Funny miscommunication

Do you have any personal stories when language put you in a difficult situation? I was once in Spain with a friend and she made the typical mistake regarding Portuguese-Spanish: "Estoy embarazada!". In Portuguese, "estou embaraçada" means "I'm embarrassed", in Spanish it means "I'm pregnant".

What they call "une baguette" in France - in Belgium we call it "un pain français" (a french bread).

So when I was in France I asked for "un pain français" and got the answer :

Here all our breads are French - sir.

Also I had a hard time to understand things like he actually did it yesterday since "actuellement" means currently.

I still make this mistake in German a lot when I am not careful. I say "Ich bin gut" instead of "Mir geht es gut". 

For a native Spanish speaker, the distinction between both phrases is not easily spotted. The second phrase means "I am well/ok.", but instead I end up saying "I am good" which means "I am good in bed". 

I am truly sorry to all the Germans who meet me, that is NOT the way I want to start a conversation. 

Michel wrote:

What they call "une baguette" in France - in Belgium we call it "un pain français" (a french bread).
So when I was in France I asked for "un pain français" and got the answer :
Here all our breads are French - sir.
Also I had a hard time to understand things like he actually did it yesterday since "actuellement" means currently.

In Portuguese we have "atualmente" and the same problem with understanding "actually".

ZairaI.Uranga wrote:

I still make this mistake in German a lot when I am not careful. I say "Ich bin gut" instead of "Mir geht es gut".
For a native Spanish speaker, the distinction between both phrases is not easily spotted. The second phrase means "I am well/ok.", but instead I end up saying "I am good" which means "I am good in bed".
I am truly sorry to all the Germans who meet me, that is NOT the way I want to start a conversation.

Jajaja! Then they say we latins are overly sensual!

I can't think of anything now, but Koreans usually can't perfectly pronounce "L" or "R". Sometimes, when my Korean friends spell out their names starting with L or R, it is definitely hard to recognize which is which.. :) 

JaeHong.S wrote:

I can't think of anything now, but Koreans usually can't perfectly pronounce "L" or "R". Sometimes, when my Korean friends spell out their names starting with L or R, it is definitely hard to recognize which is which.. :)

True! And it's the same for Japan and China, isn't it? I had a japanese friend who called me "ballerina" because it was hard for her to say "Valéria". I used to love it!