Those crazy foreigners (no racism/xenophobia)

Latchy · 22-02-2008 06:02PM

A well know irish poet while staying in a New York hotel back in the 60s enquired as to were all the grass was ( as in the green stuff cows eat )

The puzzled hotel staff thought he was refering to weed and said he might try down town after dark

jb91 · 22-02-2008 06:49PM

My uncle went into a shop in the middle of nowhere in France to buy stuff for sandwiches.

He asked for buerre, pain et preservatifs (bread, butter and condoms). He meant to ask for jam lol

EDIT: Damn you is_that_so!!!

Overheal · 22-02-2008 06:59PM

Our Lecturer teaches Software Engineering. He's French. So one day in the slides this word pops up: "Contraindication"

I had to stop the entire class in his mid sentence and ask wtf was that? It looked entirely out of context anyway.

He goes "I donnow... it coold be Franch?"

So he googles the word and wikipedia came up with this.

<_<
>_>

I'm worried.

22-02-2008 09:11PM

snyper wrote: »

I had a polish guy come into the hardware looking for a "Frozen" yesterday.

Cement.

whatsgoinon · 22-02-2008 09:21PM

In France recently, instead of me saying, "I was so tired, I wanted to sleep on the street", I said:
"I wanted to have sex on the street" stupid reflexive verbs, luckily all the staff understood what i really wanted to say, i was very embarrrassed

TequilaMockingBird · 22-02-2008 09:36PM

Overheal wrote: »

Our Lecturer teaches Software Engineering. He's French. So one day in the slides this word pops up: "Contraindication"

I had to stop the entire class in his mid sentence and ask wtf was that? It looked entirely out of context anyway.

He goes "I donnow... it coold be Franch?"

So he googles the word and wikipedia came up with this.

<_<
>_>

I'm worried.

So am I.

Overheal · 22-02-2008 10:05PM

Worried why? I know why IM worried: he probably isnt french at all :eek: !!!

eldeabroad · 22-02-2008 10:15PM

Was working in a bar, in Ireland, where my (Basque) girlfriend once asked me for a "club orange lemon" to drink..... I was - "which one?" and she just didnt get that they are different ie: club orange or club lemon. Still with her 7 years later!

also

a female friend of hers once told me (when we came to Basque Country on hols) "I am very horny to see you" she meant excited, but as excitado in spanish means horny - she got confused with excited.......I guess:D

Red Hand · 22-02-2008 10:27PM

eldeabroad wrote: »

Was working in a bar, in Ireland, where my (Basque) girlfriend once asked me for a "club orange lemon" to drink..... I was - "which one?" and she just didnt get that they are different ie: club orange or club lemon. Still with her 7 years later!

also

a female friend of hers once told me (when we came to Basque Country on hols) "I am very horny to see you" she meant excited, but as excitado in spanish means horny - she got confused with excited.......I guess:D

Lol! I bet...confused indeed!:D

tuxy · 22-02-2008 10:27PM

eldeabroad wrote: »

Was working in a bar, in Ireland, where my (Basque) girlfriend once asked me for a "club orange lemon" to drink..... I was - "which one?" and she just didnt get that they are different ie: club orange or club lemon. Still with her 7 years later!

Sounds like she wanted a rock shandy.

tampopo · 22-02-2008 10:37PM

yeah,I used to work in a hotel in San Francisco many years ago. I was talking with one of my colleagues about accents, Dublin accents in particular. I was explaining about flat, working class accents and exaggerating some words, especially Peter, which I find hard to pronounce and not sound too effeminate!!! Words like butter, and matter and the like where the tt isn't pronouned correctly, instead a gutteral hmph. Anyway, you get the picture.

1am, I get a call from my colleague. What's up? He was with his gf in one of the Irish bars in the avenues, he started talking to an Irish lad, askin' him what's the ma'er with the bu'er, Pe'er? and got a punch in the face for his troubles!!! He came to work the next day with a black eye!!!!

Fratton Fred wrote: »

I nearly punched a guy in a store in the states. My wife was trying on jeans and he told it fitted perfectly around her fanny:eek:

For a few months I had a gf called Sharon, and she once complained I never called her by her name. I was always afraid of lapsing into 'Sharrin' mode!!!

Abaddon · 22-02-2008 10:53PM

We have a Tampopo among us!!! Possibly the greatest movie ever made!
I once had a friend over from Nederland, and we were in a cafe in Dublin, when he got mixed up with hotdogs and sausage-rolls, and asked for a sausage-dog!!

rosarosa · 23-02-2008 01:59PM

English is a third language for me, and in my family, we only learnt it when we began going to school. When my youngest sister was about 8, she was really crazy about Leonardo diCaprio. Titanic was on the TV one night and she was desperate to watch it, but my Dad wanted to watch something else instead. So she started crying and begging my Dad until he finally asked what the big deal was, and she said
'but daddy, it's a film about the unsinkable shi*!'......

