Embarrassing foreign (or native) language moments

Originally Posted by Red

Up until I was 18 I pronounced epitome as "epi-tome"


I just do not give any sort of a ♥♥♥♥

Hahaha. I did that until somebody pointed it out. I think I was around the same age. Also, "stoic". Or shall I say, stoyk.

I work at a Japanese-run Japanese restaurant, so you can imagine all the awkward moments between the native English speakers there (such as myself), and the Japanese employees & employer.

I remember I went out to the pub with one of the kitchen hands and she ran into a friend a bit before we left to go home. On our way back to the main road, her friend noticed I was fluent in English and asked if I knew how to spell what sounded like "cross".

Without giving it a second thought I told him, but I had a few misgivings and looked over at the text he was about to send.

"Take off your cross."

I corrected it before he sent it though.

On the flipside, my Japanese co-workers will aggressively hone in on any mistakes I make in English. Let me just say that kingfish sashimi is super hard to say quickly and professionally without drooling and shh-ing all over the place.

It’s been a long time ago (about ten years I think) but the words “awesome” and “awful” sounded very similar to me and I thought they were both other words for something like “fantastic” or “excellent” and used them in this way.

I was wondering why the others got upset when I said “awful” to their things until I looked it up in a dictionary and get to know it’s real meaning. Up from this point I understood their reaction and I learned my lesson out of this stupidity.
If you just THINK what a word could mean, better look it up immediatly to prevent such sitations right from the beginning and to not explain it later.

Originally Posted by Cor Sicarius

When I first started learning spanish...........

I said Perro instead of pero
I said ano instead of año
I said puta instead of punta


I mean.... I have a long list.... I speak 5 languages. I can go on for a while haha ;D

HAHA my middle school Spanish teacher had told us a story about how she was in Spain and telling people her age ("Tengo veinte años) but she eventually started saying "Tengo veinte anos" without realizing that anos is a COMPLETELY different word.

(For those who are wondering, anos means anuses.)

Originally Posted by Ganonstadt

It’s been a long time ago (about ten years I think) but the words “awesome” and “awful” sounded very similar to me and I thought they were both other words for something like “fantastic” or “excellent” and used them in this way.

I was wondering why the others got upset when I said “awful” to their things until I looked it up in a dictionary and get to know it’s real meaning. Up from this point I understood their reaction and I learned my lesson out of this stupidity.
If you just THINK what a word could mean, better look it up immediatly to prevent such sitations right from the beginning and to not explain it later.

I used to think that "terrific" was the same as "terrible". I was reading some album review online and the reviewer said that the vocalist was terrific. It really confused me because it was one of those overwhelmingly positive reviews and he even scored it 10/10. It sounded so out of place to suddenly just mock the singer, not elaborate on that any further and continue praising something else.

Also, "priceless" apparently meant something other than "worthless" to my surprise. I can't remember the context to how I found about that.

I remember when I was 6, I was at a restaurant and my dad had asked me what I wanted to eat. I automatically said poutine. I started repeating the word over and over then I said it a bit differently cause to my 6 year old self, it sounded funny. But, it turns out, the way "funny" way I had said it sounded almost identical to "pute" in French.
The woman at the cash was laughing, my dad was laughing, hell, everyone who heard me laughed while I sat there wondering how a saying a word differently was THAT funny.

Originally Posted by Traeh

I used to think that "terrific" was the same as "terrible". I was reading some album review online and the reviewer said that the vocalist was terrific. It really confused me because it was one of those overwhelmingly positive reviews and he even scored it 10/10. It sounded so out of place to suddenly just mock the singer, not elaborate on that any further and continue praising something else.

Also, "priceless" apparently meant something other than "worthless" to my surprise. I can't remember the context to how I found about that.

To be fair, the word "terrific" shares its etymology with "terrible." See here: Terrific | Online Etymology Dictionary

Originally Posted by Ganonstadt

It’s been a long time ago (about ten years I think) but the words “awesome” and “awful” sounded very similar to me and I thought they were both other words for something like “fantastic” or “excellent” and used them in this way.

I was wondering why the others got upset when I said “awful” to their things until I looked it up in a dictionary and get to know it’s real meaning. Up from this point I understood their reaction and I learned my lesson out of this stupidity.
If you just THINK what a word could mean, better look it up immediatly to prevent such sitations right from the beginning and to not explain it later.

The word "awful" originally meant "full of awe." See here: Awful | Online Etymology Dictionary

Originally Posted by Nen desharu

To be fair, the word "terrific" shares its etymology with "terrible." See here: Terrific | Online Etymology Dictionary


The word "awful" originally meant "full of awe." See here: Awful | Online Etymology Dictionary

yeah, English is an amazing language. "Terrific" and "terrible" both have "terror" at their root, and "awesome" and "awful" both have "awe" at their root, yet they're both antonyms.

Originally Posted by Lysis

yeah, English is an amazing language. "Terrific" and "terrible" both have "terror" at their root, and "awesome" and "awful" both have "awe" at their root, yet they're both antonyms.

