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The Internet Can’t Stop Laughing At These 40 Language Oopsies Made By Immigrants And Travelers
We can probably all agree that learning a new language isn't the easiest thing in the world. At the same time, it's a very good way to spend your time, as being multi-lingual can be very beneficial in the long run.
Also, using your non-native language can put you in some funny situations that later turn into amusing stories you can tell at every party. That's where our focus is today - funny stories of people using foreign languages and failing entertainingly.
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#1
I was in Ecuador on a missionary trip with my church, I over dressed one day and was burning up but had nowhere to put my jacket and sweater. I asked over and over at every store I walked by, every street vendor, anywhere for a bag, but I called it “bolsa” (I’m Puerto Rican, thats how we say it). No one hooked me up, most times people waled away with a face of disgust. Again and again I kept asking for a big bag, because I only had a tiny bag at the time. The local pastor that we met heard me at one point and ran to me, told me to keep quiet and then asked me what I needed… my response, a bolsa… a bag. Apparently you have to ask for a “funda”, in that country I was pretty much asking for a sack of mens balls. Literal balls. So I walked around saying “do you have balls? My balls are too small and I need big balls”. Good times.
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#2
For years, I used the expression “up yours” as a congratulatory phrase, and nobody corrected me. Be nice to your foreigners. Correct them when they are wrong.
For a better understanding of the language-learning process, Bored Panda reached out to Swedish linguist Fredrik Arhusiander. He agreed to share his insights about the topic.
He said that the biggest mistake you can make when learning a new language is to focus on your mistakes! “When we learn our native language as children, we don't think about mistakes. We just use whatever we know to play and communicate. We only start worrying about mistakes when we start school and have tests.”
If you think you’re bad at learning languages, Fredrik has a different opinion. In such cases, the reality is usually that the methods for learning languages are bad. For example, learning only by reading textbooks and studying grammar is not a natural way to learn a language. “I personally had really bad grades in Spanish, but later, when I learned the language using much more natural methods, I [became] fluent.”
#3
When I was learning English I thought having an affair meant to fight, because when I saw having an affair on TV the people were always fighting. Had to write an essay for my English class about a typical morning, and wrote how my mom was having an affair with my brother
#4
I am Canadian. My husband is Australian. Family friend flew over from Australia and offered to nurse a Canadian woman’s baby on the plane. The Canadian very firmly told her “no thanks”. She didn’t understand why the woman was so offended. In Australia when they say nurse a baby, it means to hold. In Canada when we say nurse a baby, it means to breastfeed. We still laugh about it.
Talking about the steps of learning languages, Fredrik says that when we’re kids, we learn languages by listening and communicating, becoming fluent before we even start to write or read. In the adult world, the studying of grammar is needed. Still, the importance of the natural learning approach should not be underestimated: “Focus on how you can spend more time with the language, what you enjoy about it, [and] how you can make sure it's going to be an integrated part of your life. Anyone who [has] actually learned a language will realize that this is how they learned.”
The linguist says that focusing and listening to informal dialogue is very important. “Only after you've learned the sounds, you should start to read. You don't have to talk in the beginning. It's much easier to learn to talk after you already understand a bit.”
#5
So, my beautiful little German grandmother and wife of a minister… asked (in front of a whole group of people at church) a friend that had recently gotten married… if he enjoyed using his dads condom on his honeymoon. She meant condo… condominium.
#6
Was ordering dinner in Danish in Denmark, the word for chicken is "kylling", but as an American I pronounced it as "killing" which translates into "kitten" - so the waitress at the restaurant was a bit horrified at my request for BBQ baby cat 😂
You don’t have to tackle the grammar heavily in the beginning, as well. It’s better to first focus on the words and try to notice grammatical patterns. According to Fredrik: “As soon as you get a decent grasp of the language, make most of your studies about getting lots of input at your level. Find material you enjoy. People think you have to take courses and do exercises, but simply spending lots of time with the language, finding things you enjoy, and getting lots and lots of exposure and input, that's what's going to give you most of your understanding.”
Lastly, if you want to reach a high level of the studied language, you have to be brave enough to speak to people in it. Build relationships in that language.
Also, connecting with the culture of the language can be very beneficial, as well. Disconnecting from it can make the journey of learning way harder than it should be. So, in some cases, it might require you to put more effort into connecting with that culture if you want to learn the language. But learning a language doesn't require much effort, right?
