I love that Liebling and I are a bi-cultural couple. I’ve had much fun learning about the German language and the German way of life, and have enjoyed teaching Liebling about Canadian and Jamaican cultures.
With regards to language, since my German is nowhere near good enough to have a conversation, and as Liebling doesn’t speak French or Spanish, Liebling and I have no choice but speak English to one another. While his English is phenomenal, he’s not a native speaker, and that has made for some pretty funny linguistic misunderstandings.
Like recent Skype conversation about me reintroducing certain foods into my diet now that my stomach infection is almost gone and I am feeling a lot better:
Me: So I think that I should probably add more fibre to my diet.
Liebling: Fiver? Fiver? What is fiver?
Me: No fiBre, with a “B”. Fibre.
Liebling: Oh, Fibre. But I still don’t understand. What is fibre?
Me *big sigh*: Um, I dunno… You know, FIBRE. Like whole grains, and bran and…and.. you know.. STUFF. Stuff that… makes you go to the bathroom.
Liebling *who by this time has typed fibre into google and has found the German translation*: Ohhhhhh, fibre. I know what it is. It’s the stuff that makes your testicles better.
Me *about to die of laughter*: WHAT?! No babe, I don’t think you mean testicles, that’s not the right word *about to choke since I am laughing so hard*
Liebling *puzzled look on his face*: Why do you laugh?
Me: Babe, testicles- that’s not the right word. Testicles are… you know…ahem… Balls.
Liebling: What?
Me*gesturing wildly*: You know, balls. The ones next to…erm…the penis. Only men have them. I think the word you’re looking for is… “intestine“.
Liebling: Oh….
-end scene-
Now, guys, how adorable is this man?!? While I’ve never heard of anybody mixing up “testicles” and “intestines”, in some strange way I can understand why he made this mistake. Too funny!
Have you (or somebody you know) ever had a linguistic slip-up like this? I know some of my
readers out there are living abroad and/or in a bi-cultural relationship, and I’m certain something similar has probably happened to you, so spill the beans!
65 Comments
It's always an adventure to talk to someone who may not pick up on the nuances of English language as a native speaker. I have a friend that is from Burkina Faso in Africa and we were giving her a party on NYE this year as a way to celebrate her getting her green card, I'm in the U.S. It was a dance party and I started to talk about the music I was including, I said something about the Black Eyed Peas, the group and she goes, 'oh you're to bring black eyed peas to eat at the party'. And I was no I mean the group and then my little brother goes, oh I thought you talking about actual black eyed peas too. LOL.
That conversation between you two is very funny. And you two are awfully cute together.
OMG! That sounds like the conversations I have with my German friends all the time. All the time. While I was in Germany, I was daily given or giving weird looks. They would always use this german conversion to english program that I think did a poor job interpreting depending on the conversation. Aw, I love it! Classic V and w's are the worst. I have to say it was pretty challenging for me also. The town I lived in, Korwesthein-I used to pronounce the w as a w instead of v (forgetting this of course) and I used to get weird looks ALL THE TIME when I said or told people where I lived. Even now, my German friends who live here say things and I try to mildly correct. I LOVE it though. Good times.
I have a story. In Brazil, you have to go to the bank to break large bills (like 100's) cause none of the stores ever have change. The verb for "to change" is trocar, and people call change (money wise) troca. Now, a similar verb is transar, which means "to braid", but is used as slang for "to have sex".
So I go into the bank,wave a 100 Brazilian real bill where I should of asked "Voce tem troca"(Do you have change)but instead asked "Voce tem transa" (Do you have sex). I was so confused as to why the teller (a young male) was looking at me funny, but he realized what I wanted and geve me change.
It was not until later when I was telling my Brazilian friends what I said that I realized my mistake!
Actually ”trançar”[ss] means ”to braid”. ”Transar” [z] has only the sexual meaning. And the change is called ”troco” it is a masculine word.
I understand the confusion. I’m Brazlian and I had never thought about these similarities!
Interesting.
Goshhhh!!!!Oneika, YOU REALLY JUST MADE MY DAY FOR AN EARLY SATURDAY.
This is so funny ( lollllll).
I almost choked when I was laughing by reading this and people around me think that I am crazy because they just don't know what I am laughing about.
You go girl!!!
I've a francophone friend from Côte d'Ivoire who makes me giggle constantly with his English mishaps. Little things:
ThankS God instead of thank God
A-ree-rees instead of arrears
But my favorite was when he complained about the cold here in Indiana and said he needed some "Long John Silvers" to keep his legs warm. Long John Silver is a fast food seafood restaurant. The correct term is Long Johns – meaning long underwear or thermal underwear. I howled for a good minute before I corrected him. It's OK he laughs at my french all the time.
It's always good when both parties can be good sports about their linguistic mishaps.
I love this story. It happens with Matt and I all the time, it actually happened when I tried to explain the story to him.
LOL!! This sounds like the type of hilarious confusing conversations I have with my friend from Rome!!!
This is hilarious and adorable! 😀
I have a story:
A language mishap took place during one of my first conversations with my ex-boyfriend, who was Spanish. We were still trying to get to know each other, trying to find common ground and relate to each other. He was enthusiastically telling me that he loved English music, and that one of his favourite songs was "Over the Window."
"Over the Window? I don't know that one," I told him.
He was incredulous – "It's from a very famous movie! The one that's in colour and black and white at the same time!"
So I asked him to hum it to me and it turned out that he meant Over the Rainbow. 😛
I was like, "Ah, that makes sense – because, you see, if the song really was called 'Over the Window' then it would be about suicide! No te pongas 'over the window', ok?" 😀
DWL this is too funny. Chile in Japan it is bad. My Jamaicans and I have a running joke with the word for persimmon in Japanese(kaki). The other one girl went on how she loves kaki we almost died because you that is penis in Patois. The best one all my kids get wrong is " Can I shit down here". They can't say sit to save their lives. Too many examples here but that conversation with your man is hilarious.
