What are your worst experiences of speaking a foreign language? (condo, wedding)

[deano23]

Have you ever had any really bad mid translations?

I was never good at Spanish so when the teacher asked me "what my name was in Spanish I panicked and repiled " ocho" meaning 8

[Return2FL]

Let's just say that mico has various meanings in Spanish, depending on which country you're in.

[Davy-040]

I used to go a Belgian middle school for 1 year and on my first day i asked the teacher if i could go to the toilet "voor te poepen"...
"poepen" in the Netherlands = to defecate, in Belgium it means having sexual intercourse.

[KathrynAragon]

I ordered knopf kase in Germany and found out when it was delivered to the table that yes - it is cheese. Head cheese. Which is not really cheese but actually is congealed bits of pig brain.

[BigCityDreamer]

Being told: "You're not too good at this, just stick to English."

lol

[rosa surf]

I was trying to buy a 'little shirt' at a stand in Rio de Janeiro but called it a condom. That was the most embarrassing thing ever, the man turned red. Lol

[saibot]

I've made plenty of mistakes in my time. The one that I stands out was when I was 15 and in Japan for the first time, staying with a Japanese family. I knew only a few words of Japanese but I was trying. The mother of the family brought out her gorgeous silk wedding kimono for me to see. I wanted to say how beautiful it was so I cried, "Kirai!" The whole family burst out laughing. Then I remembered that the word for "beautiful" is kirei, and kirai means "I hate it."

[viribusunitis]

Originally Posted by KathrynAragon

I ordered knopf kase in Germany and found out when it was delivered to the table that yes - it is cheese. Head cheese. Which is not really cheese but actually is congealed bits of pig brain.

Knopf Käse is button cheese. What you are thinking of is head cheese, which literally means Kopfkäse. That term doesn't exist in proper German, though.

[Greysholic]

Originally Posted by Davy-040

I used to go a Belgian middle school for 1 year and on my first day i asked the teacher if i could go to the toilet "voor te poepen"...
"poepen" in the Netherlands = to defecate, in Belgium it means having sexual intercourse.

Seems like you've always been horny since middle school lol.

[Joe90]

Don't think that I have had any bad experiences trying to speak a foreign language, but do have a memorable good experience of trying to speak Korean.