#7
I was going to college in the US when I saw a sign “beware of the pedestrians” and I asked the people I was with what kind of animal a pedestrian is.
#8
I went to Spain with my husband and kept saying “escuchame!” Thinking I was saying “excuse me” And he would die laughing every time. He finally told me I was saying “LISTEN TO ME!” To everyone
LakotaWolf (she/her) 11 months ago
Oh lawd XD I’m white af but I was adopted at birth into a Mexican family, so I learned English and Spanish. I am endlessly amused by the “just add an o on the end!” misconception that some people have thinking that that is how you say a word in Spanish. So like, “Where is the bathroom-o?” and they think they’re “speaking Spanish” XD
At some point during the language-learning process, it’s natural to start questioning if it is worth doing that at all. After all, it requires so much effort, and sometimes, it might feel like you’re not moving ahead fast enough. Well, in such cases, you can remember several ways in which the learned language might benefit your life:
- Career prospects;
- Getting to know other cultures;
- Stretching the brain;
- More opportunities around the globe;
- Meeting people.
Maybe at least one of these benefits might seem worth the effort? Or maybe you can come up with some other ways that languages are beneficial? Share that with us in the comments!
#9
In a business context I once asked a colleague for a favour and added « do I need to do doggy style » (instead of doggy eyes) the whole open space burst in laughter. I didn’t even know what it meant at the time so was very confused but I blushed really hard once the colleague explained in the coffee area 🤔😬🥴
#10
I was a high school exchange student in Germany and was eating dinner with my host family. I tried Liver for the first time. I explained it was “mushy”….l didn’t know that Muschi in German slang meant Pus*y. My host family stared at me in shock.
#11
When living in China I raised my arms to adjust my hair and accidently smacked a little kid in the face. I told him "you're welcome" instead of "I'm sorry." Lol.
#12
A little kid dressed as a dinosaur roared at me in Peru and I said 'tengo mierda' (I have [poop]) instead of 'tengo miedo' (I'm scared). Whoops.
#13
Join a few friends for lasertag when I moved to Germany. Random kids would come to me pointing their guns and they would shout Kartoffel (potato). I had no idea why, just assumed it was slang toall someone you just hit a potato 🥔. So I started doing the same. Bang bang and Kartoffel here and Kartoffel there. I was the queen of the potatos! During one of the breaks a friend ask: hey, why do you keep shouting Kartoffel (potato)? I explained, that was what the kids were saying. My friend first rolled his eyes than he laughed! Turns out the kids were saying 'getroffen' (Hit) 🎯 But my German was still so basic all I heard was potatoes!
#14
Horrified look on cleaning lady's face when I told her I wanted to whack her (pegar) instead of pay her (pagar). Did it with a big smile all proud of myself. When she recovered we had a big laugh.
#15
100% true story - upon arriving in the UK from Canada I started telling potential new friends about my family enjoying the Canadian pastime of “cottaging”, which for us means “going to your or a friend’s country home to swim and waterski and build bonfires and stuff”. They looked at me aghast because in the UK it means “having gay sex in a public bathroom”. We DID become friends anyway.
#16
When I first moved to the Netherlands, I had a Dutch bf who spoke English very well, but some things got lost in translation. I didn’t speak Dutch at the time, and one day he said his hairdresser friend was quitting her job to become an undertaker. I was shocked and asked why she chose such a drastic career change, and he said, she wants to work for herself and loves making people look beautiful. I thought ok good for her I guess, and we never spoke about it again. It wasn’t until years later (long after we’d broken up) and I’d become fluent in Dutch when I realized, oh…the Dutch word for “entrepreneur” literally translates into “undertaker” (ondernemer). She didn’t want to embalm dead bodies, she wanted to open her own hair salon.
