(M. Baisova)
“My German friend looked horrified when I told him to ‘break a leg’
before an important exam!”
(R. Chande)
“I used to tell everybody how badly constipated I was. ‘I have been
constipated the whole week’ I used to say when I was in the UK. I did not know that the meaning
of this word was quite different from ‘constipado’ in Spanish which means ‘to have a cold!!!!’”
(M. Miņana)
“My grandmother once said to my dad in the car, ‘This place ‘Ausfahrt’
must be HUGE- we've been driving past it for ages!" (Ausfahrt is in fact the German word for “motorway exit”).
(A.J. Booth)
“Friends of mine freshly arrived from France had a car breakdown. They spoke very little English and at the gas station
/ garage asked for a ‘candle’ – whereupon the employee looked at them in a funny way and said that he sold
no candles but that the drugstore next door might have some (actually, my friends merely needed a spark plug – a ‘bougie’
in French – which is, literally translated, a ‘candle’)”
(M. Halt)
“Food shopping can be fun when you are looking for eggs and don't know
the word - I leave the rest to your imagination!!!!”
(R. Sale)
“My English friend meets her Mexican boyfriend’s parents for the
first time and the first words that she utters are ‘estoy embarazada’ which she thought translated to ‘I’m
embarrassed’ (for not speaking more Spanish)” when really it means ‘I’m pregnant’”.
(M. Dubois)
If you enjoyed these you can find many more in our forthcoming book about learning languages. Check back frequently at www.getfluentfast.com for further information.
