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23 Stories Of Tourists Having Really Cringy Moments While Traveling To Another Country
Since the destruction of the Tower of Babel, traveling around the world has become much more complicated by the fact that we often don't know other people's languages and customs. And while the first problem can still be dealt with by learning the language, the second is much more difficult - sometimes a whole lifetime is not enough to get acquainted with all the habits and traditions of another country.
Especially if you are going to this country for literally a couple of days. Then a variety of curiosities are almost inevitable. As it happened more than once with the participants of this viral thread in the AskReddit community, who then decided to share their funny and eye-opening fails online.
More info: Reddit
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#1
In Russia I wanted to buy meat from the deli counter. I didn't fancy trying to explain a weight I wanted, so pointed at some pre packaged meat trays behind a glass counter. She looked at me confused and told me to take it in Russian. I was like "I can't it's behind glass". Went like this for a while until I thought I'd demonstrate and put my hand to the glass, it wasn't glass, just fresh air, the glass counter stopped before the pre packaged items.
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#2
So I refuled my rental car at a gas station in australia. I got to know Australians to be very outgoing, so when the girl at the counter asked me
“wher’re you from?”
I reckoned she wanted to have a little chat and started to talk about myself. But she was
“no, haha, I mean which gas pump”.
#3
I have a "lost in translation" story for you.
I love traveling to Indonesia, and eventually, I figured I had no more excused and began learning Bahasa Indonesia.
All proud of the few sentences I spoke, I made sure I would always tell people "see you later" upon leaving the shop, hotel, and/or restaurant.
It took me 4 days, and many confused looks for me to double-check what I was actually saying.
I meant to say "sampai nanti ya" (see you later), but instead, I told people "sampai manti ya," which beautifully translates to "until you die, yeah"...
#4
Nothing too embarrassing but I still laugh about it, went to a fancy restaurant in Kyoto once and the hostess put down a little bowl of what I guessed was soup/broth on the table so I drank it. She came back about a minute later with some tempura and seemed surprised that I drank the dipping sauce that was intended for it. She was like “oh…. did you like it?”.
#5
I was in France, Cannes on vacation with my GF.
There were Fireworks and lots of people because it was the 14. july french national Day.
There was a Bus with Food and i tried to order some Food. I can speak french but not super well. But to my excuse, the crowd was super loud and i couldnt hear the cashier properly. (Atleast thats my side of the story lmao)
So the cashier apparently asked what my name is. Idk why? So i, instead of telling my name i ordered Salmon. Repeated it. Because i tought she couldnt hear me.
She asked again if my name really is monsieur Salmon…..
My gf and the cashiers were dying with laughter..
So, from this day on. I go by the name of Monsieur Salmon ??.
#6
When I had just arrived to the Philippines, I couldn’t find my friend. A cop (or perhaps a security guard) asked if they could help. I told him what’s going on and he offered to call my friend, which I accepted. We make contact with my friend and I find her. The cop extends his hand which I took as wanting a high five. So I gave him five and ran off. It wasn’t until later that I realized he wanted a tip. ?.
#7
In Spanish "constipado" means you have a cold.
Spaniards have been getting massive diarrhea on top of the cold they already had in every English and French speaking country since the beginning of time (my mom, in Geneva in the 70s).
#8
Actually this happened to my husband when he was living in Europe for a summer in college. He was in France in a bakery and wanted to tell the baker how good the bread was. Freshly baked, flaky, no preservatives, etc. So he tried to make an English word sound French by saying no “préservatif”. Well that is the French word for condom. So the baker looked at him like he was crazy. Funny story though…..
#9
In my language we have the same word for try and taste. I was shopping pants and asked in three stores if I could taste them.
#10
Showing up at the airport with my family the day after our scheduled flight. The worst part was my dad was there dropping us off. ? Thank god the agent took pity on us & there were seats available, she booked us in on that evening’s flight without any fees. That by far is the most embarrassing but had the best outcome.
In the mid-90s I was on a youth exchange between Uruguay and Canada. We were a group of youth working in rural communities & living with local families. One of my good friends in the group who was from Toronto was assigned to a local school and got lost on his first day, arriving late. In his panic to explain, he starts off by telling his new employer that he was “muy embarazado” about arriving late on his first day, realizing later that he had told them he was pregnant.
