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?

  • Maalus@lemmy.world
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    11 days ago

    Yeah, could also be that, but OP said “told us”. Which means they used “w”. Unless the sister made a mistake too. But then again, why would she say that in english. Vet in german is “Tierarzt” which isn’t close to the english “veterinarian”.

    • tetris11@lemmy.world
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      11 days ago

      I’m just saying I’ve seen plenty germans text that misspelling. “are we going to the wet tomorrow?” would be a classic misspelling of a German writing English