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Original poster

lost in translation... is this the most embarrassing comment someone could make in all innocence?

243 replies

oricella · 01/12/2010 11:54

Posted this before in bilingual, but it deserves a wider audience..

My dad recently stated that my lovely 2 year old was acting like a cat, 'giving heads'.... (the Dutch expression 'kopjes geven' describes the way cats nudge you with their head)

That one had me under the table... (and blush at having to try and explain to him why!)

Anyone else have any good mistranslations?

OP posts:
MadamDeathstare · 01/12/2010 14:29

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bumpybecky · 01/12/2010 14:25

this thread must go in classics - I'm in tears here!

Jux · 01/12/2010 14:24

My dad once asked someone what a "flying fuck" was. I think he was genuinely curious, he'd been in the RAF.

mummytoatribe · 01/12/2010 14:23

I was looking at some camping websites and one from the US said "And boys, dont foget your thongs for the showers"

whateverfloatsyourboat · 01/12/2010 14:22

When I was a 17 year old waitress, a couple of very sweet tourists came in and ordered "two penis colada please".

Dontbugmemalone · 01/12/2010 14:19

When I was playing pool with my DH (then DP), he was winning and he announced very loudly- I have fart.
Fart in Polish means to have good luck :)

Not a conversation but it took me a while to get used to a company called 'fuks' who collect plasic or something.

ElephantsAndMiasmas · 01/12/2010 14:15

SevenAgainstThebes - I nearly died laughing the first time I listened properly to the Beach Boys song that describes them wearing "t-shirts, cut-offs and a pair of thongs/We've been having fun all summer long" Shock ["I bet" emoticon]

NewDKmum · 01/12/2010 14:14

These are so funny!

English is second language for both my boss and myself but I daresay that my accent is slightly better than his :)

It's hard not to smirk when his favourite expression in team meetings "you must focus" comes out as "you must f... us" :o. Repeatedly...

MissClavel · 01/12/2010 14:10

These are brilliant.

My brother was somewhere remote in Latin America, on a bit of a trek and increasingly desperate for the loo. Finally stumbling across a little café, he burst in, sweaty and red faced, and every face in the place turned to stare at him as he loudly demanded to know where the asylum was.
He meant toilet. sanitario / sanitorio iirc. (something like that anyway)

ElephantsAndMiasmas · 01/12/2010 14:09

Aged 12 I managed to tell my very lovely French exchange family on the first night that my brother was a stupid cunt. I'd meant to say that he was a bit of a clumsy oaf.

crying at the children with crabs Blush and the blowjob juice

PsecretSantead · 01/12/2010 14:05

I once told my German MIL that DH and I were looking forward to a visit to a strip club that weekend.

I meant neighbour. All credit to her. She didn't flinch.

SevenAgainstThebes · 01/12/2010 13:59

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KERALA1 · 01/12/2010 13:56

My parents were told at a parents evening that my sister would make a marvellous hooker

ProcrastinationEatsTime · 01/12/2010 13:55

lol. That's fantastic!

How about when I asked a bloke at work if I could use his printer "om een foto van mijn pusje te printen" - 'to print a photo of my pussy'. Obviously it was my cat not my fanjo.

Or the time I said to a friend I needed to buy some "scheer giel" - 'shaving horny' meaning shaving gel...

Not at all embarrassing. No.

Itsjustafleshwound - I learn't to stop talking about boxes a while ago...

RockinSockBunnies · 01/12/2010 13:55

I remember on a school trip to France, my friend saw a vending machine that she thought sold sweets (with some kind of preservatives in) - yes - she bought a pack of condoms by accident (preservatif).

In Germany, I remember host family laughing when instead of saying I was cold (Mir ist kalt (sp?)) I said Ich bin kalt (I am frigid). Similarly, instead of saying I was hot, I told them I was horny Blush

PonceyMcPonce · 01/12/2010 13:52

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SevenAgainstThebes · 01/12/2010 13:51

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mollyroger · 01/12/2010 13:51

I am roffling at these.

mine is tame in comparison but my father repeatedly asked the waiters for a love -letter (billet-doux) in france, when he meant the bill. Given how homophobic he is, it was ver' ver' funny!

VagosaurusRex · 01/12/2010 13:51

Apologies for the misplaced apostrophe!

kveta · 01/12/2010 13:50

oh, transatlantic hilarity is great - I had a friend in the Czech Republic who always asked his american colleagues if they knew where he could bum a fag. He said it sorted out the wheat from the chaff fairly rapidly :o

Oh, and I asked a czech police officer if he was a shelf once - then when I explained I was foreign, he said "I know" :o (police = shelf, policie = police in czech...)

VagosaurusRex · 01/12/2010 13:50

Instead of saying 'it's very warm' to my gruff Hungarian FIL, I came out with 'you're very gay.' There's only a single letters' difference.

harpsichordcarrier · 01/12/2010 13:49

lol @ "if it carries on Im going to have to start wearing pants"

harpsichordcarrier · 01/12/2010 13:46

My American boss once caused a great deal of suppressed mirth when I turned up in her office for an appointment and she was in the middle of an unexpected phone call:
(hand over the receiver) "sorry guys, I'm afraid I'm going to have to blow you all off!'

in more transatlantic hilarity, I inadvertently caused a similar incident by complaining loudly that a particular corporate procedure was a total FAG. which, in my defence, it WAS.

Itsjustafleshwound · 01/12/2010 13:46

In Afrikaans, a doos is a box - it is also slang for c**t : I didn't make a good impression at all ...

blushingm · 01/12/2010 13:40

from what i have heard - not having been to one - a mars bar party is when a mars bar is apparently used to give sexual pleavure and then it's eaten afterwards

the lady next door is an aussie and i was also weak when she started talking about real spunk

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