While living in Bahrain, I was warned not to go to a shop to
buy a zipper and ask for a zip, as this was too much like
the arabic word for the male organ (zib).
Do you guys have any more tips on words to avoid when out
travelling? or funny stories about words NOT avoided in
time?
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on what occaision would anyone need to buy a zip? are you a
dressmaker?
In Bahrain it was cheaper to have clothes made than buy them
ready-made. You had to buy all the bits and give them to the
tailor.
but I had a friend in Italy (english-speaking) who would
every day go to the local bar and ask for a 'succo di
pompinello' much to the amusement of the bar staff. He
wanted a freshly squeezed grapefruit juice, or a 'succo di
pompelmo', but what came out means literally pump juice and
you can just imagine what that means....
No-one corrected him, why ever waste a good laugh at
someone else's expense (-:
Way back in my youth, my cousin and I stayed at a hotel
called Hotel 33 (rules there were that if you were over 33
and a guest, you weren't allowed to complain about noise,
etc). Some spanish guys managed to convince my cousin that
33 in Spanis was "tracca-tracca". She thought this sounded
great and proceeded to say it rather loudly one evening at a
rather fancy restaurant. No wonder the other patrons were
staring at her! Turned out "tracca-tracca" was slang for
"the act"!
You've always got to be somewhat skeptical of words that
repeat themselves such as tracca-tracca or niki-niki etc.
many times they tend to refer to 'the act'.....
Just wanted to say that its really nice to see you again,
Truff. Was wondering where you had gotten to!
I sent girls down to the bar to see Yanis (the owner) for
'free puzza' telling them it was greek for pizza, it is
infact a greek slang name for the male genetalia. It put a
smile on his face, and it was quite amusing to watch !!
"sex", which as all of you know means "sex" in English. In
Icelandic (Danish, Sweedish, Norwegian and Faeroese) it
means "six". It is also used as slang word in the English
meaning. No problem, except I heard a story about some
Icelandic tourists in Spain who were warned agains using
the word in its Icelandic meaning, because it migh attract
the wrong kind of people.
In Turkey we were told to avoid 'peach' and 'sick'. At worl we had to say we were 'ill', not sick....which took some getting used to for the aussies there. The Brits didn't have as much trouble. 'Sikmek' is the Turkish infinitive for having sexual intercourse, so it was best not to tell the boss you were absent having sex! (especially if you were!) Peach sounds like the word fot bastard (or prick).
The Turkish word for bread is ekmek, for man erkek. A beautiful female colleague went into a bakery one day and asked for a 'hot man'.
"Traca-traca" as "the act" is only used by tacky spanish
people over 60. Who you hanged with?
In Indonesia, if you go to a small village as a traveller,
it's a common courtesy to check in with the village head, or
"kepala desa". I was amused to hear an Aussie traveller ask
to see the "kelapa desa", which would be "village coconut".
In Turkey, we were told not to say um, as apparently it
means vagina (aah, run, the abc censors are coming!). Don't
see how anyone could completely avoid saying um though. A
lot of the turkish guys (in the tourist area of Istanbul)
clearly expected us to be very slutty anyway, so I doubt it
affected their impression of us.
We French Canadians have endless fun with the differences in
slang terms between Canada french and France french - in
France they use "gosses" as slang for "kids" - but here the
same word means testicles. It really made my day when some
guy from France would come up to one of my friends and ask
if he had "gosses"... Them fightin' words ! ;- )
Several years ago I had some mates over from Marseilles,
who, obviously were French. Despite that I enjoyed their
company and we all got along famously. While driving one day
I was attempting to describe to them why my old man suffers
from migraine headaches. His migraines are triggered by
monosodium glutamate (MSG) in foods. As you may know MSG is
a preservative and as we were chatting in the car I didn't
have time to go for a french/english dictionnary so I said
(in french), "MSG is a preservative that is put in many
things and when my Dad eats said things, he suffers from
migraines." (I'm almost done, honest.) As some of you may
know the word "preservative" in french means condom, or
birth control, so I was explaining to these poor people that
my father got migraine headaches from eating food with birth
control in it. Guess you had to be there, I'll get my coat.
Couple of episodes whilst living in gay Paree...
When learning a language it's natural to do a word-for-word
translation of your native language to the one you want to
speak. Going from English to French it's fine to translate
"I am cold" to "Je suis froid", but if you try that with "I
am hot" it means hot in a sexual way...