You should read this: Auto-antonym - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (be sure to read the external links there as well)

The English language never fails to amuse me. There is a good reason why English is such a hard language to learn (even some native English speakers struggle with their own language).

Once when I was little, I did this report on Black Bart. Apparently he wrote a letter or something and the last word was b****. I read it out loud to my mom and she told me I couldn't say that word. I was very confused, so I kept asking what it meant. I was at the library at the time, and so I went up to my brother and asked very loudly, "What does b**** mean?"

He told me I should never say that and I needed to shut up because I was too loud. I didn't understand what it meant until a few years later.

I haven't had many foreign language moments. I rarely travel out of the country.

Originally Posted by Nen desharu

There is a good reason why English is such a hard language to learn (even some native English speakers struggle with their own language).

I think English is the easiest out of the 5-6 languages I am learning.

Originally Posted by Super Nes

I think English is the easiest out of the 5-6 languages I am learning.

Modern English does not have declensions and generally does not have any complex conjugations (aside from verbs such as "to be" and "to go").

However, there are over ten different ways to pronounce -ough in English, depending on the word. The "d" and the second "e" in "Wednesday" are silent. "Boatswain" is pronounced /ˈboʊsən/ (the "t" and the "w" are silent). Apostrophes are sometimes in the wrong place or excessively added or removed. For example, some people write "The dog wags it's tail" when it should be "The dog wags its tail." "It's" is a contraction of "it is" or "it has," while "its" is the genitive form of "it." Some English words have the plural being the same as the singular such as "cattle," "deer," and "sheep."

I was hugging my friend's German foreign exchange student goodbye and I assured him "we're gonna get ♥♥♥♥ed up in Germany" this July when we all go to visit, and there was about five seconds of him legitimately believing that I said the equivalent of "we are going to ♥♥♥♥ in Germany."

in the end it was very funny, though

Hmm, I always get mixed up with the feminine and masculine in French, but that's not so serious.

My Chinese teacher on the other hand, she always says "♥♥♥♥" instead of "sheet" when she's talking about paper. It's ceased to be funny, as she's mostly corrected that habit, but sometimes in class the kids (and I) adopt that habit for the class period.

Originally Posted by Ralphpotato

Hmm, I always get mixed up with the feminine and masculine in French, but that's not so serious.

My Chinese teacher on the other hand, she always says "♥♥♥♥" instead of "sheet" when she's talking about paper. It's ceased to be funny, as she's mostly corrected that habit, but sometimes in class the kids (and I) adopt that habit for the class period.

I had a sub once who told us to "gather all our sheet(s) and place it on her desk." One kid began walking out. She said, "sir, why are you leaving the class?" He said, "well you asked me to put all my ♥♥♥♥ on your desk. I am take a ♥♥♥♥ in the restroom and dump it on the desk." She was like, "Why are there sheets in the restroom?" "cause I'm about to make one." "You are going to to the Teacher Work Room, too?"

At that point I was laughing. The dude was an idiot though. If he wanted to dump it on her desk, at least do it in class. That way you don't have to carry it around.

Her English was pretty bad.

Originally Posted by Cor Sicarius

I had a sub once who told us to "gather all our sheet(s) and place it on her desk." One kid began walking out. She said, "sir, why are you leaving the class?" He said, "well you asked me to put all my ♥♥♥♥ on your desk. I am take a ♥♥♥♥ in the restroom and dump it on the desk." She was like, "Why are there sheets in the restroom?" "cause I'm about to make one." "You are going to to the Teacher Work Room, too?"

At that point I was laughing. The dude was an idiot though. If he wanted to dump it on her desk, at least do it in class. That way you don't have to carry it around.

Her English was pretty bad.

Well yes of course. I'm assuming this kid was not a master at the "take a ♥♥♥♥ on the substitute teacher's desk during class" maneuver.

When I first used English, I had a lot of my sentences in weird meaning.

At least it has improved quite some now, yep.

---------- Post added at 06:34 PM ---------- Previous post was at 06:33 PM ----------

And I still Google Translate what I try to say into English.

Well, in my spanish class last year, some girl asked me how to pronounce "IDK" in spanish... I said "eedayka"... it came out pretty wrongly to her and sounded like "eat a cock". She got pissed at me.

Originally Posted by !?

When I first used English, I had a lot of my sentences in weird meaning.

At least it has improved quite some now, yep.

---------- Post added at 06:34 PM ---------- Previous post was at 06:33 PM ----------

And I still Google Translate what I try to say into English.

What is your native language?

Why it does matter, Tavros?
Anyway people understand me fine is enough.

One time I went to a school camp where we all stayed in a large cabin. I had a German exchange student staying in my room. I dropped my food and made a big deal about it, long story short I told the German exchange student I was a "germophobe". Much awkwardness was had.

Originally Posted by Red

Up until I was 18 I pronounced epitome as "epi-tome"

Up until I read this and asked Liam on Skype about it, I thought so too.