What is the funniest or most embarrasing attempt you have made speaking a foreign language?

Question

I have made many...In Northern Portugal on a cold wet day I ordered two black coffees and was brought two cold beers....Or again in Portugal a friend ordered two cheese and two ham sandwiches and we got four baked potatoes...my wife in particular always says 'Merci' in Portugal and 'Obrigada' in France...wish I could speak a foreign Language...even in America I got it wrong when I asked where I could 'buy some fags'
10 points waiting for most amusing answer....

Answer 1

Once in America (LA) the Burger King boy said 'dyuwanfraaswithaaat' and it took me ten minutes to understand. But I can get coffee in spanish quite easily. In Greece once I bought grapes regardless cos my attempts to find out the price were futile. In holland I saw a fantastic skirt but couldnt work out the size, so I went skirtless. But I usually just mutter and wave my arms about like a typical brit. I can get by in Spanish, but dont cos Im scared they will reply as if Im fluent and Ill look like a plonker when I dont understand.

Answer 2

My friends and i used to pay game when on the pull in nightclubs, you had to tell the girl the most complete load of rubbish you could, think on your feet and just reel off whatever came into you head.

So there i was chatting a girl in a nightlub with a whole load of bull about where i worked, lived, etc and part of the story was me being German and living there for many years.
I went down this line because i have a very vague smattering of German, and i mean here, the 'odd' word.

Unfortunately the girl i was talking to had done a degree in German and had spent 5 years living there!

Oh Dear!

Answer 3

Thats why car manufacturers and others, bringing products from other countries, have to do so much research with names! My kids used to love searching the supermarkets in europe for 'funny' names, Bimbo bread in France etc. I still buy a packet of Skum sweets when I go to Ikea! Apparently there was/is a cream somewhere in the english speaking world called Bollox, for spots! Imagine someone going to Boots and asking for Bollox cream!

Answer 4

Whilst in France a friend was trying to explain why he preferred French bread to English.Struggling to find the right words he declared that he thought it was because English bread is full of preservatives------Apparently a preservative in France is a condom.The bar was in an uproar, and he had no idea what he had said.Hope they didn't have to use sign language when they explained !

Answer 5

Not so much foreign but while staying in Australia with family in January we visited some of their friends and I was saying that I couldn't find a particular item of clothing.
I said that I'd had a good root in the wardrobe and they all cracked up laughing.
To "root" in Australia means to have sex!
Funny to visualize me having sex in the wardrobe I'm 60!

Answer 6

lol..my funniest was a french message I sent through an online friend to her husband. She speaks english but he only speaks french. He did some wonderful cartoons for a project I was involved in and I wanted to thank him in french for them. Not speaking or being able to spell very well in french I wrote the message in English first then used Babel to translate it.
It looked alright in the translation but out of curiousity I tried retranslating it into english again.
It just slayed me..it was not quite what I meant in english the first time around. Although my friend said it did read to them as I intended it should.

Answer 7

I live in spain and i was asking the nurse at the hospital to heat up my fathers lasagne.....i sid something like
es possible ousted caliente para me
She laughed and told me that no she wasnt hot for me.
the word fo chest of drawers and testicals is also similar as i found out in ikea when i aske the guy how much his bolllocks were per set.

Answer 8

not sure if this counts or not but while auditioning for a TV job bragged that i could do sign language, on the screen test had a whole routine worked out starting with "as you can see i can sign" only realising when i watched it back that my hands didn't move at all...did i go red or what

Answer 9

i don't experience the could desire to hurry out and study a clean language yet i like hybrid international music. you could now pay attention to Arabic pop or Indian dance music. it quite is totally imaginitive and the countless terrific music interior the international on the instant.

Answer 10

In french class, we were writing about some characters in a video. Concerning a black male character, I wrote something about him, I think I was meant to say something like he was strong or something. When my work was marked, my teacher wrote a comment by the side - "So you think he's beautiful?"

Also, a friend of mine tried to say in german that she likes to eat fruit and nuts. Instead, she said that she liked to eat fruit and prostitutes!