| 주제 내 페이지: < [1 2 3 4 5 6 7] > | Off topic: Your biggest language blunder in everyday life 스레드 게시자: Melanie Meyer
|
|---|
As a young "stage" in a French speaking company, we were discussing what the various team members would do regarding a project. I was not assigned a duty, perhaps because I was only a trainee, but I asked the boss "Qu'est ce que vous voulez me faire?", wanting to say, (translating literally from English) "What to you want me to do?" and not "What do you want to do to me?" When the boss said, "Eh, bien, Madamoiselle", the others quickly gave me a lesson in the subjective tense.
| | | |
In my junior year in college learning English more than 40 years ago I happened to work as a tourist guide. One day I was guiding a group of Americans around Cracow, Poland. At that time it was mandatory to show a brand new foundry just outside Cracow to any visitors from the West so they could 'admire' the socialist achievement of the system. As we were driving by I wanted to point the plant to them but I could not remember the word for the foundry and was instead stuck on the word 'to forge... See more In my junior year in college learning English more than 40 years ago I happened to work as a tourist guide. One day I was guiding a group of Americans around Cracow, Poland. At that time it was mandatory to show a brand new foundry just outside Cracow to any visitors from the West so they could 'admire' the socialist achievement of the system. As we were driving by I wanted to point the plant to them but I could not remember the word for the foundry and was instead stuck on the word 'to forge'. So without thinking anymore, I said: "And here, ladies and gentlemen, you can see the latest forgery in this country". They laughed until they had tears in their eyes but when they explained the mistake to me, I was a little anxious I might have problems with the authorities for trying to undermine the system.
[Edited at 2012-04-24 19:16 GMT] ▲ Collapse
| | | | | Chinese/Japanese goofs | Apr 24, 2012 |
I startled my Chinese flatmate a few years ago when, late at night, I told her to go to bed - or so I thought ("上床吧" - in my mind the counter-expression to "起床吧" "Get up!"). Grammatically perfect, yes - but it appears this expression meant I was inviting her to go to bed with me! *redface*
Another time I was working in retail and a group of dear elderly Japanese came to ask me for directions. Trying to be as polite as I could, I used what I thought was an honorific term ... See more I startled my Chinese flatmate a few years ago when, late at night, I told her to go to bed - or so I thought ("上床吧" - in my mind the counter-expression to "起床吧" "Get up!"). Grammatically perfect, yes - but it appears this expression meant I was inviting her to go to bed with me! *redface*
Another time I was working in retail and a group of dear elderly Japanese came to ask me for directions. Trying to be as polite as I could, I used what I thought was an honorific term to address them "you good people".
Unfortunately, I was very, very wrong - I pretty much addressed them as "you c*nts". Thankfully they were very gracious about it! *REDFACE* ▲ Collapse
| | | | | Pulling the "kite" | Apr 25, 2012 |
Melanie Meyer wrote:
A recent thread about funny translation mistakes inspired me to ask for your biggest language blunders in everyday life.
Here’s my contribution:
While learning Thai during my family’s Foreign Service assignment to Bangkok, my Thai teacher strongly encouraged us to practice our spoken Thai every single day right after learning a new topic in school with any local person we might be dealing with that day. The topic of the day was ‘flying kites at the annual kite festival’.
Diligent as I was, I went ahead and started a conversation with my cab driver on the way home from school. After some initial small talk, I proceeded to ask him (and I’ll try to transliterate the Thai script into English here): “Koor tot, na ka, khun koey chaak wow may ka?” What I wanted to say was “Excuse me Sir, have you ever flown a kite before?” However, the more common meaning of my question turned out to be: “Excuse me Sir, have you ever mast..bated before?”
Can you imagine the look on that taxi driver’s face?
