What's your funniest foreign language moment?

[kebable]

"Onko teillä munat?"

What does that mean?

ah yes, forgot to explain it in above.. sorry about that.
Kananmuna = chicken egg
Muna = also egg, a.k.a the "third leg".

"onko teillä munat" means roughly: "do you have balls..."

[scoobymcdoo]

yksi, kaksi, kolme, neljä, viisi, kusi

Hannah

[Nassebox]

"Onko teillä munat?"

What does that mean?

It means, "Do you have balls?"

If you want to ask "Do you have eggs?", it's "Onko teillä munia?"

EDIT: Sorry, didn't realize someone already answered this on the next page!

[Hank W.]

It has also a slignt nuance difference to ask, "onko teillä munat" vs. "onko teillä munaa" ~ do you have balls (in general, at all) vs. do you have the balls (to do something). Now of course the poor girl marching up and saying "saisinko munaa" would have been equally embarrassed, as the question is, very politely though, "could I get some male member please?".

Better to keep an ovo-free diet

[Zs00zsa]

The best is still when I talk on the phone with a Hungarian and I use the word 'perse' quite often.
Reason: in Hungarian the word 'perse' (written as persze but pronounced like the finnish one) means 'of course'. Now imagine me on the tram calling someone an 'ass' 10 times in a conversation

[Lillukka]

The best is still when I talk on the phone with a Hungarian and I use the word 'perse' quite often.

This reminds me one of my initial shocks in Finland. I am Bulgarian, and in my language the word 'matka' means 'uterus'. Just imagine what 'hyvää matkaa' sounds like.
How about 'matkapuhelin'?
Or 'matkatoimisto'?

Hilarious!

[Nassebox]

Just recently my son was looking for ladybugs in the park and found some in a crack in a log. He yelled to his Finnish friends to come and see what he'd found, saying, "Mulla on niitä täällä rakossa" ... Unfortunately, he should have said raossa ("There are some here in the crack") but what he really said was, "I have some here in my bladder." (rako vs rakko)

I hope he'll forgive me one day for telling this story.

[enk]

Thanks for these, it was a pleasure to read them

I screw up any language I try and speak (including my own)
without fail. Here's some of the ones that unfortunate people
keep reminding me about:

Finnish: I called my mother-in-law an itkupillu. I also managed
to "ehdotella" a friend, who was rather in shock afterwards.

Spanish: I moved to Spain at some point in time when I was tired
of Finland, thought, eh, at least I'll get to speak a language I know.
Couldn't understand a darn thing anyone was saying though, and
found out later on that they had the same problem with me. Same
language, different words. I said to my friends one time that I was
eating "chatarra", which for some unknown reason, in the dialect
I speak, is used to refer to "roskaruoka". The South American
in our house was wondering why I was eating coins and the Catalans
were wondering why I was eating scrap metal We often had
fun sitting at the table and trying to figure out how many different
words we could come up with for the same object. Peas (herneet)
was the clear winner, they seem to be called something different
in every dialect: guisante, chícharo, arveja, alverja, etc.

Japanese: I used to work for a Japanese company and decided to
try out my Japanese skills. Instead of saying "taihen" (hirveä
or hyvin), I called the poor woman on the other end of the phone
a pervert (hentai). I recently had fun when I called my sis-in-law
and instead of asking it it was her that answered the phone
(M. desuka?), I stated that I was she (M. desu.). Fortunately,
she's a patient person

-enk

[mookoo]

I love all of these stories

I, fortunately, haven't said anything too bad yet. Although I did mess up R-Kioski's jingle once stating: "Nopeaa ja mukavaa on aviointi". My husband laughed. And of course I have made the regular kuusi/kusi mistakes that everyone falls into.

Although an Irish friend of mine in my Finnish class once messed up the phrase "Pirkko nousee bussissa" and pronounced it more like "Pirkko nussii bussissa" The poor teacher was at a loss to explain his mistake.

Also in a Spanish class in college a classmate made a slight error. He meant to say "me gusta correr" meaning I like to run, but said "me gusta correrse" instead ... which I believe means something like "I like to masturbate".

Also my cousin made an error at a Mexican restaurant once trying to order a chocolate bandito (name of a drink) and ordered a chocolate pendejo (chocolate a**hole). He got a dirty look.

[boO_fi]

the sweet dark bread...i used to call it pimpa limpu by mistake

[eivoiollatotta]

This happened the first time I took my Dutch girl friend home to my parents..

My gf had heard me saying "v!%#" several times when something went wrong.. She didn't have a clue that it is quite a rude word.

We went to my parents, sat down around the table for some kahvi and pulla. My mother was carrying the pullas in the table and one fell on the floor. My girlfriend wanted to show that she knows Finnish and shouted "v!%#!".

Hm.. I have to say I was a bit embarressed about it but in the end we all had a good laugh.. At least me and my parents..

[Sheila84]

Were in Australia,were discussing about upcoming Livid Festivals in 2003 and friends were jealous that I got to see Linkin Park live.When talking with a mate I said "I've never been this happy,never seen Linkin Park alive!!"...muahhaa!Mate was like WHAT?I was suppose to say never seen Linkin Park live.I think it was pretty funny at the moment!

[Falling Rain]

Oh wow, my brother was there!

I haven't had any really embarrassing language moments, though there have been some awkwards conversations with Japenese students at my school.

[suomeksi]

I managed to really mess up in Finnish the first time I ever tried. My then boyfriend and his brother's gilrfriend tried to teach me a few words. Easy things like pää (head), suu (mouth), hiukset (hair),... and on it went. In order to better remember, I always tried to say them aloud myself. End of story: Within a quarter of an hour I managed to mispronounce four words in such a way that they all came out as some slang word for "penis". Seriously, how many of those are there in Finnish

By the way, my former boyfriend is now my husband - sometimes I wonder if that incident had anything to do with it...

[ilikepeanutbutter]

I too have a hard time with the past tense of nähdä. I think I now have a mental block with respect to it.


My most memorable screw up was actually not in Finnish. It was in Spanish. My first language is Portuguese. Moved to the States at a very young age and in Junior High they started with the "You must take a foreign language" spiel, which I found very amusing considering that English was a foreign language in my situation. So.. I attempted to be a little wise a¤¤ and said "Okay I will take Portuguese". They promptly told me NO knowing my history and that I spoke Portuguese at home. SO I said.."Okay Spanish then!" The very "smart" administrator responded "That is great! Sure you can take Spanish!."...thinking I was being so co-operative.

Well..for those of you who don't speak Portuguese..it is very similar in structure and grammar to Spanish. Definitely NOT the same, but many words can be used in both languages with a bit of an accent change... needless to say I was very bored for most of my Spanish lessons.

okay..long story even longer... I tried to say "I am very embarrassed." What I said was..."Estoy muy embarazada." .....which means I am very pregnant... The teacher immediately switched into English and asked me what i had actually WANTED to say. She then could not contain her giggling any longer... Oy, cognates..or false cognates in this instance are tricky!!!

fyi..the Spanish word for embarrassed (or to be embarassed) is: avergonzar...

lol whoo!

I had to take either Spanish or French so I decided French. The most embarassing moment was when we were making videos for French class and I played a fortune teller. When we were finished my teacher came up to me and said, " Do you realize you said you guys sleep together instead of telling him he'd be in a wreck?" lol Oopsy! I was awful in French, but I'm better in it then Finnish!

Kat