Never been able to forget it....:)

AckwelFoley · 23-02-2008 02:42PM

Moonbaby wrote: »

Cement.

Not even close.

He was lookiing for a chest freezer.

tampopo · 23-02-2008 03:23PM

oh yeah, I had this foreign gf and we were watching a film. She said is that Pink Flamingos?

I said, no, Three Amigos. (Steve Martin, Chevy Chase etc)

how we laughed

Victor · 23-02-2008 11:37PM

SDooM wrote: »

Bulgarian people insist on pronouncing my second name Giggley, and English people have no idea how to spell it.

Eh, I don't get that.

A German friend announced to me that she had been 'inspected' that day. No, not by a gynacologist ..... she had her ticket checked on the bus.

Mrs_Doyle · 24-02-2008 12:11AM

I work in the Airport and was trying to explain to a foreign customer that he wouldn't be able travel with a 125ml product, as the limit on liquids, when taking 2 or more flights, is 100mls per item.

He said "Eh, but I dooo not underztand, what iz de difference between 100mls and 125mls?"

"25mls" was my response. (OK I was being a bit of a smart arse)

He looked at me for about 10 seconds in silence, while he tried to comprehend what I had said, the he let out such a roar of laughter.

"Ha, ha you verrrry funny girl, you are playing with me, yez? 25mls! Ha! 25mls! You have a little fun with me?"

He continued to laugh hysterically for about 5 minutes.

Crazy Foreigner!!!

Victor · 24-02-2008 12:23AM

Mrs_Doyle, you then need to beckon the large guys with the MP-5s, rubber gloves and lube. They get the idea then.

RonMexico · 24-02-2008 01:06AM

I had a hot Polish girl ask me "what is scrotum?"

What a dilemma

Neamhshuntasach · 24-02-2008 01:52PM

I was in Montreal and i decided to do that couchsurf thing where you stay in someone's house for free. So made it up there and went out for a drink with the 2 girls i was staying with. We went back to their place and they were telling me some French phrases. But i was a bit scooped and my eyes were wandering. So one of the girls turns around and says, you seem distracted, maybe you should just fu<k us. I nearly fell out of the chair when i heard it. She repeats again, come on just fu<k us. I was delighted and standing there saying yeah. But it turned out she was trying to say the word focus. still laugh about it with them to this day

It wasn't me! · 24-02-2008 06:11PM

Had a French girl to whom the word bollocks had to be translated recently.

Fratton Fred · 24-02-2008 10:34PM

It wasn't me! wrote: »

Had a French girl to whom the word bollocks had to be translated recently.

Was she able to get her tongue round it?;)

Clytus · 24-02-2008 10:41PM

I thought this was so funny...

At Mass this morning there was an eastern european family at the end of the pew...so towards the end of Communion the father stood up and brought his toddler daughter up to the alter with him...he took communion...took a tiny nibble himself,and gave the rest to his child...who was only about 2 or at best 3!!!!!!!!!! To say the church was agast would be to put it mildly...but i had to see the funny side...priceless!!!

chopperbyrne · 24-02-2008 11:25PM

I was helping an eastern European girl in work a few months back and she said "I should write it all down because I'm such a spastic with computers!"

She had no idea that what she said was probably quite offensive to many people.

I explained that it was a derogatory way of describing a mentally handicapped person.

She got really distressed saying she says it all the time because she thought it was just slang for stupid!

Poor girl.

Victor · 24-02-2008 11:47PM

Spastic refers to behaviour, not mental ability. For example here:

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/spastic "Offensive Slang Clumsy or inept."

Now some people with cerebral palsy or similar conditions do have similar problems, but you were quite inaccurate.

So you were wrong in telling her she was wrong.

ircoha · 24-02-2008 11:55PM

Victor wrote: »

Spastic refers to behaviour, not mental ability. For example here:

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/spastic "Offensive Slang Clumsy or inept."

Now some people with cerebral palsy or similar conditions do have similar problems, but you were quite inaccurate.

So you were wrong in telling her she was wrong.

While this may be the clinical definition of a spastic, I believe CB to be correct in that his understanding is one which is widely held by a certain generation.

He did her a favour as if she used it in another arena she could end up in a lot more trouble

Those crazy foreigners (no racism/xenophobia)

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