On the bizarre side, I met a Lebanese who had never been to
America but opened a Tex-Mex bar in Paris. He couldn't
figure out what he was doing wrong...so I offered him some
advice, like don't sell hamburgers as a piece of meat
open-face on a slice of white bread. It took me a year to
convince him to sell American-style potato skins, but they
turned out to be his biggest seller. I finally figured out
the problem was in the translation...potato skins translates
as "potato peelings", not exactly appetizing, c'est pas?
This wasn't while travelling, but the last post reminded me
of a funny translation in French class. Do NOT translate the
English "hair-do" into French as "cheveux faire"!
This anglophone engineer was working mith my girlfriend on a
consulting project in an iron mine in northern QuΘbec. He
was trying to explain that he wanted to examine the crusher
and the drillhead. He only knew drillhead was "foreuse", so
he used that and translated crusher directly in french.
Unfortunately it came out that he wanted to see "le crosseur
et la fourreuse", i.e. "the masturbator and the screwing
woman". Great way to start a professional relationship !
The Jewish boys took endless amusement in high school saying "J'aime le cous-cous," which does not mean "I like Arabic durum wheat dishes." Apparently cous-cous in Hebrew means a delicious, wet vagina.
Same with kiki in Arabic. Is that true? To all the girls named Ki-ki, bonne chance.
it's easy to confuse k'luay and kluay. One means banana and one means penis. I can't remember which is which, so I'd better do some studying before I return.
BTW kluay is pronounced more like "gluay", but as it's often transliterated with a "k" so English speakers tend to pronounce it as such.
I traveled for several weeks through northern Mexico with an Argentinian. He was constantly having to restrain himself from bursting into laughter because many of the words or expressions he heard meant something particularly obscene in Argentina (sexual or (or more likely AND) religious connotations). I believe the Argentinians must have one of the most colourful and obscenity-rich dialects in the world, and intend on researching this further when time permits.
In Australia, Spunk is a slang word for "luscious" or
"beautiful". ie she's a spunk
In England, spunk means the stuff that comes out of a
blokes thing at the climax of sex.
So, don't call an English girl a spunk rat...
You may be able to correct me if I'm wrong, but I understand
that the verb "pula" in Norwegian is slang for sexual
intercourse, whereas it means a completely different thing
in Swedish (more like a non-descript way of saying that
you're fixing something).
---
Anyway, in Stockholm I have seen the van of a plumbing
business called "R÷rpularen". It always makes me smile to
think of the reactions it might get in Norway.
Here in Korea, my roommate nad I burst out laughing in the
juice section of the supermarket. There was a new brand of
juice called, (I kid you not) COOLPIS. There was apple
flavoured and peach flavoured Coolpis. Feeling thirsty? How
about a refreshing glass of Coolpis?
In Argentina Concha means vagina, but elsewhere it's just
the spanish word for shell. I got my Argentina friend
furious by calling her Conchita!
Also once I was watching a Spanish movie w/ my boyfriend,
who's mexican. The character's name was Pepa (almodovar
film) and in Mexico Pepa means--you guessed it!--vagina! We
were in stiches!
and it can get you in trouble. Mandarin has 4 tones, so one
word said using a different tone will have a different
meaning. For example Bi and Bi. When said using one tone
(forget which one) it means a pen, when said using a
differnt tone means a women's vagina. So be careful when
you next use Mandarin to ask to borrow a pen, or asking
asking someone to stop sucking your pen. I used to ask the
nice immagration officer's for their pen when filling in
forms and gathered by their smiles I had said it wrong.
You are VERY RIGHT! Except we spell it "pule" ... I got a
very good laugh indeed at "r°rpuleren"!!! (for the
non-scandinavians, that would make this plumber a
pipe-fu**er!) LOLOL!!!
Same area, different language : vietnamese seems all the
more difficult to understand for western people because of
its 7 (!) differents tones.My story is not about sex (could
be) but anyway it's quite a good example of the
understanding-problems you can get there : Moea can be
written with 5 differents accents, and spoken with 7
differents tones you could never distinguish.It can also
mean "buy", "mosquito", "10", "rain", "nose"...All in all,
and no matter what you try to express, you sure will be
answered "Yes" by vietnamese people !
English isn't "just" English either!
FAG in US is a gay man - FAG in UK is a cigarette.
