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Post by penguinopolipitese on May 24, 2006 22:54:02 GMT -5
I've noticed recently there are bound to be words that sound like swears in another language. Case and point, home and work: my housemate is taiwanese and I've discovered the word for "um" sounds like nigga...which makes it sound like he's some gangsta; at work everyone is romanian and the word 'to do' is something like 'fac'...so it's fac this and fac that all day long.
Anyone else have any interesting confusions?
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Post by y2j on May 24, 2006 23:36:36 GMT -5
^  'Lee' means dick (not penis) in Burmese, so everyone's favourite martial artist is Bruce... dick... 'Jo' is the more polite way to refer to a penis in Burmese. So I always feel sorry for anyone named Lee or Jo or Joe when they meet Burmese people. |
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╗
New Member
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Post by ╗ on May 25, 2006 1:02:08 GMT -5
"Madapaka" is Filipino (Tagalog) for "you might fall down" or "you might trip" or something like that. It sounds like "mother f******" 'Lee' means dick (not penis) So it means "dick" as in the guy's name? Short for "Richard"? |
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Post by rudiger on May 25, 2006 4:12:33 GMT -5
Brazilian footballer Kaka. his name literally means "s***" in french (caca but pronounced the same way). so everytime he gets a goal it's like "s*** scoressssssss!!!"  |
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Post by helix on May 25, 2006 9:06:18 GMT -5
i knew that the real purpose of this thread was to get everyone to post naughty foreign words!  *jots down post contents for future use* |
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Post by davidbleo on May 25, 2006 18:41:48 GMT -5
When I was at a language school in Germany, 2 years ago, I asked to a finn girl for a pen... Kuli in german "Hast du ein Kuli?", but kulli in finnish means penis... so, she started to laugh and I didn't know why... and the very fist day I asked to another finn how to say hi, he said "perkele"... so, when I saw that girl I said "perkele" to her, and she got angry until she knew that I didn't know the meaning... and I still don't know exactly what "perkele" means
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erinny2000
Junior Member
Filipino/Dutch
Posts: 177
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Post by erinny2000 on May 25, 2006 19:21:20 GMT -5
Kiki in Filipino means a female's privates but it can also be used as a name in some places so hopefully your name is not Kiki and you're around somebody who understands Filipino.
Vaak in Dutch means often but almost sounds like the f word in English.
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Post by TeeHee on May 25, 2006 22:13:14 GMT -5
not sure about other western countries, but alot of [ignorant] americans incorrectly pronounce the french phrase "beau coup" as "boo coo". and in vietnamese, that incorrect pronunciation can very easily come across sounding like "suck dick/penis".
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Post by helles on May 26, 2006 0:44:36 GMT -5
^ wait.. how are you supposed to pronounce 'beau coup' then??
anyway, in canto, due to all the 'tones' if you arent careful, instead of saying yes (hai - neutral tone) you could say c*nt (hai - up tone)
and also, in MI3, maggie Q's awful attempt to speak canto sounded like she was swearing too.. when she was supposed to say clumsy 'luun jun' she sounded like she was saying a rude word 'lun' (testicles).
when my friends at uni discovered 'neige' in mandarin that could be used a lot mid-sentence, they were obsessed with using it all the time.
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Post by TeeHee on May 26, 2006 1:53:30 GMT -5
^ wait.. how are you supposed to pronounce 'beau coup' then?? like "boh" coo, not "boo" coo....may seem real trivial, but obviously the littlest things can completely change things in different languages. |
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Post by jefe on May 27, 2006 12:18:13 GMT -5
I noticed that a few persons on this forum have complained about Maggie Q's Cantonese in MI3, but I do not think it was that awful -- pretty good actually -- certainly better than 90% of the people in HK speak English. -- And the HK audience that I watched it with seemed more impressed by it and no one laughed at her pronuniciation. And I do not agree that she mispronounced the "leun" in "leun jeun" so that it would get mistaken for the other rude word. I think it was OK.
My opinion only -- I respect everyone else's opinion.
And also, 'Lun' does not mean testicles. It means 'd*i*ck'.
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Post by jefe on May 27, 2006 12:27:06 GMT -5
not sure about other western countries, but alot of [ignorant] americans incorrectly pronounce the french phrase "beau coup" as "boo coo". and in vietnamese, that incorrect pronunciation can very easily come across sounding like "suck dick/penis". I am sorry to have to advise you that the *ignorant* [sic] Americans who pronounce "beaucoup" as "boo coo" are indeed saying it correctly, FOR ENGLISH. You see, the word has already entered the English language and has become an English word already. The fact that it has become semi-Anglicized is nothing new. Look at words such as "liaison", "vis a vis", "coup d'etat", "chauffeur", etc. etc. etc. People speaking English do not pronounce them exactly like French because, after all, they are now also English words. dictionary.reference.com/search?q=beaucoupIn fact, boo coo and boo koo are alternate spellings of the same word. So, THEY are not the ones who are ignorant. No one is saying that they are actually speaking French. If they were actually attempting to speak actual French, then of course, the pronunciation is nothing like standard French. |
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gb
Junior Member
Posts: 173
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Post by gb on May 27, 2006 20:37:27 GMT -5
apparently, "yummy yummy" in vietnamese means i'm really really horny. apparently.
oh, and although this isn't language itself, apparently russians laugh at all us westerners when we make " " gestures in our speech like in austin powers "time machine". actually, thinking about it, keep making the gestures back and forth and you realise it looks pretty daft
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Post by TeeHee on May 28, 2006 4:50:54 GMT -5
not sure about other western countries, but alot of [ignorant] americans incorrectly pronounce the french phrase "beau coup" as "boo coo". and in vietnamese, that incorrect pronunciation can very easily come across sounding like "suck dick/penis". I am sorry to have to advise you that the *ignorant* [sic] Americans who pronounce "beaucoup" as "boo coo" are indeed saying it correctly, FOR ENGLISH. You see, the word has already entered the English language and has become an English word already. The fact that it has become semi-Anglicized is nothing new. Look at words such as "liaison", "vis a vis", "coup d'etat", "chauffeur", etc. etc. etc. People speaking English do not pronounce them exactly like French because, after all, they are now also English words. dictionary.reference.com/search?q=beaucoupIn fact, boo coo and boo koo are alternate spellings of the same word. So, THEY are not the ones who are ignorant. No one is saying that they are actually speaking French. If they were actually attempting to speak actual French, then of course, the pronunciation is nothing like standard French. ^yea i'm already aware of all that...when i referred to them as "ignorant", i meant it in the context that they can never seem to accept a foreign word/name's pronunciation as-is, and not make everybody else "become anglicized"(for lack of a better term). part of my frustrations, for example, is how most folks here in the US can't seem to get my name right, no matter how many times i correct them. they're always spelling it putting the I before the E(as we all know of the "I before E except after C" rule in the english language). but my name is french, and they know that, so one would think that they'd realize that rule wouldn't necessarily apply, but no. |
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Post by y2j on May 28, 2006 5:13:07 GMT -5
'Lee' means dick (not penis) So it means "dick" as in the guy's name? Short for "Richard"? No it means the informal version of penis. Sorry I wasn't clear, it means penis, but it is the equivalent of referring to a penis as a dick. |
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