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Hey Pandas, What’s The Most Embarrassing Foreign Language Fail You’ve Experienced Or Heard Of?
I’ll go first—when my mom was in 8th grade, she had a Spanish class with a girl named Jenny (I changed her name because a) I can't remember it, and b) why would I want to embarrass her?). Anyway, something embarrassing happened to Jenny, and in the heat of the moment, she blurted out, "Estoy embarazada" (which means "I'm pregnant").
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#1
I was pretty green with my Japanese and was visiting my quite new in-laws and wanted to use a new term I learned, "ikemen", which roughly translates to cool guy. But I pronounced it "ikeman", because for some reason I focused on mnemonics for memory and men/man couldn't go wrong, right? Well, it roughly translates to attractive female genitals (well, I typed a much cleaner version than reality for censor reasons). I think MIL laughed harder than anyone else there. Good people I married into. :)
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#2
It doesn't involve a foreign language, but I was talking to a man who had had throat cancer, and had one of those things he'd hold up to his throat when he talked. I couldn't understand what he was saying, so he reached in his pocket for a small pad and pencil and wrote it down.
I couldn't read his handwriting.
#3
I can read Chinese characters (and know how to look up the ones I'm not sure about). I used to work with a guy who had a Chinese language tattoo and thought it read "Cool Dude". It actually read "Frozen Salami". I met another guy who had a Chinese language tattoo and thought it read "Expert Surfer". It actually read "Wet Pants".
#4
In college I was really attracted to this beautiful Puerto Rican young lady who lived in my dorm. I didn't know if she was interested in me as well, but I thought so. She and her best friend often spoke in Spanish to each other. She did not know that I was a straight-A Spanish student in high school and was taking advanced Spanish classes in college. I was nearly fluent. Hanging around them, she would talk to her BFF in Spanish about how much she liked me and wanted to go out with me. I used the things I heard from them in Spanish to gauge when to make my moves. It wasn't until we were dating for about two months that I told her that I spoke and understood Spanish. I read her some Pablo Neruda poetry in my very good Spanish accent. She was really mad/embarrassed for a couple of days when she realized that I had understood everything that she said about me early on. She got over it and we dated for about a year. That was over 40 years ago and we're still friends to this day. I guess this counts as a foreign language fail - but in a good way.
#5
I meant to say "ejection seat" but said "ejaculation seat." in english- my 1st/only language.
#6
Mdm. Degaulle at an embassy cocktail party in DC asked how she tolerated such hot weather: "I just have a nice cool douche" (French shower =douche)
#7
Oh, since someone mentioned Kennedy.
Carters translator did something worse in Poland.
So his translator said that Carter desires Poles carnally (Carter said he shares Poles desire for freedom), and that he is moving to Poland (instead of visiting).
#8
I have no aptitude for languages, none. While vacationing in Italy, my friends told me I was rude because I didn't try to say a few simple words in Italian. I promised to try. I got myself all hyped up. I was excited and nervous. I made a purchase, and the shopkeeper handed me my package and said, "Grazie." I confidently replied, "Ragu!" I meant prego, but I had blurted out the first spaghetti sauce that came into my head. My friends left me alone after that.
#9
I actually read this on TV Tropes some years ago. It's from their Blind Idiot Translation article.
Apparently Bic went to Latin America and mistakenly believed "embarazar" meant "to embarrass". The result? Billboards that told you their pens wouldn't leak in your pocket and make you pregnant.
I laughed my a*s off.
#10
In the early 1960s, President John F Kennedy went to West Berlin and said, "Ich bin ein Berliner." A 'Berliner' is apparently a doughnut. He should have said, "Berlinerisch" (or however it's spelled). This was told to me in the 1970s by a German friend in Toronto. He said the Berliners knew what JFK meant, so he wasn't corrected. (Please check when JFK went to West Berlin, if this is going to be used.)
