Comical Mistakes When Speaking a Foreign Language

[Sancho Panther]

Here's mine....

Soon after I started to learn Spanish I went in a shoe shop and asked the teenage assistant for a pair I liked in a size forty three. She got them from the window and said they were all they had - a forty two, but she insisted that I should try them anyway.

I was in my beach togs so I took off my flip-flops and sqeezed my feet into them - far too small. Eager to make a sale she said they might stretch after a week or two's wear. I said < No, son muy pequeños>, then I was going to say that besides I wasn't wearing socks, but I forgot the word.

After a few seconds it came to me (or so I thought), so I added <además no llevo calzoncillos>, she supressed a smile, then went behind the curtain to ask her mother for another size (she said) and I heard them both laughing.

When I left it occurred to me that I'd made a mistake, but it wasn't until I referred to my dictionary that I realized that calzoncillos were underpants, and the word I should have said was calcetines!

[Cloudgazer]

That's priceless, Sancho!

A much less funny example happened to me when I was ordering coffee at a local latino café. The young cashier asked me how I wanted it and I said "para tomar". The cashier hesitated and looked at me like I'd offended her. I didn't know what I'd done, so I stood there puzzled. Luckily, we were both rescued by the smiling older barista standing nearby who told me what I wanted to say was "para llevar".

[vita32]

Originally Posted by Sancho Panther

Here's mine....

Soon after I started to learn Spanish I went in a shoe shop and asked the teenage assistant for a pair I liked in a size forty three. She got them from the window and said they were all they had - a forty two, but she insisted that I should try them anyway.

I was in my beach togs so I took off my flip-flops and sqeezed my feet into them - far too small. Eager to make a sale she said they might stretch after a week or two's wear. I said < No, son muy pequeños>, then I was going to say that besides I wasn't wearing socks, but I forgot the word.

After a few seconds it came to me (or so I thought), so I added <además no llevo calzonillos>, she supressed a smile, then went behind the curtain to ask her mother for another size (she said) and I heard them both laughing.

When I left it occurred to me that I'd made a mistake, but it wasn't until I referred to my dictionary that I realized that calzonillos were underpants, and the word I should have said was calcetines!

Originally Posted by Cloudgazer

That's priceless, Sancho!

A much less funny example happened to me when I was ordering coffee at a local latino café. The young cashier asked me how I wanted it and I said "para tomar". The cashier hesitated and looked at me like I'd offended her. I didn't know what I'd done, so I stood there puzzled. Luckily, we were both rescued by the smiling older barista standing nearby who told me what I wanted to say was "para llevar".

[conejodescarado]

When I was learning Italian, somebody sent me this video where the second-language speaker incorrectly uses "scopare" when he should be using "scappare"



Oh cavolo!

[sosia]

One day a english girl, with pretty good spanish, was working hard.
At the end, she stated "estoy para echarme un polvo" (meaning: "I'm prepared to do IT"/or "I'm so hot everybody wants to do IT with me") instead of "estoy hecha polvo" (literally "i'm like dust", meaning "i'm done"/"i'm very tired")
saludos

[Sancho Panther]

LOL @ #4 and 5

Reminds me of a former lady colleague who used to love holidaying in Spain but was everlastingly moaning about amorous waiters and barmen pestering her. Then one hot day in Britain she came into the office where I worked and started complaining about the heat and finished by saying "¡Estoy muy, muy caliente!" I laughed 'a carcajadas' then said to her " For goodness sake Mandy, you can't say that, it means "I'm really, really horny".

Her face crimson she fled from the office, then it dawned on me that she'd probably been continually saying that to the waiters and barmen - poor girl!

[conejodescarado]

Originally Posted by Sancho Panther

LOL @ #4 and 5

Reminds me of a former lady colleague who used to love holidaying in Spain but was everlastingly moaning about amorous waiters and barmen pestering her. Then one hot day in Britain she came into the office where I worked and started complaining about the heat and finished by saying "¡Estoy muy, muy caliente!" I laughed 'a carcajadas' then said to her " For goodness sake Mandy, you can't say that, it means "I'm really, really horny".

Her face crimson she fled from the office, then it dawned on me that she'd probably been continually saying that to the waiters and barmen - poor girl!

[vita32]

Originally Posted by Sancho Panther

LOL @ #4 and 5

Reminds me of a former lady colleague who used to love holidaying in Spain but was everlastingly moaning about amorous waiters and barmen pestering her. Then one hot day in Britain she came into the office where I worked and started complaining about the heat and finished by saying "¡Estoy muy, muy caliente!" I laughed 'a carcajadas' then said to her " For goodness sake Mandy, you can't say that, it means "I'm really, really horny".

