If you've ever interacted with someone who speaks a different language, what is the funniest misunderstanding you've had? - eviltoast

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?

  • A_Union_of_Kobolds@lemmy.world
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    17 days ago

    I mean, I can kinda understand it - socialists/communists/anarchists generally prefer ‘sex worker’, because ‘whore’ has some pretty terrible connotations due to being used as a slur for so long.

    But still, censoring it instead of just deleting/blocking the handful of pricks who still say it as an insult seems… well, par for the course for .ml tbh

    • glimse@lemmy.world
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      17 days ago

      I don’t understand it at all when it’s not nearly as bad as some of the shit that gets said on there.

      Pretty pathetic that they feel the need to censor words