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

These are great.

This is one that happened to me and I still cringe thinking about it.

Years ago in my single days I was looking for a new place to live and rang up in answer to an ad for a house-share. Got a nice woman on the phone who explained 'the house is owned by Rachel [not her actual name] and I’m Majula.' Chatted a bit more and was invited to go round one evening to meet them as they were deciding who to pick to come and live there.

I went round, met Rachel, had a friendly chat, but no sign of the Majula I'd spoken to on the phone. Was on the brink of asking where she was but felt a bit too timid to come out with too many questions…anyway, I was delighted to be picked as the new housemate.

It was only when I moved in and someone called Jenny [again, not her real name] appeared and introduced herself as the other occupant of the house that I twigged what she’d actually said on the phone - ‘I’m a jeweller'. 🤦‍♀️

In my head I secretly called her Majula forever afterwards…

I was going for an interview when I was a lot younger and very nervous, wanting to make a good impression. The interview room was pointed out to me and I popped my head round the door to ask if they were ready for me. They asked me to take a seat outside and I thought it was some clever new-fangled psychometric recruitment test, walked into the room, picked up one of the chairs and noisily struggled out of the room with it. Their faces ........

Didn't get the job. Funny, that.

When I was 18, I went away for the weekend with my (now ex) boyfriend.
We stayed in a hotel, and I was really nervous.

It was mostly pensioners staying there, which was embarrassing enough for us being the only young couple, but one morning the manageress approached me and asked me to go with her to a private room.

I went with her and she offered me a seat, while she sat at the other side of a desk.
At this point I was wondering what was going on, and if I was in some sort of trouble for something I hadn't done.

She then proceeded to ask me lots of questions.
"Do you have experience in hospitality?"
"How would you deal with this situation".

It turned out she thought I was there for a job interview!!
I don't know which one of us was more embarrassed when she realised I was a guest.

With apologies to any Geordies on the thread - I was in Newcastle a few years back talking to a chap who kept referring to The Tan Mouah. My brain was in overdrive trying to work out it was, but it was getting difficult to carry on the conversation so in the end I had to ask - and my best effort was a desperate 'Is The Tan Mouah a Thai restaurant?'
No, it's the Town Moor, a massive common in the middle of the city.

Once went on holiday in france and we were staying in a B&B for a few nights, but got there a couple of hours before check n time. We thought we'd ask anyway if the room was ready.

The man spoke only a little english and we had limited french and we apologised for being a bit early and asked if room was maybe ready anyway.

He said quite cheerily, 'is ok, just need the shit'.
We looked at him and said, um ok.
and he replied 'we wait for shit. My wife, she go for the shit. maybe 10 minute'.

So still a bit confused, thinking, each to their own. Turns out he was saying sheet. He was just waiting for his wife to arrive back with the clean sheets to make up the bed.

This is probably not going to be as funny because it's not English, but
When I was in uni I took extracurricular law subjects. It was my first day in class and I asked a question. Before answering my question the professor asked 'name'. I said my name then he asked 'surname'? But in my native tongue the word 'from' and the word for surname are the same. (and I didn't realise that in law they address each other as Mr brown of miss Smith, so he was just trying to get my name to say 'miss Smith made a valid point that etc') anyway I answered. From - insert my college sorority house name-.
The whole class burst out laughing and I was left red in the face

This morning. Online chatting to a friend in Australia. She said "Got to go! Rubbish night...." I was worried. Sent v supportive here to chat any time type message. She's just come back to say she meant it was rubbish night and she had to put the bins out....

Mine is a bit dark but we saw the funny side
DP is a bit deaf and can struggle on the phone. He got a phone call from a charity collecting for 'dead children'. He looked a bit shocked so i started listening to what he wss saying.
The caller asked if he had experience of this and would he like to donate. He replied a previous girlfriend had suffered a miscarriage so he understood how important this was. The caller started talking about how the money would go to schools to support these children. At this point i shouted at him quite loudly 'deaf children not dead children'!
Both DP and the caller then proceeded to apologise so much to each other. He explained he is a bit deaf but could they call him back later. He was mortified! I confess i couldn't stop laughing. And the irony

