If you've ever interacted with someone who speaks a different language, what is the funniest misunderstanding you've had?
If you've ever interacted with someone who speaks a different language, what is the funniest misunderstanding you've had?
An example of what I mean:
I, in China, told an English speaking Chinese friend I needed to stop off in the bathroom to "take a shit."
He looked appalled and after I asked why he had that look, he asked what I was going to do with someone's shit.
I had not laughed so hard in a while, and it totally makes sense.
I explained it was an expression for pooping, and he comes back with, "wouldn't that be giving a shit?"
I then got to explain that to give a shit means you care and I realized how fucked some of our expressions are.
What misunderstandings made you laugh?
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Chatting on Skype with a Chinese developer, he said "I need to take Friday off for family matters" and I said "no worries"
He apologized profusely, and eventually I realised that to him, "no worries" meant something like "No! I am very concerned!"
I've since taught them some more Australianisms.
So many developers reporting "oy ya cunt", quite often not even aimed at them as an insult.
Haha I sim race with several Aussies and Kiwis and I'm quite happy to be called a cunt by them because it usually means I won. "'Ow in the fack did yiu get tha leed ya cunt!?"
"cunt" is a term of "endearment" in Australia lol. It's a cultural clash that needs to be explained quite often. I saw a similar culture clash with polish devs working for a US company. Poles like to vent / complain about their life simply for someone to chime in and say "I feel you, shit sucks". Once a colleague vented about a minor annoyance. 3 days later we had a meeting scheduled about "problems in the project". We collectively went "what problems lol". Everyone was pissing their pants only for the US scrummaster to bring up the tiniest of annoyances as if it meant the end of the world / company.
Haha I know its an endearment, since we've all been friends for years now. One thing that got me recently was one of them talking about the new whipper-snipper he just bought and how quiet it was, being electric.
I had no idea what the hell a whipper-snipper was, but know a "whippersnapper" means young person where I'm from.
Turns out a whipper-snipper is the same as a weed-whacker / weed-eater in my part of the world.
That one is also in the states lol.
Wait... I don't get it either. He refuse the day off?
"No worries!" means "Yes, that's fine, there is nothing to worry about."
He thought it meant "No! You should worry about that!"
Instead of "No worries!" he heard "No, worries!*
Oh! I see. He midunderstood "no worries" with "No! Worry!"...