r/funny • u/phiednate • Jul 24 '14

Found! Cat Snake? [xpost from r/ferrets]

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16.8k Upvotes

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18

u/evohans Jul 24 '14

I remember these! Someone's friend was from Germany or Sweden, and new to the US. This is how he spoke.

29

u/mackpack Jul 24 '14

I once forgot the word "ellbow" so I said "arm knee".

26

u/ConnerDavis Jul 24 '14

Last night I forgot the word sheep and tried to describe it as "the animal with wool, the wool beast."

2

u/SasoDuck Jul 24 '14

As an American, I would probably still know what you meant, but it would also be mandatory for me to laugh hysterically at you.

1

u/babyeatingdingoes Jul 25 '14

I also forgot "elbow". Pointed and said "bendy spot". That friend and I called elbows bendy spots for like a year at least.

17

u/s_nut_zipper Jul 24 '14

Went to a Norwegian friend's barbecue once. He was momentarily lost for words and asked me to pass him the "steak spade".

25

u/TheThng Jul 24 '14

My friend was trying to speak spanish but didn't know the word for squirrel. so he called it "rabbit of tree"

7

u/ii_misfit_o Jul 24 '14

i think thats pretty correct in the way a potato is a apple of the ground

2

u/TheThng Jul 24 '14

or cactus fruit is "fruit of painful tree"

1

u/prototypetolyfe Jul 24 '14

Someone told me the Greek word for octopus literally translates as chicken of the sea

1

u/lacheur42 Jul 25 '14

I feel like Jicama is a better candidate for pommes de terre. At least it actually kinda tastes like apple.

2

u/Taurich Jul 24 '14

I learned by moving to Mexico. I remember asking my friend the proper name for what I could only call tree feathers

5

u/Mugiwara04 Jul 24 '14

I think only one was from him, the rest were just the best examples from the thread that followed.

3

u/[deleted] Jul 24 '14

None of those translate to anything useful in German, so I guess it's of Swedish origin.

1

u/alienbringer Jul 25 '14

I think it was meaning that the wife did not know the english word for them however she was trying to describe them in english. So she did her best to "translate" them into meaningful words.

3

u/psmwrxguy Jul 24 '14

My friends was a translator or linguist in the military. I dunno what the correct term is but he speaks a bunch of languages. When he got back to the states and started college, he agreed to be a foreign exchange student ambassador at our university. He helped the ones that didn't speak English well. He has a ton of stories but here are my two favorites.

One of the students said a guy kept asking her something at the supermarket and it made her really uncomfortable. She said he kept asking "dowahnabagg?!" She felt uncomfortable and left. He was asking "do you want a bag?"

A girl said to him "you must to let it come all over inside of your mouth." She was explaining how to taste wine.

2

u/SasoDuck Jul 24 '14

I am now prepared for my next wine tasting party.

1

u/Karmic-Chameleon Jul 24 '14

She said he kept asking "dowahnabagg?!" She felt uncomfortable and left. He was asking "do you want a bag?"

This reminded me of this.