Funny Language Barrier confusions

[Fandango 1,439]

Hey all

Yep, I'm a newbie...I intro'd myself at the other board, but for those of you who didn't catch it, my name is Lisa, I'm engaged to David who's in the UK. We've lived together in the UK for a few years, but now I'm back home & he's planning to come here. We just got engaged, and don't know which visa to go for.

*exhale*

anyways, I posted this on the old now dead board, but welchcookie gave me an idea to make a new thread...

Here's the story:

When I first brought D home to meet the family, my parents set us up in two seperate bedrooms (they had just met him & we weren't living together yet)...anyways...the night he got here, he brought very typical English things as gifts for them...one of them was a book 'Divided by a common language' which has all these little sayings listed. We laughed a bit about them and then all went to bed. He, of course snuck into my room at night.

Long story short (I know, too late!) we overslept & he never went back into his room!!!! My family was already up, but as the master bedroom is downstairs & we were the only ones upstairs, we were hoping we could blag our way out of it.

So we go downstairs & my father greets us for breakkie & we say good morning. I'm all nervous cos I think we're going to get busted. See, my father would have not had a heart attack that we were having relations, only that he asked us to refrain in his house...and to do otherwise would be a huge sign of disrespect to him. Anyways, he askes D how he feels, D says still jetlagged...and very dryly my father says to him 'Hey mate, keep your pecker up' Now to me, it sounded like there was a question on the end of it, like he was challenging us because he knew. I had also never heard that before...I was shocked my father was being so vulgar! I turned beet red & got so flustered cos I thought we were busted...D starts to laugh (I thought it was a nervous laugh, but I was wrong) & I whine Dad!' all shocked..and then he says 'What??? it's in that book!...I didn't make it up!

We all still laugh about that to this day.

Oh, I've got loads of these stories, but this one always tickles me. What's yours?

[Sharon 1]

Hey, welcome to the new and improved VJ, Lisa!

We're a friendly bunch and don't bite, for the most part...too hard.

I have a quick story to share having to do with langauage barrier...it was funny at the time.

Rick and I were out shopping one day after I first came to Virginia and I asked him if there was anywhere to

get a Pogo nearby. He replied that he thought I was a bit old for a Pogo...lol but I answered that as far as I knew there was no age limit for them. I asked him "Wouldn't YOU like to have a Pogo, too?" He said "Been a long time since I had one, can't remember." So that just made me even more insistent on getting us one, I told him it was all the more reason for us to buy one. It was only when I asked him if he prefers his with

mustard or ketchup that he realized we'd encountered a Virginia/Montreal gap hahaha. Where I come from, a POGO is what you call a CORN DOG here! hehehe

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pogo

[KarenCee 3]

welcome to the VJ family...i guess i'm lucky Joel and I don't have any major language things between us. his cuisine is somewhat different though...poutine, rappie pie, donair sauce (all to die for!) i guess that's the only difference there.

[gimygirl 0]

lmao!!!! i would have turned beat red as well!!!!

[Welshcookie 17]

Hmmmm.....I recall a moment like that a few years ago....t'was a crowded pub with all my friends around when my American love proclaimed he would wear his suspenders to the much talked about New Year's Eve party....I have never seen so many eyes averted and low whispers in such a short space of time....

[mercuryroad 0]

Hmmm......I don't have anything that funny but

Lucia says things like "that guy was in such bad humor". I laughed the first time I heard it......after I told my brother he laughed too but now he is saying it all the time.

Lu knows English pretty well, but sometimes she doesn't know a word. She asked me what is the name of that place on your arm that articulates....I said "do you mean elbow".....she said "yes that". Now the funny part for me as that she knew the word articulate but didn't know elbow! There's plenty of people HERE that don't know what articulate means for crying out loud.

[Fandango 1,439]

Hahah, these are great!

I forgot the funniest one of all!!!!

I was in England about a year at this point & we took his then-young kids out to the town centre. Then they wanted to go eat MaccyD's. They decide they want one of the high table tops, so that's where we sit. Well, D goes to the bathroom & the little one (then 8) keeps standing on the footrest of this barstool & swinging around.

I keep telling her to sit down or she may fall, but she doesn't listen. She's a great kid, even a cuter little kid & we have a fabbo relationship. Anyways, I get tired of telling her, so I say 'OI little miss, if your fanny isn't touching that chair in two seconds, you're gonna be in trouble!' (I dunno, I guess I forgot what it meant there!)

She gets this puzzled look on her face, and then contorts herself on the chair for like 2 minutes. She winds up facing the back of the chair in a split..although her little legs were barely reaching over each side of the chair Then she looks up at me & goes 'Lisa, how am I supposed to eat like this?

Once I realized, I nearly died laughing

Edited January 29, 2006 by LisaD

[Fandango 1,439]

Oh, and when D came back from the toilet, he asks his daughter 'why are you sitting like that?' and she said 'I dunno, but Lisa said that if I didn't put my fanny on the chair, I'd be in big trouble'

She found it very funny that that means your butt in America. Made more sense tho

[Sharon 1]

She gets this puzzled look on her face, and then contorts herself on the chair for like 2 minutes. She winds up facing the back of the chair in a split..although her little legs were barely reaching over each side of the chair Then she looks up at me & goes 'Lisa, how am I supposed to eat like this?

Once I realized, I nearly died laughing

Pooooor kid! hehehe

I have a friend who's now married to her Brit and she said the look on his face when she told him he should wear a "fanny pack" when they went on a hike was PRECIOUS!!

[Welshcookie 17]

The first time my kids heard the whole Fanny thing was on an episode of The Simpsons.....they fell about.....I had to tell them it wasn't meant to be THAT funny.......

[Jaylen Brit 0]

ooh ooh me me!!

I have one!

From back in the day when I was hanging in Venice Beach (Ca.) this was.

I was in a bar with a few other expat Brits and ran out of smokes (you can guess whats coming right? lol)

I hollered across to my pal who was emerging from the ladies room 'Got any fags I can bum off you?'

Deathly silence.....

Kept forgetting that one had the ole double meaning - asked someone American dude for a ** one time, same bar (gee they must have thought we were a bunch of perverts) and he just gave me this LOOK..

Edited January 29, 2006 by Jaylen Brit

[Melo 1]

I cannot recall any particular incident - but we sure as heck have a language barrier... crisps, chips so on and so forth

[smoochies 0]

my mother in law was telling me about how she drove her friend from here to Waco as a favor, and her friend "showed her @ss that night"

apparently its an expression for showing their true colors, but I thought this woman had actually shown her @ss...

the other thing that throws me here is when someone is considered ignorant, they're "iggnernt"

[Melo 1]

Paul said he was gonna send me a candy bar and sent me a bar of Belgian chocolate... to be honest I thought he was gonna send me something like fruit gums or some such thing

[smoochies 0]

oh, I know I confuse people for asking for a "pop"

only my husband seems to understand that one

Edited January 29, 2006 by smoochies