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 started to get to know a lad through the local choir as I had recently relocated to the area. He seems a very quiet nice chap. We agreed to go out for a drink and in sorting out when he said he was also a bell-ringer with practice night of Wednesdays, and Thursday was also out as that was for his 'court appeal'! Took a few more dates and chatting to understand that bell ringers often ring 'quarter peals', as a full peal takes several hours!

Asked our DS what food he had had at the childminder's and heard him reply "a rat". That's both what I and my husband understood. So asked him:" A rat?!" Turns out she gave him a "wrap" 😂.

Commiserating with a lady with a broken ankle

me -how did you do it ?
She …… slipped and fell in Iceland

me - that’s awful. I’ve always wanted to go. Hope it didn’t ruin The whole holiday ……

she ….. umm Iceland un the town centre

penny dropped very slowly 🤣

Oh, and one which was me; 22 years ago and I'm still cringing

Staying in Boston MA, I realised the lady opposite was getting married when she left the house in a stunning gown on the arm of her much older escort. Being in the garden at the time I wished her every happiness and remarked "Ah, I see you go with your dad, the same as we often do in the UK"

It was of course the groom ...

I texted my dd asking how my fav son in law is. Except my stupid phone corrected it to fat son in law.
I still don’t know why she found it so hilarious she had to show him 🤣

When my son was a toddler he called out from the living room that he had found cat piss. Filled with shock and embarrassment that my youngster would even know that word let alone say it- and worrying that one of the cats had a UTI or something I rushed into the living room to find him looking into the fish tank. "There it is mummy, behind the rock"
Cat Fish
Cat Fish sweetie....

My hairdresser always cut my fringe too short so I was determined to be very clear that I didn’t want the front cut this time as I could trim it myself at home.

I sat in the chair and blurted out “please don’t cunt the front this time”.

Hairdresser looked baffled as I tried to laugh it off and explain.
She still cut the fringe too short and I was too embarrassed to say anything by then 😩

I once had to leave work early and was trying to manoeuvre my car out of its parking space in our very cramped carpark (I usually left late so didn't have to deal with it). A colleague came by, saw me and very helpfully started directing me with hand signals. We spent ages with me going backwards and forwards before eventually realising that she thought I was trying to get into the space not out of it!

How’s my fat son in law bwah haha 😂 brilliant

We had just got lunch and sat down in the cafe in a French supermarket. I said something to DD, aged about 5. She said “Wee!” I wasn’t happy she had waited until now to say it, but took her off to the toilet! Back at the table, she admitted she hadn’t wanted to go, she had said “Oui”, after hearing us say it so much!

My dear old Nan, no longer with us, lived in sheltered accommodation. She got an invite posted through the door to the local hall to come to some event the Beavers were doing.

Off she went all excited. When I asked her after if she had fun she said "it was boring. There wasn't any beavers there. There wasn't any animals at all. Just lots of kids"

In my teens I stayed over at my boyfriend's parents' house. We went down the next morning and his (much) younger sister asked his dad if she could please have a parrot...long explanation from dad that she really couldn't, it wouldn't be fair to the parrot etc etc.

Poor child only wanted a CARROT 🤣

Fantastic. I love this.

@Tlolljs

That's what you get for playing favourites 😆

Up in Yorkshire last year, my husband mentioned that he'd seen a sign for an egg throwing competition. I thought he said a pig throwing competition and immediately went off on a rant about the cruelty, pointing out that "adult pigs would be too heavy to pick up and throw so they must be throwing piglets and actually even month old piglet would be pretty heavy, so the bastards would be throwing new born piglets, tiny new born piglets...." He let me rant on & on. It was only when I picked up the phone to call the RSPCA that he clarified it to me... something along the lines of 'EGG! AN EGG THROWING COMPETITION, YOU CLOTH EARED MANIAC & WHAT SORT OF MORON WOULD THROW A PIG' I still laugh about it now.

😂😂😂😂😂

I own a pet parrot and Teflon (any non-stick pots and pans) is highly toxic to them, so you’ve got to be really careful when buying your kitchenware.

One Christmas MIL decided to buy us a high-end frying pan, so she went into John Lewis and started looking at the posh ones. She was getting paranoid about the toxic pan potential, so she went up to a really young sales guy, showed him the pan and asked him “Is it suitable for parrots??” He stared at her for about 20 seconds utterly horrified, before eventually stammering that she could cook what she liked in it.

Ah thats so sweet

😂😂

@wutheringkites he’s the only one I’ve got!

😂😂

Quite a few years ago on holiday with DH he decided to join in with the karaoke at a bar that was popular with holiday makers of various different nationalities. They asked him to say his name and where he was from. For some reason, instead of just saying he was from England he told them the name of the very small, not well known, town where we live. When they asked where that was, instead of saying England he said UK. They clearly misheard and announced that he was Paul from Ukraine. He didn't correct them so they kept calling him Paul from Ukraine and asked for everyone in the bar from Ukraine to give him a cheer. Turns out there were quite a few Ukranians in. He hadn't realised when he signed up that it was a competition and as a fairly decent singer he made it through several rounds. Each time he sang the Paul from Ukraine/everyone from Ukraine cheer for Paul etc was repeated. The bar was on the main road through the resort and every time we walked past the guy who'd been running the karaoke shouted 'Paul from Ukraine!' at us.

DH tells me he would have liked to leave after the first song but was worried that it would somehow be more offensive to actual Ukranians if he left in the middle of the competition. I always wondered whether the actual Ukranians heard what had happened and realised it was a misunderstanding and what all the other tourists thought who had not witnessed this cringefest but just heard the bar man calling to DH as we walked past.

I used to work as admin for an upmarket chauffeur/ taxi company. We had a lovely, but very loud, brusque and in-your-face American client who used us often. He prided himself on calling a spade a spade, and didn't care if his loud and honest approach offended people. In fact it made him laugh. "They call me Arsey!!" he would say of British people. "They love me because I'm arsey! Arsey by name, arsey by nature. People know what they're getting with me, I am what I am."

So, he books a pickup from Heathrow Airport, and I have to write the whiteboard, to give to our smartly dressed chauffeur to hold up in arrivals. I write "ARSEY" on it in big letters. As you have probably already guessed our lovely veryAmerican client was actually called R.C! Fortunately he saw the funny side

crying 😂😂😂😂😂

Yes my asd dd would also take it literally.

Did make me giggle tho.