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

My friend and me was sharing a room in a hotel and I said to her...
Does your hubby still do stimulating?
She looked at me and said what?
I said ya know the stimulating
She said well it's kinda personal but ya.
I must have given her a confused look as she then said you mean farm simulator. And yeah he does.
I then proceeded to laugh so hard I fell off the bed

DH and i were reminiscing about an old neighbour, Jim, who had a cat called Marmalade who used to frequent our garden. They had moved a couple of streets away about a year previously.
me: I saw him the other day on Green Lane
DH: oh really?
me: yes, he was doing a poo in the bushes.
DH: [looks horrified and confused]

Turned out i was talking about the cat, whereas DH was talking about Jim.

I worked as a Marketing and Communications contractor for years, one time I found myself with a 6 week gap between contracts. I jumped at the chance to help a recruiter I was on good terms with to do a month in a Mercedes Benz call centre. It was minimum wage, entitled rich customers shouted at you all day, and my 'team leader' was of school leaver age, orange and barked orders like Hitler. But it kept me busy in my time between contracts, bit of pin money and I was helping the agency that often got me work.

Anyway, one plummy chap calls up, I ask for his address. He said "23 Elgar Close." I said, "Ooh, like the racehorse!", He replied, "No, like the composer!" I chuckled and said, "But there was that famous racehorse called that too!"

There was a silence, then the penny dropped and I despondently said, "Sorry. That was Shergar!"

He must have thought I was a right dopey twat. I'm usually not so dim.

Another accent lost in translation situation….

On a Centre Parks holiday in Eindhoven, with my DS and a friend and her two children. Lots of activities booked, one of which was climbing. Friend and I were waiting for the DCs to finish, and we got talking to one of the young, attractive male organisers.

He told us all about his extensive travels, which was very impressive as he seemed to be in his very early 20s. He had a really indeterminate accent, and I assumed he was European, as he had a slight drawl and some of his phrasing was a bit formal. He said he spoke multiple languages, and I enthusiastically complimented him on his English. We then asked him where he considered home to be, and when he stopped suppressing his laughter, he told us he was born and bred in Glasgow. Mortified. I was utterly mortified.

Another one. A colleague of my Ex-H was away visiting a client and got lost. It was pre-smartphones and so she rang the office to ask for someone to get a map up and guide her.

They asked her for any signs, or landmarks to help locate her. She said she was on a country lane, nothing but fields, but recalls going past a sign by the side of the road.

She turned round and went back and exclaimed, "I found it! I know where I am, can you look it up please?"

She was on loudspeaker and a few people had gathered to collectively help her. Someone asked where she was, what did the sign say?

Triumphantly, she declared, "Loose Chippings!"

The office was stunned into momentary silence, before they collapsed laughing. She never lived that one down.

@Bookloverjay @IchWill - can you explain the story more and what was funny? Sorry- but I have no idea what a farm simulator or loose chippings mean???

Loose Chippings is a hazard sign for roads that have loose gravel etc, so you might want to drive slowly to avoid stones flying up and damaging your car.

But she thought Loose Chippings was a place name.

I mean, Chipping Norton isn't far from our city, so maybe there was a logical reason to her brain fart!

@IchWill Thank you. Strange that I've driven in the UK for over 20yrs and never seen such a sign- or maybe I just ignored them? 😂

I bet you will start to see them after today!

@IchWill -The picture is familiar, but the wording not at all! I'm sure I will see it daily now though 😂

I am crying reading these posts. I will add some.
I was on holiday in New Jersey on a beach and it was packed with lots of people splashing in the sea. To my horror I saw fins in the water and jumped to warn people.
‘Watch out sharks’’ I yelled.
’I think you will find that they are dolphins,’ said an nearby guy.

My mil was staying with me and went out to buy a morning newspaper. She came back all red-faced and flustered. She had walked into the house next door just as the husband was walking up the hallway in his boxer shorts. Just hilarious.