#17
I was in Dominican Republic with an ice cream cone and a local street boy was eyeing up my ice cream, I was calling him over to give it to him but he was getting close and running away over and over, my Dominican friends said I was mispronouncing the words to call him over and instead was shouting “I’ll cut you, I’ll cut you” so he thought I was saying I’ll cut you if you come near my ice cream while I was making gestures to hand it to him repeatedly😂 😂😂 he did end up grabbing the cone and running full top speed away, pretty risky to take ice cream from a foreign woman yelling she will cut you, he must have really wanted that ice cream 😂😂😂
#18
When my first son was a toddler I thought “맴매“ meant dirty in Korean. So we’d be at the park and I would caution him something was dirty. Finally when he was like 2.5 my Korean mom friend told me it actually meant spanking. I’d been threatening to spank my toddler in front of other mothers for years. 😑
#19
When I moved to the UK, whenever I got hungry I told people I was "ravishing" instead of "ravenous". I guess they assumed I just had excellent self esteem 😂
#20
Ooh I have a fun one. I studied abroad in France. Turns out “preservatif/preservative” in French does not mean preservatives like you find in foods, it means condoms. Have never been met with such confused silence in my life.
#21
When I moved to Hawaii I worked at a bank telephone bill service. Japanese woman called in and every question I asked her she’d respond “HI”, to which I replied HELLO every single time. 😩 I hung up and told my Asian coworker how nice that woman was. I died when she told me she was responding YES in Japanese. 😂😂😂
#22
A French-Canadian friend of ours told a great stories from when he was learning English. My favourites were his use of ‘skinny pig’ instead of ‘guinea pig’ and ‘spacegoat’ instead of ‘scapegoat’—both used in business meetings, btw. 😂
Terry Tobias 11 months ago
I like "spacegoat"! I can just picture a goat in a spacesuit doing a spacewalk around the space station! 🐐
#23
A friend of a friend had moved to the UK from Sweden and had an English boyfriend. In the UK we're quite liberal with curse words and the bf and his mates would liberally use a word beginning with c amongst themselves. The girlfriend thought it was just a cheeky bit of slang like 'mate'. Found it wasn't when having dinner with bf's parents, the mother made a little joke at the girlfriend's expense to which she responded "Ha, shut up you c**t!"
Der Kommissar 11 months ago (edited)
In the UK c**t is used frequently and is a mild curse . In the USA it is a very bad curse word.
#24
In South Africa we call traffic lights 🚦 Robots. You can imagine the confusion on the drivers face when I said turn left at the robots when I first arrived in the U.K. 😱😂
#25
When I went to see a friend at Cambridge University a parent of another student asked me what I read. Bewildered I answered "books". Turns out, it's fancy English to ask what one studies. 😅
#26
I was still improving my French after moving to Tunisia and was at a friend's house with a bunch of her relatives. They were asking me about my then boyfriend and asked "il est d'où ?" (Where is he from? I.e. which region). I understood "il est doux ?" (Is he gentle?). I thought it was a bit of a strange personal question, but answered "yes, sometimes". They all had a good laugh.
#27
Told my dad that no nut November was cutting out nuts from your diet to raise awareness for nut allergies, he's been telling everyone that he managed a whole month of no nut November!
#28
My Dad is Norwegian and made a few blunders when he first moved to the US. 1. He was at a classical concert and said to the people he went with “see you after the intercourse” instead of intermission. He was so embarrassed he did not return. Which probably made it even more embarrassing 😂😂😂. 2. Having a meal he said “my teeth are running in water”. Which is literally what we say in Norway for “my mouth is watering”. Not embarrassing but still funny 😄
#29
I have some similar doozies in my book. When we immigrated to America from the former USSR, we didn’t speak English and also didn’t understand that you just can’t abbreviate certain words. My mom was a microbiologist working in a lab and had to leave a note for her lab assistant. She started the note with Dear Lab A*s.., because she was in a rush. Next day she was very confused why that assistant wouldn’t speak with her 😂
John George 11 months ago
I've seen "assorted" abbreviated to hilarious effect..."a*s(orted) fudge"...
