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Did they really mean to say that?

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  • #1

    Did they really mean to say that?

    If you have examples of any humorous (or tragic, for that matter...) misunderstandings or mistranslations due to linguistic or cultural differences that you'd like to share....



    I had leftover Chinese for lunch today, and my fortune cookie said:

    It's all right to have butterflies in your stomach. Just get them to fly in formation.
    To me that sounds too much like vomiting!
    "Hope is a good thing; maybe the best of things."

    "Beer is a sign that God loves us and wants us to be happy." -- Benjamin Franklin

    "Being Irish, he had an abiding sense of tragedy, which sustained him through temporary periods of joy." -- W. B. Yeats

    "People generally are most impatient with those flaws in others about which they are most ashamed of in themselves." - folk wisdom
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  • #2
    Re: Did they really mean to say that?

    Oh, it has to be cultural differences? There was recently an article whose headline I think said something like "6000 RIM jobs on the line"...

    Comment

    • #3
      Originally posted by FlagDUDE08 View Post
      Oh, it has to be cultural differences? There was recently an article whose headline I think said something like "6000 RIM jobs on the line"...
      Sounds like those people should do some serious butt-kissing
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      • #4
        Re: Did they really mean to say that?

        or when the newspaper headlines say something like "Obama deals blow to coal mining lobby." I thought he gave up drugs once he left Columbia?
        "Hope is a good thing; maybe the best of things."

        "Beer is a sign that God loves us and wants us to be happy." -- Benjamin Franklin

        "Being Irish, he had an abiding sense of tragedy, which sustained him through temporary periods of joy." -- W. B. Yeats

        "People generally are most impatient with those flaws in others about which they are most ashamed of in themselves." - folk wisdom

        Comment

        • #5
          Re: Did they really mean to say that?

          Saw a newspaper headline: "Child's Stool Great for Gardening"
          If you don't change the world today, how can it be any better tomorrow?

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          • #6
            Re: Did they really mean to say that?

            I guess this item fits here, at least as well as it fits in any existing thread....

            Not sure if this is urban legend or based on a true story, supposedly in the early days of vanity license plates, there was this guy in California who got the plate "NO NE" (who knows, maybe he was from New Orleans and his wife was from Nebraska?). Anyway, within a year he accumulated something like $271,000 in parking tickets.

            You see, if police ticket a car that has no plates on them, what do they write in the "license plate" section of the ticket?
            "Hope is a good thing; maybe the best of things."

            "Beer is a sign that God loves us and wants us to be happy." -- Benjamin Franklin

            "Being Irish, he had an abiding sense of tragedy, which sustained him through temporary periods of joy." -- W. B. Yeats

            "People generally are most impatient with those flaws in others about which they are most ashamed of in themselves." - folk wisdom

            Comment

            • #7
              Re: Did they really mean to say that?

              Wisconsin Recall Comes Down to Who Gets More Voters to Polls -- CNN Headline
              "Hope is a good thing; maybe the best of things."

              "Beer is a sign that God loves us and wants us to be happy." -- Benjamin Franklin

              "Being Irish, he had an abiding sense of tragedy, which sustained him through temporary periods of joy." -- W. B. Yeats

              "People generally are most impatient with those flaws in others about which they are most ashamed of in themselves." - folk wisdom

              Comment

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