What's the funniest misunderstanding you've had?

[CuriousLadyBird]

Do you have a funny story about a misunderstanding where it be you've misunderstood something or another person has misunderstood you?

I'm just starting this thread because I thought about something that happened last week and giggled to myself.

I'm currently under the community mental health team as my mental health is not where I want it to be but next year I've been accepted on to a mental health nursing course and can start If my mental health is stable enough (just a bit of background).

So I had a home visit off someone from the CMHT and we were chatting and discussing my future etc and they asked what my goal was and I said "I think my long term goal is to be sitting where you are" and I meant like becoming qualified as a mental health nurse and helping people but this person must not have understood what I meant and said "Well you live here so you can sit here anytime you want".

I was a bit like what? But didn't say anything and carried on with the conversation so I don't know, I think maybe this person thinks my long term goal is to sit on the other side of the sofa (and I appreciate people with other mental health conditions may have issues sitting in certain places so maybe that's where we've got mixed up) but thinking back to it has really made me giggle.

Next time they come I might sit on that side of the sofa and they'll think I've reached my long term goal

i did something really embarassing yesterday. My eyesight is not too good and I had just ordered coffee and lunch and the barman was just reaching over the counter with my change. He had a blue tip on his finger that I did not recognise as a plaster. I was a bit flustered getting my money together and when he reached his hand out all I saw was this blue tip and omg I thought he was giving me something and I pulled at it and it came off his finger and he just looked at me as if I was crazy, I am still blushing.

Before we went on a village twinning trip we were told our hostess was a social worker. At dinner I asked about her work and picked up the word 'immobilier'. My GCE French (failed) led me to assume she worked with the immobile, ie. disabled persons. During the weekend I persued the subject asking if she worked with le immobile anciennes or le pauvre enfants. She looked puzzled but her English was as bad as my French, so it wasn't until the last day when she pointed to some bungalows and spoke to a bilingual friend that I discovered she was, in fact, an estate agent's secretary. I have no idea what she made of my obsession with disability.

🤣🤣🤣

A few weeks ago I bought DH a little rubber helmet that sits over your towbar/ball. While looking out of the upstairs window one evening I said "has anyone seen your helmet" meaning the guys in work. He looked at me with a smirk and said, I thought, "quite a few" I have him the finger and called him a checky bastard. He started to laugh and asked what I thought he'd said. I told him and he said "no, I said that's only for you".

Well when my son was first learning to speak, he couldn't pronounce the letter 's'. So when he and I were visiting the park, he spotted some blossoming trees. However, when he pointed them out to me, the words that came out of his mouth were 'look at that bottom mummy!' 🙈Unfortunately, the elderly lady infront of us was not amused 😂😳

I went to pick up a Colleague for a night out. We travelled together because we also lived very close to each other.
Once in the car, we chatted about her cat Daisy which often comes into my garden. I told her my GDG Poppy had seen Daisy that afternoon and had tried to play with her but Daisy wasn't interested.

Neighbour said 'Ah never mind ' and then asked ' What colour is she' ?
I was very surprised at her wanting this information and wondered what that had to do with anything. She knows my older GDG is mixed race and works so she wouldn't have been trying to play with the cat during the afternoon.
So I looked at her askance and said in a very incredulous voice and accompanying facial expression 'Erm ,white with long blonde hair. '

At that she squealed - Oh my God ! I thought you were talking about your own cat .
I spend the rest of the night gently teasing her about the mistake. Still makes me laugh though.

I now live in Newcastle.

When I got my first job, I was chatting to a male colleague and he would say things like
"Worlass made me my tea last night"
"I'm thinking of taking Worlass out tonight"

I knew he was taking about his wife, but in my head, I just kept thinking this poor woman had the misfortune of a really ugly name.

I was super judgemental and thought what kind of parent calls their daughter Worlass.

It took a few months to click he was actually saying "wor lass" - which means our lass/my lass/my girl.

I swear, this is the funniest thing I have ever read on here. Am practically dying laughing.

