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If you've ever interacted with someone who speaks a different language, what is the funniest misunderstanding you've had? (lemmy.dbzer0.com)

submitted 2 weeks ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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An example of what I mean:

I, in China, told an English speaking Chinese friend I needed to stop off in the bathroom to "take a shit."

He looked appalled and after I asked why he had that look, he asked what I was going to do with someone's shit.

I had not laughed so hard in a while, and it totally makes sense.

I explained it was an expression for pooping, and he comes back with, "wouldn't that be giving a shit?"

I then got to explain that to give a shit means you care and I realized how fucked some of our expressions are.

What misunderstandings made you laugh?

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[–] [email protected] 33 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

I was in North Carolina for work recently and one lady was talking about her local brewery where she could "grab her growler" and head over there. Took me a while to recover from laughing at that one.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

What does that mean to you?

[–] [email protected] 15 points 2 weeks ago

From a 2003 entry in urban dictionary:

Growler

Female pubic region, having gone into a state of repair/part of male mating call

Get your growler out

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (2 children)

Is growler not used in the US the same way? It's a style of jug in Canada most often for beer, wine or cider

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 weeks ago

I think so but I'm not American, I'm British

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

It is used that way here, yes. I'm not familiar with any other meaning.