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Post by auntieannie on Jul 29, 2009 21:23:04 GMT
Who laughs at multi-lingual play on words?
Sometimes, I chuckle to myself about concoctions of various languages and obviously cannot share it as nobody finds it funny.
Do you find yourselves in such situations as well?
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Post by Deleted on Jul 29, 2009 21:32:44 GMT
I think I know what you mean. I have caught myself wanting to post some of them and then thought better of it. Give us an example of one of yours Annie.
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Post by lagatta on Jul 29, 2009 23:20:43 GMT
gift in English and German sale in French and English burro in Italian and Spanish
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Post by bixaorellana on Jul 30, 2009 2:11:17 GMT
Um, not all that amusing if you know the word in only one of the languages. <--- this is me, not laughing.
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Post by bjd on Jul 30, 2009 9:02:00 GMT
What I find frustrating is when I have mastered a language enough to make a joke (usually a pun), but people don't laugh because they think it's unintentional.
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Post by tillystar on Jul 30, 2009 12:08:57 GMT
I do grin whenever i see the Mitsubishi 4X4 Pajero.
Pajero = "Wanker" in Spain.
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Post by Deleted on Jul 31, 2009 18:58:36 GMT
What I find frustrating is when I have mastered a language enough to make a joke (usually a pun), but people don't laugh because they think it's unintentional. I was afflicted with that reaction for a long time.
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Post by imec on Jul 31, 2009 19:29:11 GMT
I do confess to having a little childlike chuckle every time I saw a sign in the Frankfurt airport that had a word ending in fahrt.
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Post by traveler63 on Aug 1, 2009 1:59:53 GMT
Chevrolet NOVA Model in English and Spanish!!!!!
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Post by imec on Aug 1, 2009 2:17:18 GMT
Chevrolet NOVA Model in English and Spanish!!!!! AM I the only one that doesn't get that?
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Post by Deleted on Aug 1, 2009 2:23:43 GMT
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Post by imec on Aug 1, 2009 2:29:58 GMT
I never really understood that one - does it mean I'm a real idiot?
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Post by bixaorellana on Aug 1, 2009 3:13:12 GMT
Ha! I get it in Spanish, but don't get why it's funny in English.
no va = doesn't go
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Post by traveler63 on Aug 2, 2009 1:25:59 GMT
Funny Bixa, only that Chevrolet should have done a better job of research and that was one of the examples that was given in my Spanish class about being careful with words that sound alike but mean totally different things or seem innocent and can be embarrasing of misconstrued..
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Post by Deleted on Aug 2, 2009 1:28:30 GMT
I never really understood that one - does it mean I'm a real idiot? Well if you feel that way, but no, I don't get it either, is what I meant ;D
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Post by patricklondon on Aug 2, 2009 11:46:05 GMT
Rolls Royce had a car they called Silver Mist. They couldn't sell it in Germany, where Mist = manure.
I'm waiting for someone in France to tell me their cat has lost its voice, so that I can tell them they can always hang a bell round its neck - faute de miaou.
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Post by auntieannie on Aug 5, 2009 21:02:29 GMT
yep, lagatta, that type of thing. sometimes, if I am "in good shape", I get some slightly more elaborated, but it takes the meaning of one word in one language and how you can build a sentence (in another language) around the former. Sorry, can't find ideas just now. It'll come back.
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Post by auntieannie on Oct 14, 2009 19:00:57 GMT
one I stumbled upon today, but it isn't funny.
the english word was meant to be "foil". As the company I work for is German, this had been keyed into the database as "folie", its German translation. However, "folie" means madness in French.
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Post by bazfaz on Oct 14, 2009 21:26:29 GMT
For some reason I think of the very first dinner party I gave where French neighbours were invited. At some stage I unwisely embarked on tellng a joke. I told it in French but in English it goes like this.
A Frenchman and an Englishman were sitting outside a cafe at separate tables having aa aperitif. Bzzzzz! The Englishman pointed at the Frenchman's glass and said in his best French: Ättention monsieur, le mouche. The Frenchman took the fly out of his glass and held it up and said: La mouche. And the Englishman murmurred: My God, monsieur,what fantastic eyesight.
My French guests peered at me in total bewilderment at the famous British sense of humour.
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Post by bixaorellana on Oct 14, 2009 23:39:16 GMT
I guess you don't have to be French to be bewildered by that joke.
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Post by spindrift on Oct 15, 2009 16:33:02 GMT
Ha ha! Baz..... ;D
I don't suppose that would translate easily into French. They must've thought you were mad!
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Post by auntieannie on Oct 15, 2009 17:37:31 GMT
that's the kind of joke that only works if you are bilingual, I think.
I remember once taking great pain to translate a joke in french to bilingual colleagues - a long time ago, only to realise almost at the end that the joke only worked in english!! I really am hopeless at telling jokes.
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Post by happytraveller on Oct 16, 2009 11:32:53 GMT
LOL Baz, good one !
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Post by Kimby on Oct 16, 2009 19:49:09 GMT
I do confess to having a little childlike chuckle every time I saw a sign in the Frankfurt airport that had a word ending in fahrt. My widowed Austrian grandfather brought his new Austrian girlfriend to visit us in Wisconsin when I was a kid. My sisters and I would practically pee our pants when she'd ask if we'd had a good fahrt when we returned from a trip. (We did, lots of them, actually, but that wasn't what she meant!)
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Post by gertie on Mar 10, 2010 2:31:53 GMT
The fahrt thing gave me quite a laugh, didn't Ikea have a kid's desk called "fartfull" with the meaning in their mother tongue being something like "fast" but of course in English it was a source of much amusement.
When I was a child I was told they could not sell Vicks products under that name in Germany due to Vicks meaning a naughty word in German, however I think that may have been an urban legend as they said when they had the recall a while back one of the countries with the recall was Germany.
Unfortunately the i.Beat.blaxx is not an urban legend a German company actually sold this product, or at least tried to. And then there is Nads, a hair removal product brand.
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Post by bixaorellana on Mar 10, 2010 3:03:10 GMT
I just remembered this one, which is not at all funny. If you're old enough, you'll remember a caramel candy-like diet aid called "Ades". After the 80s, it wasn't around anymore.
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Post by gertie on Mar 22, 2010 0:38:45 GMT
I remember it vividly reason being my mother bought a box of them and hid them on top of the fridge. My little brother was in his early monkey stage, and probably having noticed her getting one and that it looked like candy, climbed the counter and ate half a box. Mother was quite concerned and even called the doctor, but as his appetite remained unaffected she decided there was no need in purchasing any more of the things. ;D
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Post by hwinpp on Mar 22, 2010 7:16:03 GMT
... When I was a child I was told they could not sell Vicks products under that name in Germany due to Vicks meaning a naughty word in German, however I think that may have been an urban legend as they said when they had the recall a while back one of the countries with the recall was Germany. ... Not a complete urban myth. Vicks are sold as Wick in Germany. The 's' at the end is missing, that's what changes the meaning
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Post by Deleted on Mar 22, 2010 8:25:18 GMT
Just like Oil of Olay is called Oil of Olaz in much of Europe for some reason that escapes me, and I think I saw in some other country (Middle East? Asia?) that it was called Oil of Ulay.
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paristraveler
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Post by paristraveler on Mar 22, 2010 15:03:53 GMT
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