Language misunderstandings

[Silverbullet]

I am working on two stories of flugg about misunderstandings of language. Two examples I experienced inEngland
I was with a young lady at the time:

"I have to spend a penny" she said.

Spend a Penny? I said.

"Yes" she replied.

"Where?" I asked looking around.

"In the Loo" she said.

"Loo?" I reply

"Yes"

What is the Loo?"

"Where I have to spend a Penny"

Upshot , I finally learned that she had to use a Penny to get into a stall in the toilet (Loo)

She returns sit down and I say:

"Pass me a Napkin"

"No" There aren't any Napkins here.

"Yes ther are I said pointing to the holder.

"That is a serviette"

"It is a Napkin."

"It is a Serviette"

Okay, it is a serviette, then what is a Napkin?

"A Sanitary Napkin"

When last seen the Young Lady was marhing stiffly out of the door.

Anyone have other examples

[Alelou]

Being pissed (angry) in America versus being pissed (drunk) in UK.

The whole underwear area gets tricky. I seem to recall that pants over there meant the same thing as panties here, though the term knickers was more common. Any rate, I recall switching to trousers to avoid horrified looks.

Elevator vs. lift, zucchini vs. courgette, eggplant vs. aubergine

My favorite British phrase not in terribly common use in the US is to 'suss out' something. It doesn't really translate perfectly in American English which is why we need to adopt it! I guess it's a cross between investigating something and figuring something out.

[Silverbullet]

Alelou. I spent two years in London 1965-67 The first few months I put my foot into it several times but the English were kind. They wrote it off to amerian stupidity.

[Alelou]

Isn't putting things down to American stupidity the national pasttime over there....?

Still safer than Spanish. I once said in a restaurant that I wanted love handles instead of red snapper. This has embarrassing connotations in Puerto Rico and vastly entertained the entire kitchen staff.

Of course, in his youth, my husband, upon being taken for the first time to a nice restaurant on the island by a friendly priest, asked for a "cocktail lounge," since from the sign on the wall he assumed that it was the special of the day.

[JadziaKathryn]

I like 'suss out.' It's a good phrase and from time to time I use it.

[Alelou]

Me too. I definitely think it should become part of American English. It nicely fills an empty slot.

Hey, Canadians -- do you use it?

[Aikiweezie]

I like the British expression "snogging" which is to kiss or more like make out.

[JadziaKathryn]

Ugh. Never cared for "snogging," and "shagging" is hardly any better. (Though there is a somewhat interesting game of sorts, "Marry, Shag, or Throw off a Cliff," which is apparently something you ask people about other people.)

The fun thing about hearing other phrases is that you pick them up. (Though one has to be careful, lest one confuse the daylights out of others, as I've learned.) I picked up "suss out" from my undergrad advisor/mentor, some phrases from Australia... I'll even get some speech patterns from TV shows or books sometimes. Have always been like that. So it'd be interesting to see how the crew was influenced like that. Especially T'Pol and Phlox, but others as well.

[justTripn]

In Thailand, among the Hmong refugees, this happened several times. (Names changed to protect the innocent, lol . . ) Understand that many Hmong have learned their English from studying to become medics. There is a meeting and I look around the room and ask, "Where is Hang Yang?"

Employee: "He went to pass a stool."

Then I say that we never say that in English! That Americans always say, "I have to go to the bathroom," and everyone objects that there is no bath in the whole camp-- only showers.

On the other hand, if I were to innocently refer to a ordinary three-legged "stool", which you sit on (and we had them in the office), it would always cause a round of snickers.

[Aquarius]

I was once told by an Iranian friend that the Farsi word for snow is "barf."

[WarpGirl]

Me too. I definitely think it should become part of American English. It nicely fills an empty slot.

Hey, Canadians -- do you use it?

That depends on where you are in Canada. Says the girl with a Canadian Brother-in-law.

[Kotik]

I was once told by an Iranian friend that the Farsi word for snow is "barf."

There's a lot of those coincidences if you look at different languages. For instance 'mist' in German means 'manure'. Also I once embarrassed myself when I was visiting the ukraine. ukranian and russian are very similar languages, but they have differences which can catch someone off-guard. One ukrainian said 'I came with my sister' (as in acompanying each other) in ukranian. Problem is, the same sentence in russian (Í speak russian but only very few ukranian) would have meant 'I came out of my sister' (as in pull out ) Suffice to say my reaction was less than dignified

[justTripn]

Foreigners in Thailand are warned not to even attempt to say water buffalo since the word for buffalo is "kwai" (middle tone) and the word for penis is "kwai" (low tone).

[Alelou]

Etymologists immediately begin to imagine the scene two hundred years ago when a Thai man huskily said to his lady, "Look here, baby ... is this as big as a buffalo, or what? And it's all for you!"

She responds, "Oh, honey, that IS a buffalo," with an even lower tone of her own, and the language changes forever....

[Kotik]

Etymologists immediately begin to imagine the scene two hundred years ago when a Thai man huskily said to his lady, "Look here, baby ... is this as big as a buffalo, or what? And it's all for you!"

She responds, "Oh, honey, that IS a buffalo," with an even lower tone of her own, and the language changes forever....

Yep, talkin' dirty in a foreign language can get you into the dog house infinitely though. I remember that time when I was in a relationship with the Missus from russia. I mixed up the two very similar russian words obnimat' and obmanut' - my specific problem was, that one means 'to hug' the other means 'to cheat'. So instead of asking her for the huggles I bluntly told her 'I wanna cheat on you'. No points for guessing how many hugging was going on that evening