funny thing about languages

When I first moved to Italy, I spoke very little Italian. One hot afternoon, I stopped for a gelato (ice cream). I got the strangest look from the cashier when I asked for pesce (fish) flavor. I meant to say the similar word pesche (peach). However, it was always a useful story to tell my language students to let them know that it's okay to make mistakes. :)

In Berlin I saw many signs saying "Trabi for rent". Of course, a trabi is an old East German car, but in Maltese it means babies!

We have a funny Maltese-English joke on language confusion.

A Maltese guy was working for the Royal Army and one day he didn't show up for work. The next day his chief called him into his office to enquire on what was the reason and in the end he told him "You may leave".
This guy went home and he didn't show up at work for the following two days and on the 3rd day when he showed up he was called in again and his chief asked him why he had been absent for 2 more consecutive days. The Maltese guy said that he was only obeying orders. After all it was him who said "Jumejn lif".

Jumejn lif (the -n is generally not pronounced) sounds almost exactly like "You may leave" but it means "two days leave".

And one last joke...

An new regiment of Australian soldiers arrived in Afghanistan and they met some Americans in Kabul. One American asked one of the Australians, "Did you come here to die?", and the Australian answered, "No, I came here yesterday".

#30 - foreverfreebird, At least you didn't say "sborra" for snow instead of neve like I did once. Sborra means sperm in Italian but in Maltese borra means snow. I knew about the difference and the more I tried to remember it not to make such a terrible mistake, the more I said it without realising one fine morning as I was looking at the snow-capped Mt Etna.

I once attended a business meeting with a collection of visiting dignitaries from Italy. Only one of them was fairly good with English, but only of a formal sort. (There was a translator) When we broke for the day, the group invited us to be their guests for an after-work drink. Sr. Formality courteously included me and the only other woman: "With the madams, of course!"

I got to explain to him why we were laughing so hard. He was a good sport about it, so I followed up by explaining the joke in "California, land of fruits and nuts."

So I am in Oaxaca, Mexico and they have something called Inter-Cambio. That is when an English speaking person and a Spanish speaking person get together and basically just slowly talk to each other so both people can practice learning the other language.

Depending on who you do this with sometimes it can work out pretty well.

I was doing this with a nice young man in a park in the city and he kept on saying the word "orale" which basically means "right on" or a close equivalent to that.

I would try to say a sentence in Spanish and if I did a decent job of it he would say "orale" with a lot of emphasis.

So after the fifth or sixth time that he said "orale" I said "orale" too.

But I was saying it so that he would help me spell it and help me pronounce it correctly. I was not really sure what the word meant at that point. It was more a question then an exclamation.

But he just kept on assuming that I was just saying "right on" again and again.

I would say "orale" and he would nod his head up and down a lot.

It was like some International Whos On 1st Abbot and Costello routine.

Finally I just was so damn frustrated, and also realizing how totally funny and absurd the situation was...I just said "No. No. The palabra (word) orale....Que Que Que?"

Somehow through my very clumsy Spanish he realized what I had been trying to say from the start and we both just broke up in giggles.

#35 -- I've told this story here before, but not in a long time. When I was first in Saudi Arabia, I saw a shop that had some clothesline, which I needed, outside it, but it was closed for prayer time. The Indian manager of the next shop down saw me waiting outside for it to reopen, and gestured to me to come to his shop (as I learned later). But his gesture for "come" was a downward motion of the hand, palm down, while mine would be upward, palm up. I interpreted his sign as meaning "Stay right where you are, the owner will be right back" and so I smiled and nodded and said yes, yes, which just got him repeating the gesture more and more vigorously while I tried to smile more broadly and nod more energetically. Before he exploded from frustration my guy returned.

I've never been entirely sure if it's true or if it's a "dad joke" but my father once told me that when he had just migrated to Australia from Italy, her saw the word "sale" used a lot in shops. He was a bit mistified as to why they sold 'salt' even at shoe shops or boutiques ('sale' means 'salt' in Italian).

I have a picture of sign from a restaurant in Turkey which very plainly says, "Sorry, We're Open".

orangutan - i believe the phonetic version of 'lemon' ran something along the lines of 'leu-mai-e' (forgive me anyone who speaks romanian! i've not been back in 6 yrs and am uber rusty).

the 'eu' is the closest i can get to explaining a really gutteral noise that comes from right at the back of your throat, for the a with the hat-like accent. to an english speaker the other sounds only subtly different, but it certainly made an impact!

i was dining with romanian friends who, after looking at me in complete shock for a couple of seconds, soon realised my error and broke down in giggles - they also helped me smooth out the confusion with the waiter (who either thought all his christmases had come at once, or that aussies are particularly forward!)

thank you for not being K.J! haha .. peace ^.^