OMG, I nearly peed myself laughing so hard!!! Your poor Liebling!
It would take me forever and a day to recount the language mishaps between me and D.
His English is wonderful but sometimes things just don't compute or something. It makes me realize that there are so many nuances that we take for granted in our mother language. Eh bien, so it goes.
hats funny. i am in japan and i can't really speak the language well but most people speak just japanese. so i have no choice but to try a ting. being that the japanese word for train is 'densha' and the word for phone is 'denwa' i made a mistake and instead of telling a japanese lady that i can't speak to her now because i was inside a train, i ended up telling her that i am inside the phone. needless to say there was an awkward pause after. guess she was wondering what kind of crazy foreigner she was talking to.
Oh my gosh, I just laughed hysterically. I can only imagine your face when he said "testicles" instead of intestines! Poor Liebling, I'm sure he had no idea why you were laughing so hard at first!
lol too funny! I dated a guy from norway once so I understand the v w mix up but I dont think I have any stories like that. I'm curious, how did you meet.
haha thats hilarious!
Very sweet! i love that he even went on google to find out the translation for fibre!
Brilliant!
Oh, Oneika this is too funny, good laugh for a Monday! I'm glad you figured out what he was trying to say because testicles and intestines is kind of a stretch to discern. Your beau is cute for checking the word on google, I'm an addict with google translation. I've had this happen to me while travelling and even in Toronto given that city is so diverse and everyone speaks a gazillion languages. I get it though, so many words sound the same or are written the same way in different languages but mean completely different things. It just doesn't compare- a native speaker will always know the settle nuances of a language. I'm glad you can eat more solid foods, even if they do have a lot of fibre. Now, you can pack on the pounds!
That's adorable! I was once at a friend's house having dinner with her and her parents who were visiting town from Italy. Her mother didn't know any English but her father knew a few words and phrases here and there. While at the dinner table my friend's father asks "Do you love your mother?" I started laughing hysterically and quickly discovered that he meant, "Do I live with my mother."
P.S, interesting that you spell fiber, fibre. In US, we spell it fiber 🙂 I love learning cultural differences
-Jessica
http://www.mypeacelovetravel.com
@Flaming_star: Thank you!
@Rhona: ohmigosh, Liebling, for the life of him, cannot say the English w. I don't think he'll ever be able to, and I'm glad because it's so adorable!
@Mae: LOL! Too funny! It reminds of the verb "embarrasar" in Spanish: In Mexico I would say "soy embarrasada" because I was "embarrassed" about my poor Spanish, but in reality "soy embarrasada" means I'm pregnant, so you KNOW I got some stares. Also, "coger" in Spain Spanish means "to take" but in Mexico Spanish it means "to have sex"… I have made that mistake a few times as well!
@Nathanz: I was DYING of laughter when this happened!
@aunaptural: awwww!! Especially with the cute French accent- so endearing!
@Kourt: That's cute!
@Ugomma: Anything specific you care to share?? 🙂
@Xtine: LOL. Poor baby.
@kimvan: Oh gosh! "I loooooove kaki"…LOL Reminds me of when my friend went to lunch at an Indian restaurant with her colleagues and somebody tried to order the "punani pudding"… LOL!
@tanya: I hear ya! There are all kinds of crazy misunderstandings with me and my French friends as well. In the end, it makes the cultural exchange so much more fun.
@ehto: Kudos to you for learning Japanese! My Cantonese is sorely lacking (read: non-existent).
@mama: He had absolutely no idea, poor thing. Then again, I usually laugh maniacally for no reason so he probably thought I was just going crazy again… 😉
@liveletlive: Oh really? I've never really heard Norwegian, so I had no idea that they have that same "v" and "w" issue like the Germans.
@Samantha: Glad I was able to make you laugh!
@Jessica: Your story is too cute! Also, you know what? I'm pretty sure I spelled "Fiber" wrong and that it should be "Fibre"! I'm been living outside of North America too long… 🙂
Aww, this is so cute and so funny!
Of course, working with the French middle-schoolers creates linguistic situations that are funny, but I get sad because I have no one to share them with at the moment (the kids won't get it). I mean, yesterday, a little girl asked if I like "Horse living." Haha, instead of horse riding. And the "I am dog" instead of "I have got a dog" is great, too.
Haha, I truly laughed out loud as I read the conversation. Growing up with parents who immigrated from and former British colony, I sometimes had funny misunderstandings because of their accents and also because they learned "Queen's English" as opposed to California English which was what I grew up with!
@Erika: aww! the mistakes of little kids who are learning english are so cute! i remember that i used to babysit for a british/french couple in france,and their little son used to mix up french and english all the time.
@girlunstoppable: i know what you mean! my grandpa was from jamaica (which was a british colony until 1962) and used to say all these "weird" words that i didnt understand due to his accent and lack of context on my part!
This was a very sweet, and funny, story. About 15 years ago, I travelled to Istanbul, fell in-love, stayed for three years (taught English), got married, and returned home with my Turkish husband. His English was good then, and is so good now, I cant' remember any of the funny stories now. I wish I would have written them down!
Congrats on getting featured! I love your blog.
This is the story of my life. After 22 years with my husband, let me just say that new fun mixups happen all the time! The important thing is to laugh together about them!
LOL oh my gosh..seriously that is the funniest thing I have read in a long time. You are a beautiful couple..and seriously funny 🙂
Stopping by from SITS!
That was hysterical to read, I can only imagine how funny it was to live. I work with a large Spanish and Navejo speaking population in my ER. We often have the same language mishaps.
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