If you're familiar with Chinese, what are some cases of Chinese/English translation misunderstandings?

Question

Here's one:

During lunch, my brother overheard this conversation in his cafeteria between a Taiwanese foreign exchange student and a white chick.

The white chick was complaining about a minor zit problem she had.
Then the Taiwanese Dude was trying to find a traditional Chinese medicine explanation for the cause of her "problem".
He found the term "火气大"(Huo1 Qi4 Da4) ,
used for describing internal heat (too much "internal heat" can cause acne).
He meant to say "你身体的火气很大"(Ni3 Shen1 Ti3 De3 Huo3 Qi4 Hen3 Da4),
but the English translation came out as "Your body is very hot".
The white chick really does have a hot body (hot as in sexy).

Answer 1

There are some great Chinese sayings that, directly translated into English, are even greater! For example: "脱裤子放屁”， means to do something completely unnecessary. Literally translated, it means "take off your pants to fart". Another (dirtier) saying is "狗鸡巴日", which is a derogatory involving one's mother and a dog. Literally translated, it reads "Dog dick day". Ha! There's a popular brand of whitening toothpaste in China that translates to "Black People Toothpaste". That's wacky. The name Jeff in English is transliterated "Jie fu", which means brother-in-law. There are some other funny mistakes and stories especially in advertizing. The funniest one that comes to mind (excuse the pun) is a billboard for an interior design firm along the highway near where I live. The name of the design firm in Chinese is "同心", which means "same heart", or "same mind". In Chinese, it's a great name for a design firm because it connotates a working relationship between the designers and the clients- kind of like saying "We have the same thing in mind". However, it was translated by some bookworm permanently attatched to his Chinese-English dictionary, with no social skills whatsoever, because the English name of the firm (in HUGE red letters- "Look at us! We can even speak English at our firm!") reads: HOMO MIND!!!!!!!!!! (Hell, who knows, maybe they did it on purpose after watching too many pirated episodes of "Queer Eye for the Straight Guy!") Hope these made you laugh!
Jen

Answer 2

Coca-Cola was marketed in China as Ke-Kou-ke-la (it mean bite the wax tadpole/horse in Chinese)

Pepsi launched a Tiawanese commercial "Come Alive with the Pepsi Generation">It came out "Pepsi will raise your ancestors from their graves."

KFC's Fingerlickin good became "Eat your fingers off"

Answer 3

Taiwanese people speak mandarin. I wish I could :(

Answer 4

who the hell are you doctor phil of language

and what dialect of chinese, there are several

and just because YOU can look up a translation and have chinese traditional characters(not simplified, like how the professional world uses them), does not make you china almighty

I wish you would post something else
we dont care about your chinese