Funny English

by goldensky 6 Replies latest jw friends

  • goldensky
    goldensky

    Although we live in Spain, I've always spoken exclusively English to my two children since there were born (a 10-year-old boy and an 8-year old girl). Since I am their only "source" of English, their level leaves a lot to be desired, although they can have conversations with English speakers without any trouble. Also the fact that many words have exactly the same pronunciation but a different spelling and meaning doesn't help much.

    When my son was 3 or 4 I told him that Hitler didn't like Jews at all. He was disproportionately surprised and I couldn't quite understand what he had found so astonishing, until he said, "But how can any one NOT like juice?" You see, the difference between the soft and the hard sound of the s is not very detectable.

    Three weeks ago I said to my daughter, "I've told you a hundred times to put on a pair of knickers (undies) after your bath. I don't like you sitting at the piano with your bare bottom". She burst into tears and left the room saying, "Now you have offended me, Mum. I DON'T have a bear bottom, I have a girl's bottom!" I choked with laughter...

    I'm sure you have many funny stories too. Will you share them?

  • Open mind
    Open mind

    Hi goldensky,

    I learned to never try to "Espanify" an English word and hope it's correct.

    I wanted to tell a Spanish family that I, a 26 year old male, was embarrassed. So I said that I was Muy Embarassada. Close enough to the real Spanish word Embarazada, which as you well know means....................................pregnant.

    Not one of my finest multi-lingual moments.

    om

  • goldensky
    goldensky

    Ha, ha! How about when we Spanish say, "I'm very constipated" when what we really mean is, "I have a bad cold" ("Estoy muy constipada").

  • Elsewhere
    Elsewhere

    Sounds like you are bumping into very common childhood miscommunications.

    I wouldn't worry about it.

  • bluecanary
    bluecanary

    Reminds me of the brother who invited the group to his home for Saturday morning servesa.

  • compound complex
    compound complex

    Welcome, goldensky, to the forum!

    I recall the slaughter of a few words, pronounced as written. I'll leave it to your imagination:

    indict
    debut
    impugn

    More later, I'm sure.

    BTW: it's French, but funny. The multilingual actress Ingrid Bergman once brought down the house when she confused "champion" [champion] with "mushroom" [champignon]; pronunciation is close but scarcely identical. She was congratulating some tennis "mushrooms" on their victory!

    CoCo

  • TheClarinetist
    TheClarinetist

    There was a Brotherâ„¢ who was new to American Sign Language. He was giving a talk on the subject of why you don't punish children while angry. After the talk, someone approached him. Apparently, he had spent five minutes on stage telling people not to punish their children while hungry.

    (The sign for hungry and angry are the same... just done in the opposite direction)

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