What's your most embarrassing language mistake?

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When I went on German exchange, I got locked in my exchange partner's bathroom because it had a key locking system and the key came out and I couldn't put it back in or something. I was in there for about half an hour before her family noticed me knocking on the door, and for some absurd reason I thought 'verloren' means locked, so I kept shouting "Ich bin verloren!"

Verloren means lost :sigh:

Reply 21

chrisxuk

Not my mistake, but a friends:

Teacher: "Tom, what does Ich liebe dich mean in english?"
Tom: "I love dick."

Reply 22

Joshalos

I know someone who went on a french exchange was asked if they wanted any more dinner to which they replied (in french) 'No thanks, It was lovely but I'm pregnant,' as opposed to full. >.< Needless to say, he got some very good laughs out of them, especially considering his gender.

Reply 23

SolarElephant

Original post by digforfire

Ok, first of all sorry if this has been done already!

My parents moved to France about six years ago but didn't know the language prior to moving out there. They told me a story that made me chuckle the other day about their first time in France, when they were looking for a hotel.
They saw a big sign saying "Hotel de Ville" (which actually means town hall in French) and decided to go in. My mum said the woman behind the reception desk looked totally confused when my mum went in and asked (in her very broken French) if they had a bedroom.

What are other people's stories about linguistic mishaps?

When I was called for dinner, shouting down the stairs to the entire French side of my family including grandparents that I was orgasming when in fact I meant I was coming.

What is there to even neg about this...? How about explaining

(edited 12 years ago)

Reply 24

SolarElephant

Original post by SmallTownGirl

When I did work experience in the French department of my old school on poor year 7 said 'I do my dog' rather than 'I play with my dog'. When I laughed and told her about her mistake she went bright red. Bless her.

Maybe she hadn't made a mistake...

Reply 25

098

Yeah, loads of students probably say this all the time without realising but the classic French one is pronouncing 'beaucoup' as 'beau-COO' which means you have a beautiful arse...

Reply 26

defuzion

A few days ago actually, when I buckled and said ''F***, my arse'' but the comma was not understood phonetically so it was an awkward moment

Reply 27

098

Oh, also I told my German friend about my Christmas party as 'Weinachtspartei' and she fell about laughing as I was talking about a 'Christmas political Party', apparently. (I'd vote for them....)
Apparently the word for party is party. Why did I bother?!?!!

Reply 28

qwertyuiop1993

Original post by astroju

When I was still learning English, I didn't know how how to say "rapé" in English (means "grated"), so I originally thought "fromage rapé" would be "raped cheese" :colondollar:

Haha that would have been hilarious to witness :smile:

But then again that's the joy of language learning - you get used to making a fool of yourself and after the initial embarrassment you can look back and laugh with your friends (or random people on thestudentroom) :biggrin:

Reply 29

HistoryNerdx

Well my school is a language college so we have exchange students coming from Italy.
I had to be a guide to one of the italian students and when i met her she just shook my hand and said 'Grazia'. I thought this was like a slang for hello, not knowing that it was her name and throughout the whole day i would say to the other italian students 'Grazia' thinking that it meant hello. She just stood beside me the whole time looking like this :K:

. The rest of the day was so awkward.

Reply 30

qwertyuiop1993

Original post by 098

Yeah, loads of students probably say this all the time without realising but the classic French one is pronouncing 'beaucoup' as 'beau-COO' which means you have a beautiful arse...

My French friend used to respond to"Merci beaucoup" with "De rien beau cul" - so i got used to the difference :biggrin:

Reply 31

TheMeister

When you're in Madrid, never call out for your Eastern European friend 'Marika'.... you'll get some queer looks

Reply 32

superwolf

Original post by TheMeister

When you're in Madrid, never call out for your Eastern European friend 'Marika'.... you'll get some queer looks

Reply 33

najinaji

Original post by defuzion

A few days ago actually, when I buckled and said ''F***, my arse'' but the comma was not understood phonetically so it was an awkward moment

Reply 34

Friar Chris

Probably replying to a German business partner of my dad's that 'er sagt, dass ich muss' - obviously in reference to the topic being discussed before this reply, but unfortunately somehow interpreted by the man as the slangier contraction of ich muss (zur Toilette) - 'He says that I need to take a pee'.

Reply 35

ladymarshmallow

I read about someone who said "I have 24 anuses" (or something along the lines of that), in Spanish

Reply 36

Hylean

Original post by lauren--c

A German guy in a club asked me if I was single and I said yes. Weeks later I realised he had actually asked if I was easy.

So, is the answer still yes then?

As for me, my Swedish teacher once had to ask me three times whether my cats and dogs got on. First time I thought she asked if I liked them, second time I thought she asked if they liked me.

Sadly, I can't think of any sexual or highly embarrassing mistakes. :sad:

Reply 37

Nalced

In Thailand and my Thai is ok, I know the words and vocab but I have no tonal ability.
I was trying to order a Banana Milkshake on Koh Samet but instead I ordered a Penis Milkshake, thankfully the woman understood what I was trying to order.

Reply 38

Craig_D

I have a Polish friend who ran a spoof news website. With the aid of Google translate, I commented on something that I was "a massive fan of [his] work", what I actually said was "I am a massive ventilator of your work." :sigh:

Reply 39

Left Hand Drive

Whilst eating dinner at a friends before we were going to Braehead shopping centre. His mum asked me if there was anything I was going for, I said "Dunno will probably get something from HIV!"