[Multilingual Monday] Human Error

[aadroma]

Two brief tales of linguistic hurdles because one simply doesn't know better (and being a great segue from the "admitting that one has flaws" post I did earlier):

So, as you have heard about 7,572 times already, I've become a collector of older Japanese books. If you haven't heard this -- well, you haven't been reading, as I'm sure I sound like a

Comments

[hickbear]

Your hubby's mind isn't the only one that immediately found itself in the gutter. Then again, since mine tends to live there... *wink*

[arktos62]

On my first visit to Paris, I dropped into a little bar for a beer. I didn't know the French word for lager, so I had a shot at saying it with a French accent. "La guerre?" exclaimed the barman, no doubt wondering if all Scots were so belligerent." Luckily, one of the locals suggested une pression, and I emerged inebriated, but unscathed.

[muckefuck]

A couple years ago, called upon my German expertise to help determine the meaning of the mystery word "lemende". As chronicled in my pulse-pounding, take-no-prisoners, gonzo style, it took me an embarrassing amount of time to determine that this was merely a typo for "Lernende".

[enigmacub]

This didn't happen to me since it was the year before but our Spanish Teacher in highschool told us about this girl at the previous year's Spanish Club Pic-nic. She was all confident in her new found Spanish prowess and while making a plate of food asked one of the male native speakers, "Tienes hombre?". He looked at her weird, "Que!?" Then she pointed at the food and he had to tell her what she thought she said and what she did say. Everybody started laughing and she turned bright red. My Spanish Teacher loved telling that story since I had her for the next 3 years and heard it every year. It was her favorite cautionary tale of careful what you say.

[strongaxe]

Several years ago, a friend of mine related this story that happened to him while he was on vacation:

He is Hungarian and went back to Hungary for a visit. One day, he was in a store, and there was an American tourist in there, trying to find out where to catch a bus. Not speaking any Hungarian, he was walking around asking "Bus? Bus? BUS?" to everyone, and they all shrunk away from him in embarrassment and/or fear.

My friend pulled him aside and explained to him that the word he was looking for was "autobus". "Bus" sounds like the Hungarian word "basz" which means "fuck". All these people were freaking out because, from their point of view, there was a crazy American running around yelling "FUCK!" at everyone he saw.