#30
A female friend who's quite senior in advertising has been using 'balls deep' liberally for years, thinking it just meant 'lets do this' and was genuinely mortified when someone explained the actual meaning
#31
I lived in Canada for few years now and at the tim hortons I always ordered bagel with ‘urban garlic cream cheese’ and they always got the order right but last week I bought a cream cheese that said ‘ herb and garlic’ no one ever corrected me and I just believed it might be some type of Garlic 🫣
#32
My godmother was invited to her neighbor's house for a pot party. She thought they meant like a potluck. She was the only one who brought food. 😂
#33
When I was in the hospital almost 19 years ago for alcoholism, my husband came to visit me. When he went up to the desk, the worker asked if he needed validation. His first thought was, "Tell me I'm good!" It had been a rough few days since I was hospitalized. I've been sober since February 14, 2005
#34
i have one! spanish is my second language and i use it at work sometimes if i need to. i was talking to a husband and wife from venezuela holding their newborn baby and i was asking her about breastfeeding/milk expression. i used teta for breast because i had known it to mean that? lol like i didn’t know in some countries it means titty. so they get really wide eyes and the husband says so me “esa palabra es un poco grosera, no?” meaning that’s a little crude, isn’t it? okay so the right term is pecho 😐 but then weeks later i had a family from argentina and the grandmother used teta! so i told her the story and she laughed and laughed and said to them it’s not vulgar but it is in other countries. now i know 🙊
Ace 11 months ago
Argentinian Spanish is a law unto itself, with hugely different pronunciations and word usage even from neighbouring Chile, with often both of them varying hugely from Spain and from other Latin American countries. So that one doesn't surprise me, but I would have expected them to realise that it had different connotations in other places, such that they would not be offended by its use.
#35
On my second year here someone told me they’re having a hard day because they had to put the cat to sleep. I asked why couldn’t she sleep by herself?
#36
oh yes I remember my first time in the US, I was 16. I was by myself in a mall, and had to pee. I looked everywhere, on every floor..Nothing. All I could find was signs for chill out room, "restroom". when i finally found the Toilet, I had learned a New word :)
Tucker Cahooter 11 months ago
I had a similar experience many years ago, not a foreigner / local situation but a civilian / military difference. I was spending a few days at a naval establishment (HMAS Cerberus) doing some IT work. I spent ages trying to find the toilets until I realised they still called them "heads" just like on actual ships (fortunately I twigged in time)
#37
I’m from the US..I visited my friends in Scotland for some time and after the first night staying with them, in the morning my friend asked “how was your lay?” I was so embarrassed thinking that she thought I brought someone home. I guess that’s how they ask how you slept
#38
I’m English and was working in a theme park store in the states, a customer asked how many dollars for a pack of postcards, I said in my Essex accent, free (3), she walked out with a whole bunch, had to chase her down and explain it’s my accent, they’re not free 😂😂
#39
More cultural barrier than language barrier. On the train I overheard some Americans “digestive biscuits… do those really work?”
Mrs.C 11 months ago
This is one, as an American, I struggle with. Turns out, that's exactly why they're named "Digestives." The term digestive is derived from the belief that they had antacid properties around the time the biscuit was first introduced due to the use of sodium bicarbonate as an ingredient. Historically, some producers used diastatic malt extract to "digest" some of the starch that existed in flour prior to baking.
#40
When I was in Spain and spoke limited Spanish, I was in a public restroom asking anyone if there was any “sopa” for “soap” instead of “jabón.” Maybe the same day I ordered lasagna from a beachside restaurant, and nobody brought me silverware to eat it with. I couldn’t remember the word for “fork,” “spoon,” or “silverware,” and I was too embarrassed to pantomime, so I just ate it with my bare hands and then went into the ocean to wash my hands like that was normal. 😅
What do you think ?
Der Kommissar 11 months ago (edited)
My cousin who moved to USA from Europe thought "downtownelleh" was the name of a city when in fact people were saying "downtown L.A. "
Céline Remy 11 months ago
I have two similar stories. The first is from an italian friend who came to study in Brussels, saying to his flatmates that he 'understood a tomato' : "j'ai compris", for "ho comprato" (I bought). I couldn't recount that story without laughing for years. The other one was me and my bestie travelling to Uzbekistan, having learned a modicum of both uzbek and russian. We would ask for the price in what we thought was uzbek, and be frustrated when the answer came in russian, because we only knew the numbers in uzbek. Turns out we were asking in russian... it took us some days to realise that.
Der Kommissar 11 months ago (edited)
My cousin who moved to USA from Europe thought "downtownelleh" was the name of a city when in fact people were saying "downtown L.A. "
Céline Remy 11 months ago
I have two similar stories. The first is from an italian friend who came to study in Brussels, saying to his flatmates that he 'understood a tomato' : "j'ai compris", for "ho comprato" (I bought). I couldn't recount that story without laughing for years. The other one was me and my bestie travelling to Uzbekistan, having learned a modicum of both uzbek and russian. We would ask for the price in what we thought was uzbek, and be frustrated when the answer came in russian, because we only knew the numbers in uzbek. Turns out we were asking in russian... it took us some days to realise that.
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