Input welcomed.

[Aram]

I'm in the process of writing a series of essays for a class here.
The overall theme is culture and the universal traits that encompass it.
After twisting my head around it for a week, I've finally managed to make sense of it.
(I prefer being able to choose my own topics.)
I've decided to write about languages and their various foibles.

Does anyone have any language stories? Whether trying to communicate with someone that doesn't speak English or trying to speak another language, it doesn't matter.

Or, if anyone had any suggestions I would be open to them. Obviously, I'm not asking for anything that may be considered 'classified' but, there's some pretty interesting stories I'm sure.

If you would like, you can email me or PM me here on the board. I would appreciate any insight ya'll might have. :)
My email address is blackspartan98@hotmail.com

Thanks - Aram.

[Courtenay]

This story was told to me by a former co-worker.

It has to do with the differences in word usage, country to country, in the Spanish language. In this case it is the word "cojer" which means "to take". In Spain and most of the Carribean and South America it is simply that, "to take", however, in Mexico, it is "to take" in a sexual manner.

So, my co-worker's mother was fulfilling a life-long dream to visit Spain. (She was originally from a small provence in Baja-California, MX. Where the word "cojer" had a very specific sexual meaning.) She had a heart attack while in Spain and was taken to a local hospital. The hospital was extremely busy, and she had been left alone on a stretcher in a hallway (which actually is pretty common apparently in hospitals there). Her husband was busy with the hospital administration trying to figure out what they were going to do as far as insurance etc. while she was alone in this hallway waiting. Well, apparently she was already extremely frightened and over excited from everything going on when a hospital orderly leaned over to let her know that he was taking her now, only using the word "cojer". The 70 something year old woman jumped up and ran down the hospital corridor screaming that the orderly wanted to rape her. According to my co-worker it took hours and the explaination from a Doctor who had travelled to Mexico for them finally to figure out why she thought that the orderly wanted to rape her!

[Courtenay]

Here's a couple of famous ones as well:

Two attempts by American Presidents to express their solidarity with Europeans produced risible results. In June 1963, John F. Kennedy stood at the Berlin Wall and intoned, "Ich bin ein Berliner," which translates as "I am a cream bun." In December 1977, Jimmy Carter gave a speech in Poland which included the sentence, "I want to know the Polish people." When this was rendered into Polish, the word "know" was mis-translated so that Carter was quoted in the Polish media as having said, "I want to have carnal knowledge of the Polish people."

There was one more by a politician giving a speech in Mexico where he made a mistake speaking and tried to say he was "embarrassed" and wanted to try to do it over, but instead made a bigger mistake when he used the word "embarazada" which is "pregnant" for the word embarrassed. Saying, "Soy embarazada (avergonzado), permití que mí tratar otra vez." So, after the original minor language mistake which he was trying to apologize for, he went on to say "I am pregnant and please allow me to try again". Unfortunately, I came up empty on a search of which politician it was. Although I am pretty sure it was GW.

[MzAbby]

I'm in the process of writing a series of essays for a class here.
The overall theme is culture and the universal traits that encompass it.
After twisting my head around it for a week, I've finally managed to make sense of it.
(I prefer being able to choose my own topics.)
I've decided to write about languages and their various foibles.


Just curious, but would you be willing to share an essay or two once you have completed them? Sorry, don't have an experiences to share though.

[Aram]

Just curious, but would you be willing to share an essay or two once you have completed them? Sorry, don't have an experiences to share though.

Absolutely, I'd have to upload them into PDF format and give the link.

Thanks, Court, those are too good. I'm sitting here in one of the labs trying to keep from laughing too loudly.
One other thing, can you provide the source of the stories? I have to cite them, otherwise I'll be accused of one of the 16 deadly sins: plagarism. :)

[Courtenay]

Hmmmm, well, seems to me your "source" would be the Navy SEALs message board!

I am not sure what else to tell you. My co-worker's name? The others you may be able to find on the internet somewhere. Although, I am pretty sure you could sight asking and and receiving responses on a message board as your source.

[Aram]

Maybe a psudonym? That would protect everyones privacy and keep me from being banished to hell :)

ediiit... I've just finished the first draft, with only a few minor additions, (including your story, Court) left to fix. Thanks for your help ... who knows when I may need it again!

[Aram]

ouch! First draft of this cursed thing and I've managed to stretch a 2-3 page essay into 12 pages. Again, thanks to everyone that has contributed. And I'm nowhere near being finished so if you think of something else, let me know.