Her face crimson she fled from the office, then it dawned on me that she'd probably been continually saying that to the waiters and barmen - poor girl!

So when the temperature is 100 deg. Farenheit and you're sweating like crazy, what are you supposed to say that would not be embarrassing in Spain or other Spanish speaking countries?

[Rusty]

Tengo mucho calor. = I'm very hot.

[vita32]

Originally Posted by Rusty

Tengo mucho calor. = I'm very hot.

Thanks, Rusty.

It is sort of funny to me that "calor" translates as "heat" in English and if "heat" instead of "hot" is used to express how one feels about the weather in English, it could be interpreted in the same way as what Sancho had said.

[CrOtALiTo]

Here I write these examples.

I'm hot in my house.
I don't want to go to the beach, because it's a lot sun, and I'm hot in the beach.


Sincerely yours.

[vita32]

Originally Posted by CrOtALiTo

Here I write these examples.

I'm hot in my house.
I don't want to go to the beach, because it's a lot sun, and I'm hot in the beach.


Sincerely yours.

So, it is understood that you are talking about how you feel related to the weather if you say the phrase with other modifiers, but by itself, it means something else?? Please say the above in Spanish. Thanks.

[CrOtALiTo]

Originally Posted by vita32

So, it is understood that you are talking about how you feel related to the weather if you say the phrase with other modifiers, but by itself, it means something else?? Please say the above in Spanish. Thanks.

Tengo calor en mi casa.
In my literal translation I'm hot in my house.
Relatively that I wanted to say.

[conejodescarado]

Originally Posted by CrOtALiTo

Tengo calor en mi casa.
In my literal translation I'm hot in my house.
Relatively that I wanted to say.

Diríamos "It's (too) hot in my house", lo que implica también tú tienes calor. Decir "I'm hot in my house" puede querer decir "Estoy caliente" (un poco provocativo ).

Originally Posted by tú

I don't want to go to the beach, because it's a lot sun, and I'm hot in the beach.

I don't want to go to the beach, because it's very sunny and I get hot at (or on) the beach.

1) No se puede estar "in" la playa. "In" quiere decir "dentro".
2) "It's a lot of sun" sería "There's a lot of sun", pero se dice "it's very sunny".
3) "I'm hot" quiere decir "Tengo calor ahora". "I get hot" es más general.

I went to Mexico with a friend of mine and he constantly used the masculine form even when speaking to females. After 2 days of reminding him he started referring to all things male in the female tense.

[Sancho Panther]

I don't know if this is a breach of forum protocol or not, if so - tough! You see I started the same thread a year or two ago on a similar forum and I'd like to re-tell one or two of the best replies here. I have to say I only speak English and Spanish so I'll just do my best with other languages,

One lady lived in a tiny French village and was great friends with a near neighbour, who one day was baking a cake when she found the recipe demanded a lemon which she didn't have. She sent her young son to beg one from her who said "Avez-vous un citron si'l vous plait? Completely misunderstanding she replied "Non, tell your máma I have a Volkswagen!".

Formidable - non?

Another chap went in a furniture shop for a cupboard with drawers and asked for - yes you've guessed it "¡Un armario con cojones"! I think he was a golfer who kept his balls in a cupboard!

Another one:-

In Brittany with our bicycles, we decided to hire a taxi from the village to St Malo for the return ferry. We called in at the home of the taxi driver and I explained, (I thought), that my husband had neck problems and the long bike ride would make them worse.

He listened to me and nodded gravely and was most understanding. Until I realised that, instead of saying : "Mon mari est mal au cou", I'd said : "Mon mari est mal au cul". Mind you, he was that as well!

Tres formidable - non?

[chileno]

[AngelicaDeAlquezar]

I think I've mentioned this one before, but I love it:
A friend of mine never cared for the difference between "v" and "b" in French (as there is no difference of those sounds in Spanish), and when he was in France, he wanted some warm wine in a restaurant, so he asked for "vin chaud", but from the way he pronounced it, the waiter understood "bain chaud" (a hot bath). So he replied: "Here and now?!"

And one of mine: A few months ago, I was invited for dinner at the house of some German family, who were glad to help me practice German language. At the end of the dinner I intended to ask what was for dessert, so I said "Was hast du für Küche?" (What kitchen do you have?), instead of asking "Was hast du für Kuchen?" (What cake do you have?). The children still laugh at it.

[sosia]

funny examples Sancho and Angelica

[pjt33]

Bueno, si vamos contando ejemplos que hemos oído a segunda mano...

Una amiga mía que creció en Perú me dijo que una vez había un misionero estadounidense de visita en su iglesia, y en medio de la reunión, queriendo decir "Oremos", dijo en su lugar, "Orinemos".