To BUGGER in US is to wreck or hurt (I buggered my thumb)
while in UK it is to commit a homosexual act. (my 7th grade
teacher in Canada, a Brit, made sure we looked the word up!)
Also a SUBWAY is different - in US it is an underground
train - in UK it is simply an underground passage to get
from one side of a busy street to the other.
GERMANS WILL SAY "GUTE FAHRT" WHEN WISHING YOU A SAFE AND
PLEASANT JOURNEY - TO ENGLISH SPEAKERS THIS IS HILARIOUS
AS IT SOUNDS LIKE THEM WISHING YOU GOOD FARTS AND SPLENDID
DIGESTION !
This is a text for a uni project
In Morocco, be careful about using the word "zucchini".
In Berber, it sounds similar to slang for XXX me up the
butt.
In Morocco, be careful about using the word "zucchini".
In Berber, it sounds similar to slang for XXX me up the
butt.
In Morocco, be careful about using the word "zucchini".
In Berber, it sounds similar to slang for XXX me up the
butt.
When on holiday in Greece I managed to pick up a couple of
expressions including 'Malaka' which is Greek for w****er.
Since returning I have used this word many a time when
expressing my annoyance with many different people and in
many different situations.
When on holiday in Greece I managed to pick up a couple of
expressions including 'Malaka' which is Greek for w****er.
Since returning I have used this word often when expressing
my annoyance with people in many different situations.
However during a dinner party at my boyfriends parents
house he spilled wine all over my dinner and I
automatically retreated to this phrase. His sister spat her
dinner out showering all of us with a mouthful of chicken
and said "Mum she just called him a W****er! I hadn't
realised that she had holidayed in Greece for the past
three years.
In Some parts of Central America a "cerote" is a great
freind of yours, while in some parts of northern Mexico is a
piece of shit.
In Spain "correrse" is a slang used to reffer to the act of
reaching climax during sexual intercourse, while in Mexico
is just a word wich can be loosely translated as "running",
so you might guess all the fun some spaniards had at our
expense while we were trying to buy a jogging suit.
In Mexico "cojer" is a slang for having sex, but it┤s also
the verb "to take", so everyone in Mexico uses the word
"tomar" wich is another verb that means the same, hence it`s
really funny to see foreigners asking where can they have
sex with the bus.
I'm a professional percussionist based in Edmonton, Canada,
and am at present planning a visit to the Indian
subcontinent; particularily India and Nepal. I've been
fascinated by the intricacies of north Indian classical
music for some time, and now that the prospect of
experiencing this culture first-hand is nearing, the
opportunity to expand my musical expressions to the Tabla
drums would, with respect to my pursuits, help to realize
this trip's greatest potential. In my planning, I've come
upon but one obstacle - the current India guidebook, as far
as I could see, fails to elaborate in depth where one
interested in purchasing a pair of Tablas might look. Could
anybody with a related interest and some applicable
experience help me?
You have posted in a totally wrong place! Go back to the
main thorn tree site and find a site there with topic area
India or such. Otherwise, post on the main Your Choice
board, not inside a thread like here. Good luck!
A "Pajero" in Australia is the name of a Mitsubishi 4D
vehicle. However, to a Spanish speaker, a "pajero" is
literally a "wanker".
The original ads in Australia for this 4WD vehicle said
something like "here's is Australia's one and only
Pajero!". My mate at work (a guy from Argentina) told me
"no, I think Australia has had plenty of pajero's before
this one!"
Then you have the story about the headache-tablet that was
advertised in an Arabic country - with drawings. From left
to right it was - person looking pained and holding head -
person taking tablet - person smiling. Trouble is, Arabic is
written right to left! No WONDER they didn't have much luck
selling the tablet! (By the way, this is a good thing to
remember if you are visiting Arabic museums - their
exhibitions are set up from right to left or anticlockwise.)
English speakers have to be really careful when they need to
differente between the French vowel sounds "ou" and "u" -
there's an audible difference! You might think that you
just said "merci beaucoup" (thanks a lot), but in fact it
might have come out as "merci beau-cul" (thank nice arse!)
In Australia, a slang way to say 'to laugh' is 'to cack'.
Hence when some people say "I cacked myself!" they actually
mean "I laughed a lot!". BUT if you say "I cacked myself" to
a South African who speaks Afrikaans (the word "kak" in
Afrikaans means "shit"), well they may start to suggest
where you can get some fresh underwear...