Years ago at school one of our teachers would regularly send a very ditzy girl for things such as 'a long stang' from the woodwork department etc. This went on for weeks and she was so enthusiastic and so happy to picked for tasks and being the centre of attention she didn't mind being made fun of. He once sent her off for stripey chalks and she was gone AGES. She returned hours later absolutely exhausted, and out of breath, burst into the classroom and gasped "I've tried my best, I can get you a tracksuit for the morning". He didn't have a clue what she was on about and the whole class fell about laughing. She was absolutely out of breath but eventually managed to explain she thought he'd said 'Stripey shorts'. She had asked at the school office and gone through the lost property box, asked at the PE department and gone through the all the teams' kit boxes, and finally spent a good hour chasing the games teacher up and down the rugby pitch while he was trying to referee a match and was determined not to let her distract him. The games teacher assumed that the stripey shorts were needed for a drama performance (as it was the English teacher who'd sent her) and said he didn't have any, but he had a striped tracksuit he could bring in the next day if needed. 🤣🤣

Long stand, not stang 🙄

I've told this many times but it was my favourite misunderstanding.

Found an injured wood pigeon in my garden trapped down my foundations hole where extension was going. Surrounded by my 4 cats. I captured it and put it in a box to take it to safety. I called emergency vet and I had the following conversation by phone.

Vet: How can we help?
Me: I have an injured wood pigeon in my garden. Think it's hurt it's wing. Can I bring it to you?
Vet: Yes that's fine. Can I take a name please?
Me: Sorry I don't know it's name, I only just met him.
Vet: Not the pigeon....meant can I take YOUR name...

😂I felt such a twat

Can't stop laughing at this.

I was once in Dublin and was talking to a friend about how excited we were to go to a nearby pub because they did amazing cheese toasties. Anyway a group of drunk girls on a hen do overheard and got really excited too.. said they wanted to join us. We were all on the cheese toasty hype.

We were about to leave when one girl said I can’t believe we’re about to see paolo nutini… it turned out the original woman who overheard us thought we’d said paolo nutini, not cheese toasty…. They were massively disappointed and couldn’t understand why we were so excited about a cheese toasty. The mood took a turn. Very bizarre misunderstanding.

Wow - the teacher did that? That’s really shit.

But Paolo nutini doesn't sound anything like cheese toastie.

Years ago I was on the phone to someone at work, I had a bad cold and so did they. We sympathised with each other. At the end of the call they said, “I think I’ll just head off to bed.” I said, “oh, I think I’ll join you!”

Silence.

I know right!! That’s why it was bizarre (must have been our Yorkshire accents!) @ThatFraggle

OP, I'm going trtft, but I just had to say I properly laughed out loud. One can only presume the person had a very dry delivery to a very bland joke?

I’m sure I have many more . When I was pregnant with ds I texted my sister and said I was having pain in my pelvis but my phone autocorrected and changed it to penis . I was so confused when she asked me how long I had one of them 😂😂. Another time I texted my sister and was saying my DH had done something he wouldn’t normally do and I think he’s been abducted . She asked me where he was 😂😂she literally thought someone kidnapped him .

Aw - that's sweet

I could see myself doing that 🤦‍♀️

These are brilliant, proper belly laughing at the paper knickers/hat 😄

When me and my partner was early days we was in bed one morning talking about food.. he asked me if I liked hot food, I said yes I do, I prefer it to cold food but I don't mind a sandwich/wraps every so often etc

Turns out he meant hot as in spicy, I cringed at myself for weeks 😂

Driving along one day with husband and kids we saw a travelling fairground just off the road. Decided to stop off and see how much it was and let the dc have a go on the rides.

Wandered in, couldn't see anywhere to pay, the dc wanted to go on a few rides so we queued up thinking we'd just have to pay for rides. Again nowhere to pay, asked the rude operator who said it was free.

We thought it was strange but could see people walking round with bags with made up packs so we thought it was some kind of promotional event. Great, let the dc have a few goes on the tides.

Soon afterwards we twigged on we had walked into a private event put on for company employees so we quickly made a sharp exit.

@BellaTheDarkOverlord thats so funny 🤣 my favourite one so far