Lost in translation stories?
I was wondering if anyone had any good stories about mistakes they've made while trying to communicate in Spanish or English. I made one recently...
I was talking to a person about what he had in his car trunk. He said in Spanish, "Tengo un gato... es todo." I was thinking, why does this guy have a cat in his car trunk? I asked him "Por qué tiene un gato en su cajuela???" He just gave me that look that said I was crazy.
I was a little worried about the cat, because it was a pretty hot day and I wasn't sure why the cat would be his trunk. Was the cat being punished? So I asked him to open his trunk fearing the worst for the cat. What I found was a tire jack. That day I learned that a tire jack is also called un gato.
My girlfriend also told me that 'el diablo' is another name used for tire jack. I think if that guy would have said that, I probably would have walked quickly the other way...
5 Answers
A few years ago, on a very hot summer day, I was noticed that there was a new groom at the barn. I introduced myself, shook his hand, looked him straight in the eye and proceeded to tell him, "¡Soy caliente!"
The look of horror on his face was priceless!
I remember a gross one, back in my days as a exchange student in high school. A beautiful girl was passing out papers for a test we were about to do, and I felt like asking for two sheets. I knew what the right spelling of the words was, but I was still learning the basics of English pronunciation, so I only managed to say: "Can you give me a couple sh*ts, please?". The look of disgust in her face was clue enough that I still had a lot to learn..
A delightful young exchange student from Argentina living with us for 6 months was asked what he would like for lunch. He replied, or what I thought that I had heard, was a jam and cheese toasted sandwich. "Um..sure ok' I replied. Imagine the look of surprise on his face when he took a bite into it. He just couldn't get those 'h's' out - we both had a giggle over this one.
I was giving a lesson that involved the Gregorian calendar, explaining how the years before Christ actually increase as you go back in time. This can be bit confusing so I needed to explain that people who actually lived before Christ didn't count the years that way, rather the calender we now use simply wasn't devised yet. However I said:
"El calendario Gregoriano se instituyó por la papa Gregorio en el año 1582."
The confused looks on their faces clearly showed they didn't understand, or so I thought. (I mean it is an odd concept that the numbers go up rather than down, right?) So I kept at it, trying to make it clear, all the while not realizing I was using 'la papa' this and 'la papa' that.
It wasn't until someone spoke up and asked me "¿Qué tiene que ver con eso las papas?" and I heard someone else say it that I realized I had been saying 'potato' all that time.
That made me chuckle, but they still didn't get it until I corrected myself: "...por el papa Gregorio..." Once they realized my mistake and understood what I had been trying to say all that time everyone burst out laughing. I can only imagine that pictures of 'Mr. Potatohead' had been floating through their heads all that time.
My mom's friend said she like to have dressing. My mom thought she meant salad dressing, but she meant stuffing.
