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?

  • jj4211@lemmy.world
    24·
    23 days ago

    I heard a story about how in world war 2 British and American generals got into an argument about the importance of a certain matter.

    The British thought the matter needed to be tabled and the Americans were shocked and thought it must not be tabled.

    Took some time for them to realize “tabling” an issue meant the exact opposite in America and UK

    Since hearing that story the exact expression came up for me online once and on a work call once with British and American speakers.

    No foreign language, but still.