The parrot story has really brightened a rather fraught day. I'll be giggling about it all evening 😂

Mine is much less funny but is from friends years ago. Two branches of the same family agreed to spend a week on holiday near to each other, each booking their own accommodation. The day before one phoned another to arrange a meeting place for the first evening. One family turned up, the other family were nowhere to be seen and didn't appear the next day.

It took a few phone calls to other family members (in the days of phone boxes) to discover that one lot were in Newquay in Cornwall and the other lot were in Newquay in Wales.

An elderly Italian lady said to me, 'My husband, he go China.
Me: Oh that's interesting!
Lady: No, is very bad.
Me: Why has he gone to China?
Lady: His work. Doctor say he go China. Maybe die.
I finally twigged she'd said her husband had angina.

I'm also terrible with Geordie accents, I can speak four languages but for some reason can't understand Geordie 😔 Years ago I worked in a hotel abroad dealing with car hire, one day a customer approached me and spoke to me in what I thought was Polish. I said to him very loudly and clearly 'I'm sorry sir, does your wife speak English?' His wife came over and explained they were from Newcastle 😱🙃

I have two I witnessed!

We took my FIL into a mobile phone shop to sort out some issues he had on his phone. The lad looks at his phone and says “you have no wallpaper” he said “how do you know that?” FIL had recently redecorated his house and painted every wall and removed all the wallpaper in his house. FIL thought the guy knew this by looking at his phone.

Whilst working in a student property my FIL had the kitchen blocked off. A student came into the kitchen and was surprised to see everything moved around. “Oh i just want something out of the cupboard” FIL replied “ok i will get it for you” to which she said “could you pass me the brioche” i was up high on a ladder looking down at him frantically looking for it- i knew he didn’t have a clue what it was! I am crying with laughter. I eventually told him what it was, he was looking for a tin of something! We still laugh about that 12 years later.

Not me but MIL, at Fil's bosses house for dinner, all going well till boss asked Jean would you like a Gaelic coffee (meaning an Irish coffee) she said "oh no thankyou why would you put garlic in a coffee" bless her

A singer called Nosmo King took his name from a sign .

Madame De Gaulle was asked what she was looking forward to after the President's retirement. There was deadly silence when she said A penis, problem solved when they realised she had said Happiness with a strong French accent.

😁

I have a similar story!

Once I had settled in Newcastle, my best friend came up from London to visit.
We were in the town, and stood behind 2 teenagers girls.
My best friend whispered to me "Minou, what language are they speaking?"

I answered with great amusement "English!" 😂

In the sixties as a teen I slipped on the steps down from the upper deck of the bus, I insist that I invented pole dancing!

@Mylifesadrama That's hilarious 😂 love that!

When I was about 13. I had my first job in a museum. One day the owner asked me to go and clean under the tables in the tea rooms. I did this and it was only when she walked in to check on me that I realised she meant the floor under the tables not literally the underneath of the tables 🤣

When I went travelling, I travelled up river on a small cargo boat. I paid slightly more to have a tiny room with private toilet rather than a hammock. We were docked for 3 days before the boat left and my toilet wasn't flushing. I assume now it needed the water from the boat moving or something. Anyway I went and found a crew member and tried to explain to him the situation. I gestured alot with my hands the act of pulling a flush. I then led him to my room. It was only when I got home and explained this to my mum she pointed out that I was gesturing something else entirely. I'm sure he was very disappointed when he realised what I actually wanted.

I'm sure I've got many others but that's all I remember ATM 🤣🤣

This has just made me chuckle for a good 5 mins! Thank you for that

Aww thanks 😂 She eventually sorted out the confusion, but the lad still had no idea if the pan was suitable. She didn’t buy it.

Omg, I can barely see for the tears of laughter 😃.

Not me, but a friend of mine assumed a card reader in a cafe was her phone, and took it with her. She only noticed until we had sat down elsewhere.

😂😂😂😂😂😂

Many years ago I was at pil's house and while making a cup of tea mil started telling me about their walk along the canal and they'd met a small Arab man. I was amazed that an Arab man would be walking on the canal and wanted to know how they knew he was an Arab, was he in traditional clothing, did he speak to them.... she came in the room with a puzzled look on her face and asked me what I was going on about? They'd seen a very nice narrow boat.

😆😆