Especially if you are going to this country for literally a couple of days. Then a variety of curiosities are almost inevitable. As it happened more than once with the participants of thisviral threadin the AskReddit community, who then decided to share their funny and eye-opening fails online.
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When I went through passport control in Jordan upon arrival I was a little bit frazzled after a full day of connecting flightsHere is how that conversation went, or rather how I heard it:Officer: “First time, Air Jordans?”Me: “Uhhh, no I just have Nikes on”Officer: “Mam, first time, Air Jordans?”Me, now looking at my feet, very confused: “Uhhhh, no I don’t have any Air Jordans but I guess I used to have them maybe sometime uhhh…”Officer, somewhere between being pissed off and wildly amused: “Mam. Is this your first time, HERE IN JORDAN??”I was so embarrassed I nearly died from shame, thankfully he let me through. It still pops up as a memory every once in a while, my brain is just not willing to let that one slide..
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In Russia I wanted to buy meat from the deli counter. I didn’t fancy trying to explain a weight I wanted, so pointed at some pre packaged meat trays behind a glass counter. She looked at me confused and told me to take it in Russian. I was like “I can’t it’s behind glass”. Went like this for a while until I thought I’d demonstrate and put my hand to the glass, it wasn’t glass, just fresh air, the glass counter stopped before the pre packaged items.
Staying with my brother in a hotel in Orlando. We are both Germans, my brother‘s english is mediocre at best. We wanted to start the next day early.My brother asks me if they offer wake up calls in this hotel. I’m like „of course, just ring reception“.Now, for context, six in German is „sechs“ and sounds similar to „sx“.My brother picks up the phone and I can hear him talking to the girl at the front desk: „yes yes I would like sx in the morning“.I could not stop laughing.
So I refuled my rental car at a gas station in australia. I got to know Australians to be very outgoing, so when the girl at the counter asked me“wher’re you from?”I reckoned she wanted to have a little chat and started to talk about myself. But she was“no, haha, I mean which gas pump”.
Nothing too embarrassing but I still laugh about it, went to a fancy restaurant in Kyoto once and the hostess put down a little bowl of what I guessed was soup/broth on the table so I drank it. She came back about a minute later with some tempura and seemed surprised that I drank the dipping sauce that was intended for it. She was like “oh…. did you like it?”.
I have a “lost in translation” story for you.I love traveling to Indonesia, and eventually, I figured I had no more excused and began learning Bahasa Indonesia.All proud of the few sentences I spoke, I made sure I would always tell people “see you later” upon leaving the shop, hotel, and/or restaurant.It took me 4 days, and many confused looks for me to double-check what I was actually saying.I meant to say “sampai nanti ya” (see you later), but instead, I told people “sampai manti ya,” which beautifully translates to “until you die, yeah”…
Of course, the stories told here are mostly about tourists not having any idea about some cultural or culinary customs in the country they are visiting - and this turns into some embarrassing yet amusing experience for them. Someone drinks sauce in a restaurant, someone breaks anunspoken ruleof local etiquette, and someone even confuses the name of the local airline with the brand of their sneakers.
When I had just arrived to the Philippines, I couldn’t find my friend. A cop (or perhaps a security guard) asked if they could help. I told him what’s going on and he offered to call my friend, which I accepted. We make contact with my friend and I find her. The cop extends his hand which I took as wanting a high five. So I gave him five and ran off. It wasn’t until later that I realized he wanted a tip. 😂.
In Spanish “constipado” means you have a cold.Spaniards have been getting massive diarrhea on top of the cold they already had in every English and French speaking country since the beginning of time (my mom, in Geneva in the 70s).
Why do people get lost in translation abroad? The thing is, many languages of the world have their own unique specifics, so even if you know the basics of the language, you can still make annoying and funny mistakes.“Every language has something unique - it could be in the syntax, the semantics, the phonetics, or the vocabulary, and that element is impossible to translate perfectly into another language,” thisdedicated poston Seven Circumstances says.“For instance, Dutch has many uses for the diminutive, and many subtle meanings attached to each variant. <…> But those diminutives just sound weird in English.” And if we are talking about languages from other language groups, with a fundamentally different system of syntax and word construction, then it becomes even way more complicated.
Why do people get lost in translation abroad? The thing is, many languages of the world have their own unique specifics, so even if you know the basics of the language, you can still make annoying and funny mistakes.
“Every language has something unique - it could be in the syntax, the semantics, the phonetics, or the vocabulary, and that element is impossible to translate perfectly into another language,” thisdedicated poston Seven Circumstances says.
“For instance, Dutch has many uses for the diminutive, and many subtle meanings attached to each variant. <…> But those diminutives just sound weird in English.” And if we are talking about languages from other language groups, with a fundamentally different system of syntax and word construction, then it becomes even way more complicated.
In my language we have the same word for try and taste. I was shopping pants and asked in three stores if I could taste them.
At the same time, there are so-called “false friends of the translator” - the words that look familiar and share consonants with well-known words, but at the same time are not even cognates. For example, in the Ukrainian language, the word “voda” means “water,” but at the same time, the word “vodiy” has nothing in common with water and means “driver.”