#11
I was in St. Petersburg, Russia, a teenager visiting a host family. I REALLY needed to use the bathroom. I had eagerly eaten all the new food. Tummy issues. In the broken language I knew I ask for a “rest room”. I was graciously shown my room with a bed. I think my face said more than my words so it worked out. Just super embarrassing.
#12
When I was 16, my family traveled to Europe. We mostly ate at restaurants with a waiter and a menu and would work together to figure out what each item was. But one day we went to a cafeteria style restaurant where you got a tray, pushed it along, and selected your food yourself. I came to the beverages and saw big glasses of nice cold milk, which I hadn’t had all vacation. I grabbed one and sat down to eat. I took a huge gulp and nearly spit it back out thinking it was spoiled. Turns out it was buttermilk, which is what the sign said in German.
#13
My friend and I went to a local restaurant in Indonesia, a jar of water on our table, we drank it, the local people looked at us. We saw local people use it wash their hands, that not for drink,only for wash hands.
#14
In my own country in Australia I was in a different state and got pulled over to get breathalyzed. I was used to the type where you put your mouth on a straw and blow. But the cop in the other state held up a device near me and told me to count to 10. Super confused, I asked "...where do I blow?" and he repeated the instruction again, just count to 10. Again, confused, I leant in to blow into nothing until my passenger laughed and explained it and I wanted to melt away into my seat. I was completely sober.
#15
I can’t remember how much I actually took out of the ATM but I got my Krona/USD conversion wrong and the comma thing screwed me up.
I looked like Scrooge McDuck swimming in cash.
#16
My recent travel to Hong Kong was more than 15 years after my first one. This time, I was vacationing with my sisters. On our first night we went to all these food stalls along the street and I kept seeing “Octopus available” in almost all of them. So I thought to myself, “Wow, grilled octopus must be really popular here!”
I then went ahead to the next stall and bought myself some grilled Octopus. I was so excited and told my sisters “Look, I got some octopus! It seems to be very popular here as all the stores say they have it!” Only for them to laugh at my face and tell me that Octopus is what they call their train cards, much like Oyster for the UK. Good thing the grilled Octopus was tasty.
#17
Showing up to a hotel on the other side of the world the day before my actual reservation. Done it twice. I may be calendar-challenged.
#18
When we first moved to the US and barely knew any English, my mom got her first job and she became quite friendly with her first boss. I forgot the occasion but she bought her boss a greeting card that said “with sympathy”, which my mom didn’t [realize] was for the funeral. She thought it meant like with appreciation or something lol.
#19
Oh we got on a train in Bologna a few years ago, and a guy was in my seat. He insisted he wasn’t and the conductor guy came over and pointed out my ticket was for the following day. Wow. It was an express, so at the next stop we had to buy tickets back to Bologna, walk back to our place where we’d dropped the key at the office and explain we needed it back. It was a three week trip and I’d just totally lost track of the days.
#20
A year abroad in Italy four guys sharing an apartment and we had maids who would sweep everyday and change sheets and give you a clean towel and dishrag once a week. I became really close to the maids and they came in one day after we just finished having a dinner party for all of our friends to mop. The maid burst out laughing when she saw my roommate drying the dishes with what was apparently the bidet towels they provided weekly.
#21
I brushed my teeth with hemorrhoid cream at my host’s house in Sweden, many years ago, thinking it was toothpaste.
I also made a caviar and jelly sandwich with the paste caviar from the metal tube, thinking it was peanut butter.
This was before unlimited international data on smart phones :).
#22
I accidentally joined a Spanish tour group in Budapest. It was my last day there and no way I could change to an English group because there were none that day. I definitely do not look like I speak English (Asian) so I had to follow along and act like I did. When people looked up, I looked up. When people giggled I giggled ?? I got through it but the whole experience makes me chuckle.
#23
Exact same thing happened to me in a small town in Czech Republic, went to the check out with a head of cabbage thinking you are charged for a head not by the weight of it. Lady said something to me in czech and instead of saying to her “I don’t speak czech” I proceeded to go back to veggie section looking for a head with a barcode on it. I returned with the same blank cabbage, it was then I confessed I was a foreigner and had absolutely no idea what she was saying, her colleague took the cabbage and then weighed it….what an idiot I felt like.
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