#11
The class was told to describe in Swahili what they had done over the weekend. One guy and his friend had visited Mexico. He described checking out all the taco stands, looking for the best tacos. He knew no Swahili word for taco so he used the only word he had. The Swahili teacher s face got redder and redder. Seems there is the word taco in that language, it's slang for women of a certain profession.
#12
Ok in my language, Portuguese, we have two different verbs for "to live" one is "vivir" just like in Spanish. But we also have "morar" which is more like as in "I live in the red house". So I was flirting over text with this girl in Spanish I asked her how long she had lived in my city, except I wrote "mora" for "to live" and my phone auto-corrected that to "muere". So it came out something like "How long do you die in this city?" She was very confused, and I was very embarrassed "avergonzada".
#13
I used Google translate to get the word that in Polish means a type of suit, but for women (I honestly still don't know what the proper word is). It gave me "shingles".
So... Instead of asking the women I had a romantic interest in if she has this type of formal clothes, I asked her if she had shingles...
(The reason is actually that it word has double meaning both in Polish, and English. It is a proper translation when talking about roofs.)
#14
In Belgium we call a baguette (a long thin piece of bread, like a big stick about 2 feet long) a ’pain Français’ which means French bread. A friend of mine was on vacation in France and went into a bakery and asked a ’pain Français’ and the woman in the shop said...These are all French, Madame. (Çe sont tout des pains Française Madame). The right thing to ask for was a baguette or une ficelle which is a thinner version.
#15
American Professor teaching in Bulgaria, learned a couple of words and wanted to try ordering, on his own, a large drink at a restaurant. Instead, he somehow ordered "a large jerk-off" to the horror of pretty much everyone present. Thankfully, the waiter realized the Prof was a foreigner with a poor grasp of the language, and just smiled awkwardly.
#16
This is the worst story I have ever heard: So, estonian and finnish language are quite similar and we understand each others languages quite a bit, but the tricky part is, that as many words might sound exactly the same, they might mean totally different things. So here it is: there were some finnish businessmen visiting their estonian office and the local secretary wanted to be funny and brag how big office her boss has, so she told them, that her boss is "suur ruumi raiskaja", witch means in estonian: big waste of space but in finnish unfortunately, that he is a big raper of corps....
#17
A few years ago, I had a project with companies in several cities in Croatia. One of those cities was Pula - which, in Romanian slang, literally means "d**k". I tried my best not to burst into laughter during our first team meeting on zoom (especially since our Italian manager had a very melodic pronunciation :))).
Later, some logistics issues occurred with supplies for this city. This led to an internal joke, as my office mates would tease me that "it could only happen in Pula" :)))))
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What do you think ?
Willie D'Kay 14 hours ago
The most important thing to remember if you have an embarrassing language moment, be proud that you're attempting to communicate in a language you're not native with. And the other person will most likely find it charming and happy for the effort.
Dizzie D 19 hours ago
I had a boyfriend in my early twenties whose French was appalling but he tried his best. For some reason, on one trip to France, all day he just kept saying ‘aurevoir’ instead of ‘Bonjour’ to people every time he met them or entered a shop. It’s hilarious when you replace it with ‘goodbye!’ whenever you see someone. He shook hands with people too smiling ‘goodbye!’ in French. I kept reminding him and he kept forgetting. Doh.
Willie D'Kay 14 hours ago
The most important thing to remember if you have an embarrassing language moment, be proud that you're attempting to communicate in a language you're not native with. And the other person will most likely find it charming and happy for the effort.
Dizzie D 19 hours ago
I had a boyfriend in my early twenties whose French was appalling but he tried his best. For some reason, on one trip to France, all day he just kept saying ‘aurevoir’ instead of ‘Bonjour’ to people every time he met them or entered a shop. It’s hilarious when you replace it with ‘goodbye!’ whenever you see someone. He shook hands with people too smiling ‘goodbye!’ in French. I kept reminding him and he kept forgetting. Doh.
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