Translation Difficulties: 10 funny cases of not knowing English

Together with EnglishDom, an online English language school, we have collected funny stories that people have gotten into because of their imperfect English. The situations are really funny and fun to retell with your family, but a perfect command of the language will help you accumulate even more cool stories.

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And now we have a series of funny and very funny stories about the difficulties of translation.

Ludmila Sologub

Here is the cherry on the cake of my English:

Passport control at a connecting flight in Amsterdam:

- Where are you going?

- Barcelona.

- Hotel reservation?

- I'm staying with my aunt. only I pronounced the word "aunt" as ant.

He asked me three times, but I was adamant I was going to my aunt's.

Natalia Borshch

During transit at Dubai airport, a woman in traditional Muslim clothing came up and gestured "wash your face - where?". And I took her to the washbasin in the ladies' room, even turned on the water (touch screen control, not everyone understands). But she shook her head and kept making the same movements with her hands around her face. I even wondered if I should wash her or what. And then she laughed for a long time. Not without help from the locals, it turned out that she needed to go to the prayer room to pray. A wonderful woman, and a very warm memory of her.

Oksana Stepanok

Once in Greece I was asked who I was vacationing with on the beach. I answered in English that with my husband, and pointed a finger at him, say over there mai hasband. A minute later, my husband comes to the company (where everyone clearly understands who he is) and asked in English "are you her husband?". The husband responds (not knowing how "husband" is translated) by waving his head violently from side to side and saying "nooo". He is asked again: are you her husband? He looks confused at me and at the person who asked the question and repeats: nooo :) I said to him: "say "ss!", and he said "no!". In general, the whole company had a good laugh, and I will remember this incident for a long time.

Elena Bilyakova

When we got lost in the subway in Paris, my husband wanted to ask for directions himself, he spent a long time tuning up, rehearsing the question, and in the end he caught the first Frenchman and poked his finger into the map in front of his nose with the words "I must be here". The guy was confused, of course, but he gave me directions, to which my husband replied "thank you please". He really hates it when I bring it up. :)

Alexander Yudkovich

I can still speak, but it's not always easy to understand what you're saying, especially in the States, where nobody cares what accent you have! In Britain, if they hear that you are a visitor, they try to speak slower and simpler. But somehow I always managed to get by, and I'm still alive! :) At a ski resort in the States, I ride in the same chair on the elevator with a talkative American. He says something, I nod, but at the end he says to me - listen, you don't understand shit! That's right, I answer! We laughed heartily!

Ivanna Czajka

About four years ago I was in Budapest for Hungarian Independence Day. I was walking around the center and decided to take coffee with me. I went into a cafe and the phrase "coffee to go" went out of my head.

I stood there and could not give birth to anything but "Give me a coffee and I'll go away". You should have seen the look on the waiter's face at that moment. The guy with his blue eyes looked at me like a terrorist, not a tourist. And I understand him. :) Coffee was brought to me, but not in a cup, but in a regular cup. They said drink it and leave. So I drank and left, as promised.

Big Tasty

English was needed in Dubai at Burger King when I couldn't explain that I wanted fries. The response was that they didn't have free fries.

Tanya Belaya

In Sri Lanka, when descending from Adam's Peak, I mixed up the path. I went towards Ratnapura instead of Hatona Plateau - it is 30 km farther from the place where the car and driver were waiting for me.... It took me a long time to realize that I was going the wrong way, but I got it.... I had to explain myself in terrible English (like: help mi, very, very help) with a local young man.... In general, his family was kind-hearted. They sheltered me, fed me, contacted my driver. And since the village was small, their son also went to pick up the driver, who was waiting for me in a completely different place..... All in all, a story with a good ending. Oh, and they flatly refused the money I offered them.

Dmitry Kozyr

Once I was flying from Kyiv to Warsaw. It was quite cool on the airplane and I decided to ask the stewardess for a plaid. When she approached me, I said with full confidence: "Sorry, could you give me anapkins?" To which she asked me back, "What?"

"I mean what?", I thought. And, showing physically that I was freezing, I repeated, "Could you give me a napkins, please?" The girl said "ok" and walked away. She returned a minute later, solemnly handed me a blanket and said: "This is your blanket, sir." And then it hit me! She and I laughed and I continued my beautiful flight.

***

I went to an English school in Santa Barbara, California. When I went to sign up, there was a woman sitting at the front desk. We started chatting and she asked me what my purpose was for coming to the school. I answered that I wanted to teach English. She was surprised and asked me again: "You wanna teach English?" I didn't understand what the problem was and replied with full confidence, "Yes, I wanna teach English".

- Teach?

- Yes, teach.

And after a minute of this dialog, the woman said that they don't hire anyone to teach English.

Then my friend came up to me and said that it was correct to say study English, not teach English. We figured it out, laughed, and I signed up for the school.

And as a bonus, here's another story. It's not about the difficulties of translation, but we couldn't help sharing it with you.

Valery Bantush

Were waiting for a landlord named Kristian. Asked the person hanging out next to him, "Are you Kristian?" Which basically sounded the same as "Are you Christian?" And he said, "Yes, I believe in God." :) We had a long laugh with him when we explained that it was a name and that we were not Jehovah's Witnesses. :)

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