When I was 16, my family traveled to Europe. We mostly ate at restaurants with a waiter and a menu and would work together to figure out what each item was. But one day we went to a cafeteria style restaurant where you got a tray, pushed it along, and selected your food yourself. I came to the beverages and saw big glasses of nice cold milk, which I hadn’t had all vacation. I grabbed one and sat down to eat. I took a huge gulp and nearly spit it back out thinking it was spoiled. Turns out it was buttermilk, which is what the sign said in German.
My friend and I went to a local restaurant in Indonesia, a jar of water on our table, we drank it, the local people looked at us. We saw local people use it wash their hands, that not for drink,only for wash hands.
Was in Lima, Peru earlier this year, and I speak minimal Spanish. Having been immersed for a few days I got confident in my non-existent Spanish skills, and decided I would order a coffee using only Spanish and no English.I sit down at the Cafe, and the server comes up to me. I want to order a hot coffee, but very quickly he says something I don’t understand, I panic, and instead of saying the Spanish word for “hot” (caliente), I say the Spanish word for “shut up” (callate). His eyes go wide and he just kind of stares at me for a a few seconds, and he clarifies “no frio?” (Not cold). And I reply with yes. So.. thankfully he knew I wasn’t trying to be a jerk and what I was trying to order.I didnt even realize my mistake until a few hours later.
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I was in St. Petersburg, Russia, a teenager visiting a host family. I REALLY needed to use the bathroom. I had eagerly eaten all the new food. Tummy issues. In the broken language I knew I ask for a “rest room”. I was graciously shown my room with a bed. I think my face said more than my words so it worked out. Just super embarrassing.
I can’t remember how much I actually took out of the ATM but I got my Krona/USD conversion wrong and the comma thing screwed me up.I looked like Scrooge McDuck swimming in cash.
My recent travel to Hong Kong was more than 15 years after my first one. This time, I was vacationing with my sisters. On our first night we went to all these food stalls along the street and I kept seeing “Octopus available” in almost all of them. So I thought to myself, “Wow, grilled octopus must be really popular here!”I then went ahead to the next stall and bought myself some grilled Octopus. I was so excited and told my sisters “Look, I got some octopus! It seems to be very popular here as all the stores say they have it!” Only for them to laugh at my face and tell me that Octopus is what they call their train cards, much like Oyster for the UK. Good thing the grilled Octopus was tasty.
I was an exchange student living in Paris. My French improved a lot pretty quickly. One of the daughters hung out with questionable friends. I tried to do my own thing but apparently, she rubbed off on me.At my prim grandmother’s request, I made arrangements to meet an old friend of hers who lived at a very posh address. I was holding my own, French-wise, at a restaurant until we talked about dessert. She asked (in French) if I wanted cream or sugar on my strawberries. I said, “Je m’en fous.” Basically means, “I don’t give a f**k.” I didn’t know this until I returned to the States.
Showing up to a hotel on the other side of the world the day before my actual reservation. Done it twice. I may be calendar-challenged.
In my own country in Australia I was in a different state and got pulled over to get breathalyzed. I was used to the type where you put your mouth on a straw and blow. But the cop in the other state held up a device near me and told me to count to 10. Super confused, I asked “…where do I blow?” and he repeated the instruction again, just count to 10. Again, confused, I leant in to blow into nothing until my passenger laughed and explained it and I wanted to melt away into my seat. I was completely sober.
When we first moved to the US and barely knew any English, my mom got her first job and she became quite friendly with her first boss. I forgot the occasion but she bought her boss a greeting card that said “with sympathy”, which my mom didn’t [realize] was for the funeral. She thought it meant like with appreciation or something lol.
Oh we got on a train in Bologna a few years ago, and a guy was in my seat. He insisted he wasn’t and the conductor guy came over and pointed out my ticket was for the following day. Wow. It was an express, so at the next stop we had to buy tickets back to Bologna, walk back to our place where we’d dropped the key at the office and explain we needed it back. It was a three week trip and I’d just totally lost track of the days.
A year abroad in Italy four guys sharing an apartment and we had maids who would sweep everyday and change sheets and give you a clean towel and dishrag once a week. I became really close to the maids and they came in one day after we just finished having a dinner party for all of our friends to mop. The maid burst out laughing when she saw my roommate drying the dishes with what was apparently the bidet towels they provided weekly.
I brushed my teeth with hemorrhoid cream at my host’s house in Sweden, many years ago, thinking it was toothpaste.I also made a caviar and jelly sandwich with the paste caviar from the metal tube, thinking it was peanut butter.This was before unlimited international data on smart phones :).
I accidentally joined a Spanish tour group in Budapest. It was my last day there and no way I could change to an English group because there were none that day. I definitely do not look like I speak English (Asian) so I had to follow along and act like I did. When people looked up, I looked up. When people giggled I giggled 😅😅 I got through it but the whole experience makes me chuckle.
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