Oh My
I once said bathroom when I meant to say thank you at the wat. Given that I had just learned the words and my Thai is limited to like...5 words or phrases it's not that surprising. It was awkward though.
If someone wants to accuse us of eating coconut shells, then that's their business. We know what we're doing. - Achaan Chah
Immanentizing the eschaton
My French teacher once told us of her friend, who only spoke French, walking into the grocery store and asking where the "raping paper" was.
Ahr river
años without an international keyboard is funny.
Read my stories!
Dat Troper
A friend of mine once ordered whore (poutain) instead of poutine at a restaurant in Quebec...
The artist formerly known as spasticgecko
Your Worth is 50 Yen!
Ha!
A French teacher I had in high school kept a poster of a perfume ad in her class; the perfume was called "Baiser du Dragon", which "means" Kiss of the Dragon, but more colloquially means "Fuck of the Dragon".
月を見るたび思い出せ
I remember seeing a sign in Hong Kong saying "No Entrance" at the door of a building.
My middle school had a school trip to Paris. One time the chemistry teacher went to the post office to ask for stamps (timbre) and accidentally said "tampon".
Also, (I wasn't there for this) one time my French teacher's wife was being tickled by her friend, so she told him something to the effect of "stop or else" but somehow ended up saying "I'll castrate you".
Angry Moth
Someone I knew wanted to ask for a fork at a restaurant, but he didn't remember the word, only that it was a four letter long word starting with an 'F' and ending with a 'K'. Take a wild guess as to which word he picked.
(He then tried to mimick eating with a fork, badly...)
Who's an angry moth? You are! Yes you are! You're the fuzziest and angriest moth! Original pic.
Reymmã
I remember someone's mother, obviously not born in Britain, saying repeadetly "I will never forget what you did to my daughter" to express her gratitude.
A blog that gets updated on a geological timescale.
I once said "Buggering" when I meant "Bugging".
Here.
If you can find it you'll get a cookie.
https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=13344464940A40800100&page=2#48
You edited it, though.
Because this post by Viewy corrected you!
Also, Spanish class. Someone said "mucho grande de [thing]". He wanted to say "there was a lot of [thing]" but that means "much big of [thing]".
This then spawned a meme in school, wherein anything that there was a lot of was described as "mucho grande de [thing]".
The Mod with the Migraine
Just seeing this thread makes me wish that, when I had been in Japan, I had bought the t-shirt that read (in Japanese) "Please forgive me, I'm just a dumn American."
That’s the epitome of privilege right there, not considering armed nazis a threat to your life. - Silasw
Isn't it amazing, now I have princess wings!
I don't have any personal experiences to share , but someone I know threw out embaradasa in Spanish class (I took French in high school), thinking it meant embarassed. She told me it actually meant pregnant.
Wise Papa Smurf, corrupted by his own power. CAN NO LEADER GO UNTAINTED?!
I think long ago I had a troper tale about my half sister's boyfriend accidentally calling arroz con pollo "arroz con perro" - that would be "rice with dog", not "rice with chicken". Though tempting to read as a stealthy insult to someone's cooking, it was apparently a genuine mistake.
I had a college professor who also had a story about confusion between "fork" and "fuck" in a restaurant, although he was saying the right word, it just didn't sound that way with his accent. That came up in the middle of a lecture because there was a bit of tittering when he pronounced the word "focus" in such a way that it rhymed with "ruckus" - yes, ironically his telling us to focus caused him to start digressing.
edited 19th Jul '12 11:36:43 PM by MikeK
A person in my class who was of the "gangsta" persuasion was talking to me. I didn't quite like him.
Intending to compliment his taste in clothes (sarcastically) I called them "butters". However, the word I was looking for was "dank", as "butters" means "terrible". (And "dank" means "good")
Ergo, I had insulted his poor clothing style directly.
Though I've certainly had my own fair share of language fails, I can't remember of any right now. My mother, however, is ridiculously funny when she's trying to speak English.
Mom: How much?
Cashier: It's 19,99$
Mom: I pay, you pay? I pay.
Me: Wat? o__0
edited 30th Sep '12 7:02:25 PM by HopelessDaydreamer
When you're learning a new language, you're bound to mess up sometimes. This is where you share funny foreign language fails, whether it be in a class or attempts to use it on others. My examples:
When I was in Spanish in grade 8, we were guessing what certain adjectives were. We had come to guapo, which left most of us scratching our heads. The teacher decided to give us a hint and said it could describe Justin Bieber. Instinctively, most of us (including me), said "gay". Cue facepalm from the teacher (it apparently means handsome).
Last year (freshman spanish), we had to translate v-day phrases. Some people made the mistake of using literal translations. As a result, a couple people mistook "Valentines Day is around the corner" for "Valentines Day is TURNING the corner"
I don’t even know anymore.