Although learning another language can be an arduous task requiring hours and hours of strenuous study, there is humour to be found whilst undertaking your studies. The Telegraph has compiled a top 10 list of foreign language faux pas. English is particularly prone to these faux pas as it is composed of many different languages. Many words that English acquired were applied to different words in English than that of its native origin. Add to that the evolution of languages as well as a few coincidences and you get some humourous examples of being lost in translation. Below are some of my favourite examples from The Telegraph’s list.<\/p>\n
Swedish – kissa <\/em>means to urinate, and lustig <\/em>means humorous, not lusty. Just don’t be surprised if the conversation ends with the word slut \u2013 <\/em>it means \u201cend\u201d in Swedish.<\/p>\n Turkish – Though Turkish people are famously friendly, be careful with a casual hiya<\/em>, as it sounds the same as the Turkish word for testicles. For a night out, remember that you can\u2019t gamble in a gazino<\/em>; the word means caf\u00e9 in Turkish. You may wind up at a nightspot that features a \u015fark\u0131<\/em>, which is a singer, not a shark.<\/p>\n German – If you\u2019re celebrating a birthday there, don\u2019t accept a gift<\/em>. As a noun, it means poison, not a present. If asked what you\u2019ve bekommen<\/em>, folks want to know what you received, not what you\u2019ve become. And don\u2019t worry if your friends want to meet you by the Rathaus<\/em>. In German, Rat<\/em> means council, and often serves as a prefix for words describing municipal jobs or places.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Although learning another language can be an arduous task requiring hours and hours of strenuous study, there is humour to be found whilst undertaking your studies. The Telegraph has compiled a top 10 list of foreign language faux pas. English is particularly prone to these faux pas as it is composed of many different languages. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,242],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1689","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-german","category-swedish"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.language-museum.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1689","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.language-museum.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.language-museum.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.language-museum.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.language-museum.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1689"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/www.language-museum.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1689\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1702,"href":"http:\/\/www.language-museum.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1689\/revisions\/1702"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.language-museum.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1689"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.language-museum.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1689"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.language-museum.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1689"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}