling me she didn't know. When she started telling me to go to a store and look, I was dumbfounded. In the meantime, my wife looked up tips in her ENG-RUS dictionary and alas, we discovered my mistake. Turns out I'd been asking her how much a tea kettle costs. See, their word for tip is чаевые ("tea money" and excuse spelling...I might be missing a letter there); the minute my wife said the word I remembered learning it and laughed at how I was asking her about tea kettles. The manager laughed, too. She finally told me to leave whatever (Ugg...). We decided on 10% and sure enough as we were leaving, we noticed the server take her чаевые and hand it to the manager. Sigh...

2: This isn't language specific, but cultural. Again in Moscow, only for about a month and at a reception. New to the reception biz, I knew that in Russia, they kissed cheeks three times. To say hello and goodbye. OK by me.

Anyway, at this reception and it was nearing its end. A line of beautiful women, all from South America, started heading toward me as I was standing by the exit. I prepared myself mentally with some words in Spanish and for the 3-cheek kisses. I kissed through the 4 or 5 ladies and noticed the Chilean Defense Attache was in the line as well. So I kissed him 3 times, as I'd been instructed. My embassy colleague, standing behind me, immediately starts laughing, as I see the Chilean colonel's eyes go wide.

"What are you laughing at?"

"You! Three cheeks!"

"That's what we're supposed to do here in Russia." [He had arrived even later in country than I had.]

"You're not supposed to kiss men!"

I turned and sure enough my new friend was laughing at me as well. We shook hands and laughed about it. But for the next almost three years, whenever I'd see this colonel at another reception, he would hold up his hands and cover his cheeks.
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Re: Funny mistakes you made in a new language

Postby StringerBell » Wed Aug 15, 2018 7:41 pm

Denzagathist wrote:During my first week living with the family, I intended to confirm with my host mother that a particular bath towel was mine to use. I showed her the towel and said, "Je li ovo moj ručak?" ('Is this my lunch?'), having confused the words ručak ('lunch') and ručnik ('towel'). I was met with a very confused stare.


I also made a funny bathroom-related mistake when I was living with a Polish host family many years ago. One day I used the bathroom and when I attempted to flush the toilet, it was blocked and wouldn't flush. So I found the grandmother of the house and I translated literally into Polish that "the toilet doesn't work", not realizing that you can't say it like that in Polish, so what she understood me to be saying was "the toilet doesn't have a job." A lot of confusion ensued until I finally brought her to the bathroom to show her the clogged toilet.
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Re: Funny mistakes you made in a new language

Postby garyb » Thu Aug 16, 2018 10:48 am

I made the classic "baiser" instead of "baisser" in French once. I corrected myself quite quickly and it was clear enough from the context what I meant, but I still felt a little embarrassed.

In an ice-cream shop in Spain I almost ordered a "coño" (swearword that literally translates as our C-word, although less offensive) instead of a "cono" (cone). I caught myself right as I pronounced the ñ and backtracked. Luckily the young woman serving me either didn't notice or did an excellent job of pretending not to notice, but I was quick to get out of there and not show my face again.

Needless to say, both happened when my level was beyond beginner and they're not errors I "should" have made, but that's just how mistakes work!
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Re: Funny mistakes you made in a new language

Postby Dylan95 » Thu Aug 16, 2018 8:03 pm

:? :D

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Re: Funny mistakes you made in a new language

Postby garyb » Mon Aug 27, 2018 9:00 am

I've remembered another howler! A good few years ago, when I had been learning Italian for a year or so, I was introduced to a friend of a friend, a rather tall Italian woman. I'm also rather tall and don't meet many people of my height of any nationality or gender, not least from a place where people tend to be fairly short, so I was quite impressed (in a good way!). I tried to say this to her, not realising that the seemingly-equivalent Italian word to "impressive" ("impressionante") doesn't always have the positive sense that it does in English; rather, it just means "making an impression" and, unless the context makes it clear that this impression is positive, it translates better as frightening, shocking, or intimidating!

It goes without saying that my observation didn't come across as the intended sincere compliment and instead made her feel awkward about something she was clearly already self-conscious about. I think I got away with it with a "clueless foreigner" free pass but still, not a great first... impression.
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Re: Funny mistakes you made in a new language

Postby Sgt Schultz » Mon Aug 27, 2018 12:18 pm

My first trip to Peru, I was with my girlfriends family. Her mom asked me (in Spanish) what I'd like for lunch. At this point, I was at a much lower level in Spanish. I said jabón (soap) when I really meant jamón (ham). I got a puzzled look from the mom.
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