Years ago, in my first job, I answered the phone and a lady asked to speak to my colleague Brian who was on another phone call.
‘Who is calling?’ I asked.
’It’s a tractor, ‘ she said.
Brian had finished so I walked over to him and said ‘there’s a lady on the phone for you who thinks she is a tractor.’
He came over and spoke to her then he gave me a sheet of paper and he had written in large letters ATTRACTA. ‘That,’ he said, ‘ is the name of my ex wife.

That's really tickled me. To the point of cry laughing. 🤣🤣

Hope hamster was okay.

When I was delivering my DS, the midwife made a comment "I can see some lovely dark hair".

Of course, she meant the baby.

No wonder she looked at me weirdly when I replied "thanks, I just had it cut yesterday".

I still cringe, 15 years later 😆

I should have said its a game on pc.
The funny part is that I got the words stimulating and stimulating mixed up

@Tiredmum12389 "I travelled up river on a small cargo boat....hammock." That sounds so exciting!

When I was 19, I went to Holland on a camping holiday with friends. We arrived at the campsite in Amsterdam and, while we were setting the tents up, a bloke about our age came over and asked if we wanted some hash. I replied that I was vegetarian, so didn't eat meat ( thinking he meant corned beef hash!). So embarrassed when my friends told me I'd got it very wrong.

This reminds me of a bit in one of Doreen Tovey's books about her Siamese cats; a foreign friend of hers got a cat, and wanted to buy a roasting tin to use as a litter tray. The shopkeeper asked her what size she wanted, and she said "it's for a cat"; cue horrified looks from the other customers-"so it's true, foreigners do eat cats"!.

A few years ago I had my gall bladder out, resulting in 4 little scars. Shortly after I visited my GP and he said “so where did you have you gall bladder out”… I lifted up my top and shown him each of the scars one by one and afterwards he goes “no…which hospital?”

🙈

My 6 year old faked an illness so well I brought him to a&e thinking he had appendicitis. As soon as we sat down with the doctor after triage he had a miraculous recovery. The doctor was asking me the usual questions, even though we both knew there was absolutely nothing wrong with him at this point. The doctor asked what gestation my son was born, I answered 36+5 and my son pipes up, as proud as can be, '41!'

That reminds me of when I was about 7 or 8 , and my parents said we could get a cat. They asked if we knew anyone who's cat has had kittens. My friend said her friend's cat had kittens.( The family wanted them to live in the countryside as they were apparently worried about traffic) My friend asked if I lived in the country. I replied that of course I did, as how else would I get to school on time in the morning if I lived in a different country. I thought she meant did I live in this Country.

This has broken me! Tears and snorting. My DH just walked in on me losing it over this.
Thank you. Just what I needed!@Lesina 🐽🐽🤣🐽🐽

My friend Lesley lives in Australia. After speaking to her on messenger my husband asked me how she was, I told him she was going to Bali with her daughter. He looked astounded and said “she’s a bit old to start that”. I looked at him as if he was mad when I realised he was thinking of ballet. She was in her 50s then.

That should say i got the words simulating and stimulating

A former colleague of mine had copied down a curry recipe. When making it she’d written down 3/4 of pint of water but mistead it and added 3-4 pints of water. Couldn’t understand why it was so bland.

As students, a friend was making a recipe which called for a tin of Campbell's tomato soup. She saw the price of the branded Campbell's soup in the supermarket and the much lower price of the supermarket's own brand soup, so she bought that, figuring it was all essentially the same.

Of course, the own brand soup was standard and not condensed like Campbell's is (i.e. double thickness) and her dish ended up very watery indeed!

Maybe not so much a misunderstanding as just remarkable unworldliness, but I was at an exhibition where one of the small stallholders was a woman of a certain age who had made lots of lovely crafts themed around her beloved teddy bear, and she had named her business the same as the teddy's name.

She was proudly introducing herself to everybody who visited her stall, in all innocence, as 'The Bear Lady'! It was most amusing watching people trying hard to stifle their giggles!