That reminds me of a farang friend, who made his living in Thailand by selling hand-made kites. When one of my European guests commented on his beautiful kites, his wife rushed in too late to stop him from saying that her husband must be test-flying (="pulling") many new kites. The kite-maker coolly responded that he was "pulling no kites besides his own". Whereupon his wife wrathfully replied "He does not pull any kite at all - he has me!"
| | |
|
|
|
| Tschechische Sprache schwere Sprache | Apr 25, 2012 |
S P Willcocks wrote:
So that insteasd of saying that I had come to pick up my wages (msta), I would cheerfully announce that I had come for my revenge (mzda)!
They would smile indulgently and hand over the wad of banknotes without batting an eyelid...
The funniest thing is that you still confuse the two words.
I am smiling indulgently. ;D
| | | | | The exchange student at the dinner table | Apr 25, 2012 |
What a colleague of mine confessed about his time as an exchange student in the US, after finishing a wonderful and highly stomach-filling meal at the host family's dinner table:
"I'm fed up!"
| | | | | Alcohol is a good condom | Apr 25, 2012 |
There are two words that have particularly stuck in my mind since my early days of learning Spanish.
'Preservativo' and 'embarazado' sound very similar to the English words 'preservative' and 'embarrassed' but have very different meanings as I learned the hard way.
Myself and some friends went to Talavera in Spain with a Spanish friend of ours a good many years ago. He organised a get together with lots of his friends from the town so in the end there was quite a big gr... See more There are two words that have particularly stuck in my mind since my early days of learning Spanish.
'Preservativo' and 'embarazado' sound very similar to the English words 'preservative' and 'embarrassed' but have very different meanings as I learned the hard way.
Myself and some friends went to Talavera in Spain with a Spanish friend of ours a good many years ago. He organised a get together with lots of his friends from the town so in the end there was quite a big group of us in somebody's flat, playing cards and sampling a range of Spanish alcohol.
The subject of age came up and when somebody said in Spanish that I looked younger than my age, I thought it was a good opportunity to practice my Spanish so I replied "ah, es porque el alcohol es un buen preservativo (alcohol is a good preservative, i.e. something that preserves). Unfortunately 'preservativo' means 'condom' in Spanish and I had to wait a few painful minutes for all the Spanish gang to stop laughing at me so I could get an explanation. Of course, I went red, as I was prone to doing at the time, and then added insult to injury by saying "oh, me siento muy embarazada ahora" (which in Spanish actually means "I feel very pregnant now"), which was received by another round of guffaws. It was the last thing I attempted to say in Spanish for the rest of the night. ▲ Collapse
| | | | | Ah well this is a place I might fit in to :) | Apr 25, 2012 |
Having called a client from US. I needed to know the time limit for the translation, i.e the deadline.. so in my language saying this sentence is quite normal.. even so.. saying this in English came out a bit odd...
- How long do I have to do this??
// Enjoy!
| | |
|
|
|
Melanie Meyer 
미국
Local time: 16:51
회원(2010)
영어에서 독일어
+ ...
주제 스타터 | Kites ...and other hilarious posts | Apr 25, 2012 |
Gert Josef Fode wrote:
That reminds me of a farang friend, who made his living in Thailand by selling hand-made kites. When one of my European guests commented on his beautiful kites, his wife rushed in too late to stop him from saying that her husband must be test-flying (="pulling") many new kites. The kite-maker coolly responded that he was "pulling no kites besides his own". Whereupon his wife wrathfully replied "He does not pull any kite at all - he has me!"
Well, I'm relieved to hear that I was not the only one making the kite mistake! I'm sure Thai people are having a blast with us farangs trying to speak their language correctly!
