Server: Netscape-Enterprise/2.01 Date: Mon, 29 Dec 1997 19:19:36 GMT Accept-ranges: bytes Last-modified: Tue, 25 Nov 1997 17:18:40 GMT Content-length: 14972 Content-type: text/html Café Berlitz - Contest

Berlitz World Navigation Bar

 

Have you been involved in a cultural or linguistic Faux Pas?!? If so, and you'd like to tell the world (wide web) about it, send your story to webmaster@berlitz.com. If we use your Faux Pas on our site, we'll send you a Berlitz T-shirt. Just remember, include your name, address, telephone number and shirt size, and tell us whether you'd like us to use your name or e-mail address!

Language Faux Pas courtesy of visitors to Berlitz World!


The following e-mail was sent to the employees of a U.S. company:

Subject: Network Crushed

We apologized the network has been crushed this afternoon around 3:15pm. The problem was someone attempted to send or transfer a huge file through the network, the server memory halted, and the network crushed. If someone needs to send or transfer a huge file on the network please let me know so I can give you some suggestion how to do so without network crushing.

New Jersey - U.S.


I was a Peace Corps volunteer in Nepal working as an English Teacher several years ago. One of the teachers at my school invited me to his house for dinner one evening. I went home first to clean up and change clothes. On my way to his house it started raining so by the time I arrived I was soaked. I walked in to his house and his entire family was waiting to greet me. He said "What happened to you Mr. Phil; you're all wet?" I responded: "I forgot my "Chata." All of a sudden the children burst out laughing. "What did I say?" I asked. He explained to me that the word for umbrella in Nepali is "Chhata" (with an aspirated ch sound) and that "chata" (unaspirated) refers to hair.

Philip W. Rudy
Melbourne, Florida - U.S.


My first trip overseas was when I was 15, and I visited France with a group from school. Our first afternoon in Paris, we had some free time, so a friend and I went off to buy some postcards and stamps, and to try out our French. We went into a tabac, found some postcards, then went to pay for them and to buy some stamps. I said to the saleswoman, "Je voudrais aussi des timbales." Looked at me and said, "Des timbales?" I said, "Oui." She said, "Tu veux des timbres." Instead of asking for stamps, I had asked for some casseroles. So much for impressing her with my French!

Laurel Baumer
Wayland, Massachusetts – U.S.


We were visiting the city of Merida in Mexico during the installation of a system. One of the engineers travelling with me, was importing some replacement cursor positioning devices. We refer to one of these as a mouse and Spanish speaking engineers usually call them "ratones", which is the Spanish word for mice. Our engineer duly recorded the devices in the customs form as "mice". The customs officer requested a clarification: "You indicate that you are not importing living things, yet you list mice on you form". He explained the situation to the officer who processed the duty payment for these and allowed them through. They then proceeded to search all of his bags. One of the customs would not come near the bags. The other officer opened the boxes containing the devices with a great deal of care and fear until he became convinced that these were indeed computer devices and not mice.

Marcos A. Solá-Cruz
Melbourne, Forida - U.S.


When I visited the Basque region of Spain upon finished high school, I was speaking to my friend's parents in beginner's Spanish. We were eating "calamares y su tinta". I was so nervous eating these, knowing that they could be poisonous, that the fork flew out of my hand since I was shaking. I wanted to tell them that I was embarrassed, so I said "Estoy embarazada." They started laughing since the translation meant that I was pregnant!!

Orly Schlein
New York, NY – U.S.


This April, we attended my wife's second cousin's wedding in Boiano, Italia. My brother from Vancouver was with us for the festivities and spoke no Italian whatsoever, however, he bought an Italian phrasebook at the airport and studied on the way to the wedding and the reception. At the end of a fabulous event, my brother strolled confidently up to my wife's Italian cousin's, including the bride and groom and individually prasied them and said "Bene Cuoto, Bene Cuoto!" They all looked around at one another bewildered since none of them speak any English and couldn't relate to "Well done" to being "Bene fatto", instead of "well cooked!".

Doug Farley
Toronto, Ontario - Canada


I was working as a country doctor a few years ago and had learnt some very basic Serbo-croatian. One day a very elderly Serbian lady presented with her husband. She spoke almost no English. I bravely commenced with "Shta mozhem da radim za tebe danas?" (What can I do for you today?). She was overjoyed to have at last found an Australian who understood her lingo. A torrent of rapid fire Serbian ensued as she attempted to make up lost time in describing every conceivable ailment that had befallen her since arrival in this country. I grasped just the occasional "noga" (leg) , and "boli" (pain). I nodded very sympathetically and agreed, "noga boli". Eventually her husband intervened with a question in Serbian which sounded suspiciously like "When do you want to see her again?" . At last I thought.... something I can say ... Dva nedelja (two weeks).. I pronounced with great certitude. The lady suddenly looked stunned. Her husband almost rolled on the floor laughing. What he had actually asked was "How long is she gonna live, Doc??"

Name Michael Taylor
Bendigo, Australia


One day in our chemistry class the professor was giving a lecture on how to carry out an experiment. During the lecture, a part of his instructions went like this " ....Now take a copper wire of any material and dip it into the blue colourless solution.....". Students, who were taking notes burst out laughing at the imposssible concept of "copper wire of any material" and "blue colourlesss solution". The professor, though flummoxed at first, saw the humour and started laughing.

Sudip Kalyan Dey
West Bengal, India.

 

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