Making language mistakes is no excuse to not try.

Caution: This post and its comments contain themes of an adult nature, although at the time not intentional. This is purely to illustrate how despite slips of the tongue and language barriers, you can still convey meaning in another language.

One of my proudest moments, despite feeling very ashamed of my parents behaviour at the time, was on holiday in Majorca. My parents wanted tea with milk, but the lady serving didn’t speak a word of English. She grasped that they wanted tea but didn’t understand ‘with milk’. So (red face memory), they started mooing like a cow and role-playing the milking of udders.

To end the horrendous experience I shouted out “té con leche”, which immediately remedied the situation and stopped the poor lady calling the police.

My point in this case is that a bit of ’swotting up’ on basic terms in the local language before visiting the country can go a long way. Surely getting a bit of pronunciation wrong would be far less embarrassing than this little anecdote?

There are plenty of examples of language mistakes, and even though I have fallen victim to odd mistake, I never fail to chuckle when I read about them. My personal favourite was when I was at school; a friend had a German exchange student staying at her house. We were all innocently laughing at something she had done when she told us all to “stop pissing on her!” This only added to the hilarity but we all knew that she was trying to say ‘stop taking the mickey’.

I’m pretty sure this term only exists in English and has no German translation equivalent, so for her to even attempt it was pretty brave. And one thing is for certain, her English is far better than my German, so who am I to point the finger?

There are also other examples of English phrases which don’t carry the same meaning when translated into another language; the best example I heard recently was Justin Timberlake’s film “Friends with benefits.” When the previews hit France the film’s title did not mean anything to the French public, so it was marketed as “Sexe entre amis”, literally meaning “sex friends”, not exactly subtle.

I’m sure these instances occur in every language on a regular basis. I know when I attempt to speak abroad I’m always getting my gender references mixed up. In fact I’m willing to hold my hands up and say half the time I don’t even know so I guess – there’s a 50% chance either way right? Or I say it in such a way so that it’s not completely clear what I’ve said but emphasized what I deem to be the key indicators. Not ideal, but it conveys meaning.

I’m hoping I’m not the only person who is willing to share my experiences, personal or otherwise. If you’ve got a cringe worthy story you’re dying to get off your chest please feel free to console me by leaving a little piece of you in the comments box below. I look forward to reading them