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

As a teenager, I had never learned the exact meaning of "sartorial" and decided it was vaguely something to do with "sardonic" or "sarcastic".

@chrystlha omg, me too! That's so weird.

Architect noted on bathroom plan "Omit bath", builder sent a message saying "please advise on supplier of Omit bath".

I'm from Derry/Londonderry in NI. Foreign students etc often get a slight Derry accent when they learn English there, especially if they've never learnt it elsewhere in the UK before then.

A girl serving in a coffee shop who I thought was from Derry due to her accent asked me (I thought) if I wanted a pastry "dusted". I replied "dusted with what?".

She was Italian and asking me if I wanted it "toasted".

Someone I know who has a reputation for not being the most observant was walking around local venues (churches, etc) putting up flyers for an event they were running. They walked up to a church entrance and was aware of a crowd of people in the foyer however didn't think much of it. She walked into the foyer and hung around waiting among the crowd trying to locate someone she could ask to put up her poster. She stopped an old man, asked him and he gave her a confused look and asked her how she knew Margaret. She noticed he was wearing a black tie and realised she had walked in on a funeral coming out! (Apparently the hearse was parked around the corner)

Welsh dialect related.

Mum and I were waiting for a table in a cafe. Mum said to the woman in front “there’s a table there.” The woman said, as my mum thought, “Where to?” and mum said “over there”. The woman said “no, I mean there’s two of us. That’s a table for one”. She’d actually said “we’re two”.

@KimberleyClark - I've had so many misunderstandings with my English DH about doing things 'now' (in a minute) as opposed to actual 'now'. I have frequent arguments with our DS along the lines of 'Put your shoes on, please.' 'I'll do it now...' 'No, now, please!' while DH stands there completely bewildered 😆

My friend has triplets. They moved house and were starting at a new school on Monday, but one of the kids in the class went home very excited because she thought they were getting piglets on Monday .

That is so sweet!

Upon starting school both my dear niece and DD (independently of each other) asked when they were getting their school unicorn 🦄

Watch this lovely Guide Dogs for the Blind film from 1965 and it will explain everything!

I remember another one. Was at the doctors getting tablets and the Dr asked if I knew how to take them.

So I replied yes, with a drink of water and swallow them.

She looked rather bemused and said she meant the amount I had to take them.

Remember asking everyone what "hisn" meant when I was young, word was in the sound track to "High Noon" , couldn't understand at the time what would be worse than dying, I was seven, give yourself a treat and google sound track to High Noon 😂

So what is it?

Its actually original sound track to High Noon you need to google. Its a film, from the 50's hope that hasn't put you off

I don't get it either? I even googled the soundtrack/words and am still none the wiser! 🤔

song goes .. vowed it would be my life or hisn, wondered at 7 years old what " hisn "was that was worse than dying... "hisn "to me at the time.. some terrible sort of torture, sorry loses it in the explanation😴

About 25 years ago we were stopping for a night in a cheap country hotel in France on the way down to the south coast on holiday. The DC were 4 and 2 at the time, and Teletubbies was quite a new programme and a big favourite at home.
We arrived early, and the owner was hoovering the reception with a big, ancient old vacuum cleaner. He switched it off and I went to apologize for our earliness. I started "Nous nous..." and paused to think of the next word.
DS then piped up "That's not the Noo-noo!"
I completely lost it and struggled to speak for laughing. The owner looked at me as though I was an idiot for the (thankfully short) duration of our stay.

Me too! I loved having three of us in a row!

Thanks op

I have absolutely loved this thread 😆

the poster hugging the Egyptian hotel worker has had me giggling for hours

Still loving all these... and a touch gutted that no-one has found my poor stuffed cat funny 🤣

Many years ago I studied with a man from Korea who was a Catholic priest. his accent was quite hard to understand sometimes.

On two separate occasions he gave a presentation in a tutorial about how when he was a young man his dad wouldn't let him go to the cinema. Every year he would tell his dad "Dad I want to go to the cinema. Please let me. It would mean so much to me to go to the cinema.' And every year his dad would get very angry and shout and say "No son of mine will ever go to the cinema. Don't ask me again.' This went on for several years until one day the dad relented and agreed he would support him if he really wanted to go to the cinema. It was a very happy ending to many years of strife and he had a much better relationship with his dad after that.

I was surprised that something as innocent as a trip to the cinema was causing such family conflict over a period of years but thought maybe it was a cultural thing. I was also surprised by how emotional he used to get during his presentations. And I wondered why he just didn't go to the cinema and not tell his dad. He was a grown man after all.

it was only during the discussion after the second presentation that the penny finally dropped. He didn't want to go to the cinema at all - he wanted to go to the 'seminary' to train as a priest!

That last one reminds me: at one time I mentioned some people being at 'mid-career'. A person who overheard said, 'Oh, have you been in Mid-Korea? I want to go to Korea!'

('Mid-Korea' sounds politically interesting!)

gosh I’ve had tons. But this one is the one I thought of as reading: in my first proper job (I was early 20’s) my pregnant manager kept telling everyone including me she has SPD but I kept thinking she said STD (sexually transmitted disease), I felt really sorry for her and unborn baby but also embarrassed on behalf that she was telling really senior managers about this. Only in my late 30’s when pregnant myself I realised all these years later she meant pelvic pain!

@ExitThroughTheGiftShop
I bet I'd love your stuffed kitty one if I could only find it!

ExitThroughTheGiftShop · 07/07/2023 12:39
We had to have one of our lovely cats put down a couple of years back. We had a couple of days between finding out and him actually going back to the vet to be put to sleep.I was discussing this tearfully and snottily with my husband, and between snuffles I asked, "can we get him a statue?"My husband paused and looked at me funny, and then gave me a hug and said, "let's just get through it first. We'll see how we feel afterwards. I'd need time to think about it..."Cue my own confusion, so I asked, "just a little stone one for where he's buried?"Hubby looked very relieved. "OH thank God... I thought you asked if we could get him STUFFED."

Here you go! I find doing advanced search on the username is much easier than trying to find the name in a sea of posts😊

Sorry for your loss, @ExitThroughTheGiftShop , but that is a brilliant misunderstanding! I bet your poor husband was horrified.

I have a friend who makes the most amazing teddy bears for a living. Another friend recently lost his dearly beloved dog, and she made him a beautiful soft toy that looked just like her, with a clipping of her fur inside. He posted a photo on FB, described it as being made 'with her fur', and someone misunderstood and was horrified, thinking he'd had her skinned to have a teddy made!