What's your funniest foreign language moment?

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joulupukki
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Post by joulupukki » Wed Jul 13, 2005 10:27 am

I was paying for something and I asked the cashier...
Saisinko pusin.

Saisinko = Can I have
Pussi = Carrier Bag
Pusi = Kiss (Slang)

I did that quite a lot until my wife was with me one day and pointed it out. I sometimes still like to play the dumb foreigner if the cashier is really hot - just to see what she does;) :wink:


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Richard
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Post by Richard » Wed Jul 13, 2005 11:15 am

penelope wrote:My worst was in France many years ago. We were talking about food - as usual - and how bad English food was (is???) I said I thought that one of the reasons English food was sooo bad was because they put so many additives and preservatives in it :oops: <---- (very) faux ami
:oops:
Could you explain this, apart from having no idea what faux ami means, I can't see anything funny/strange/embaressing in what you said.

*prepares to be embarassed by the simple explaination*
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loustau
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Post by loustau » Wed Jul 13, 2005 11:53 am

In French, "un préservatif" is a condom. It would explain the taste, though :wink:

"faux amis" refers to two words that are very similar between two languages but don't mean the same thing.
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Richard
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Post by Richard » Wed Jul 13, 2005 12:29 pm

loustau wrote:In French, "un préservatif" is a condom. It would explain the taste, though :wink:

"faux amis" refers to two words that are very similar between two languages but don't mean the same thing.
Ah, thanks for the explaination :)

I feel fairly sure, I was not the only one who had absolutely no idea what Penelope was on about :lol:
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Hank W.
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Post by Hank W. » Wed Jul 13, 2005 1:49 pm

You just haven't goten lucky in France :lol:

BTW if yiu searc faux amis = false friends theres a lot of them in various languages.
Cheers, Hank W.
sitting here like a lemon looking for a gin.
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Rosamunda
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Post by Rosamunda » Wed Jul 13, 2005 10:07 pm

Hank W. wrote:You just haven't goten lucky in France :lol:
Neither had I.... I was still in uni in the UK, in France on an industrial placement, and came out with this little gem in the middle of a very crowded open-plan office. I still get reminded of that day (over 20 yrs ago) when we have our DEC reunions.
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Paul_D
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Post by Paul_D » Wed Jul 13, 2005 10:12 pm

penelope wrote:I still get reminded of that day (over 20 yrs ago) when we have our DEC reunions.
Being a french person, I think I would have also reminded this one after 20 years :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:

/Paul
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micky
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Post by micky » Fri Jul 15, 2005 12:22 pm

These are my best performances in Finnish so far:

About two years ago I was bying some bread in one of the supermarkets in the railway station. I pointed to the bread in question, kiitos. Then I wanted a bag so I of course asked the nice lady for it: OLETKO SINA PUSSI? Translated ARE YOU A BAG?. I think she pretended not to hear...

Another time, same year in summer, we are visiting in-laws in Vuokatti. Very nice in-laws, I'm practicing my level 2 finnish, talking about my family (PERHE). Ops, bit of a slip: I'm asked where is your family now?. I answer: MINUN PERSE ON ITALIASSA Translated MY ASS IS IN ITALY.

Oh that was nice...
micky
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suru
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Post by suru » Fri Jul 22, 2005 2:48 pm

German being my strongest language, I only remembered the German word for biro when I wanted to ask my friend (female) for one. So I said "Lainaa mulle sun kulli!" She blushed and the guy sitting in front of us said, "Saat mun, mut vain lainaksi!". After all, it was funny. (kulli means dick)
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Sue90
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Post by Sue90 » Fri Jul 22, 2005 7:22 pm

suru wrote:German being my strongest language, I only remembered the German word for biro when I wanted to ask my friend (female) for one. So I said "Lainaa mulle sun kulli!" She blushed and the guy sitting in front of us said, "Saat mun, mut vain lainaksi!". After all, it was funny. (kulli means dick)
Oh, what a mistake ;) kulli and Kuli are almost the same, hm ^.~
Anybody here from Image too? ;)
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Northern_Light
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Post by Northern_Light » Fri Jul 22, 2005 9:48 pm

Soon after coming to Finland, i was at the mother-in-laws and I said I had to get home to feed the cat!

Minun täytty mennä kotiin syömään kissa!

She was quite amused. Haven't lived it down yet.

syödä = to eat
syöttää = to feed
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kebable
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funny story

Post by kebable » Fri Jul 29, 2005 1:59 pm

I'm a finn myself, and I found this great forum just a few days ago and this is my first post.

This is a true story that happened to my GF (now wife) about 10 years ago.

My wife was born in Moscow, Russia, but moved to Finland at age of 14 when her mother married a finn.
She went to the local R-kioski with her younger sister to see if they had any eggs. This time, a rare thing, there was a man working behind the counter and she walks to him asking in accented finnish: "Onko teillä munat?" :shock:

When the man just stares mouth open, she repeats the question... :shock: :shock:
not really understanding why he's just standing there...

This time my wifes younger sister, much more fluent in finnish, while laughing her a** off corrects the question: "Onko teillä kananmunia".

This time my wife understood what she had said and :oops:
Finland, my country!

Happy to chat with u in messenger..
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graham
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Post by graham » Fri Jul 29, 2005 4:59 pm

My hubby being the only one intelligent enough to learn Finnish in our family made a complete ass of himself last summer at a bbq....a woman had a beautiful dog that we had never seen before also she was a bit drunk, loud and as my mother would say a scrubber! So hubby walks up to her and asks her if she is a dog! She looked bloody furious but more with the fact that everyone was laughing because they all had the same opinion of her rather than hubbys language cock up!
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Nassebox
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Post by Nassebox » Fri Jul 29, 2005 8:29 pm

My paternal grandmother was from Germany. She once went to the market here and asked the butcher, "ONKO SINÄ SIKA?" She came home with a very good piece of pork.
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Clive
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Re: funny story

Post by Clive » Sun Jul 31, 2005 1:20 pm

kebable wrote:"Onko teillä munat?"
What does that mean?
No cube to the left of nothing is between two cubes.
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