A quick note to all the responders:
Thank you all so much for sharing your hilarious stories! You really made me smile and occasionally laugh out loud.
| | | |
Interesting to read these contributions. I am thinking of one hilarious blunder I have made (God knows I have made them)
| | | | | Walking a tight rope | Apr 25, 2012 |
My four-year-old boy is struggling to master French, English and Chinese all at once so we have to cut him some slack. When the teacher in his centre de loisirs (kindergarten) pointed to a picture of a tight-rope walker and asked him what the name was he confidently called out "fellambule". I found this particularly funny as I had been reading a well-researched book about Bill Clinton.
| | | | JOHN PENNEY (X)
Local time: 17:51
포르투갈어에서 영어
+ ...
| TELEPHONE STREET | Apr 25, 2012 |
Your story reminds me of the couple of hours I spent in Santiago, Chile, looking for an address on a visiting card: "Fono 1342".
| | |
|
|
|
| Strictly for Italian speakers | Apr 26, 2012 |
Shortly after I first arrived in Italy I was invited to dinner with my girlfriend's family. It was September and there were fresh figs on the table, for the fruit course.
So when we got to the fruit course I said loudly, to my putative father-in-law, in my best (or so I thought) Italian "Would you pass me a fig please?"
Except that instead of "un fico" I asked for "una fica".
What's the emoticon for "red face"?
| | | | | A few Greek ones... | Apr 26, 2012 |
I was once on a beach with some Greek friends and tried to ask how much it costs to hire a sun-lounger (xaplostra - ξαπλώστρα). I missed out the first letter. Cue bewildered looks from my friends as they tried to figure out why I wanted to hire a clothes-horse!
And some Greek howlers made by friends over the years...
A friend went to the baker and tried to order half a kilo of bread (psomi). She accidentally used the word 'psoli' instead...and asked the baker i... See more I was once on a beach with some Greek friends and tried to ask how much it costs to hire a sun-lounger (xaplostra - ξαπλώστρα). I missed out the first letter. Cue bewildered looks from my friends as they tried to figure out why I wanted to hire a clothes-horse!
And some Greek howlers made by friends over the years...
A friend went to the baker and tried to order half a kilo of bread (psomi). She accidentally used the word 'psoli' instead...and asked the baker if he had a half-kilo dick!
Another friend was trying to order two 'soft-packs' of cigarettes. She got all the letters in the right order, but stressed the wrong syllable of the final word. Instead of "dio XYZ malaká" she asked for "dio XYZ maláka": "Two XYZs, wanker!".
And finally there was the person who wanted the attendant at the petrol station to "fill it". One incorrect vowel, however, led to the startled attendant being ordered to (putting it politely) "copulate with it".
And I've just remembered another of my own blunders... I needed to put more credit on my pay-as-you-go mobile phone so I went to a kiosk to ask for a top-up card (karta ananeosis). Instead, I asked for a "karta anayenisis": a renaissance card ▲ Collapse
| | | |
My study years (yeeeears ago), Sweden, a fancy dinner at a fancy restaurant with sophisticated university people, small talks about travelling, somebody asked me "And you Ewa? How do you travel in Poland and in Europe?" and poor me: "well, usually I'm hijacking cars" (of course I meant hitching). It was my absolute 5 minutes - I got all the eyes staring at me
| | | | | 주제 내 페이지: < [1 2 3 4 5 6 7] > | 이 포럼에 구체적으로 배정된 관리자가 없습니다. 사이트 규칙 위반을 신고하거나 도움을 받으시려면 사이트 스태프 »에게 문의 Your biggest language blunder in everyday life | Trados Business Manager Lite | Create customer quotes and invoices from within Trados Studio
Trados Business Manager Lite helps to simplify and speed up some of the daily tasks, such as invoicing and reporting, associated with running your freelance translation business.
More info » |
| | CafeTran Espresso | You've never met a CAT tool this clever!
Translate faster & easier, using a sophisticated CAT tool built by a translator / developer.
Accept jobs from clients who use Trados, MemoQ, Wordfast & major CAT tools.
Download and start using CafeTran Espresso -- for free
Buy now! » |
|
| | | | X Sign in to your ProZ.com account... | | | | | |
Login to reply/comment 
