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#Post#: 16203--------------------------------------------------
Funny Language Learning Commercials
By: Nikola Date: May 27, 2019, 4:52 am
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HTML https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NdCYe4FoMRA
contains strong language
#Post#: 16209--------------------------------------------------
Re: Funny Language Learning Commercials
By: MartinSR Date: May 27, 2019, 7:53 am
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I remember one commercial I heard on the radio.
A businessman who tried to use dictionary instead of taking
language lessons tries to write a business letter:
'Expensive Mr. Smith'
#Post#: 16272--------------------------------------------------
Re: Funny Language Learning Commercials
By: SHL Date: May 28, 2019, 11:45 pm
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Nikola,
They are all funny, but I especially liked the Bud Light clips.
I found this when I was looking up faulty translations the other
night:
„When John F. Kennedy met Joseph Luns, the former Dutch Minister
of Foreign Affairs, Kennedy asked for his hobbies and he
replied, „I fok horses.“ Kennedy, struck with surprise
responded, „Pardon?“ Lun replied, „Yes, Paarden!“
„Fokken“ means to bred and horses means „Paarden“ in Dutch.
Thank goodness, German has „züchten“ instead of something like
„fokken“, even if „Paarden“ does look an awful lot like
„Pferde.“
But, on a more serious note, I also read once that a family
brought a sick son, age 18, to a hospital in South Florida back
in 1980 and didn‘t speak English. They kept saying „intoxicado“
which in Spanish just means that you ingested something. It
could be food, a drug, anything that made you sick. The family
thought something the boy had eaten might have caused the
symptoms, but the interpreter translated the Spanish as
„intoxicated.“ The doctor made a diagnosis of drug overdose. A
couple of days later the medical team discovered that the
problem was actually bleeding in the brain but by that time the
boy had suffered lasting damage and ended up a quadriplegic.
So, sometimes translation mistakes can have pretty serious
consequences, especially in cases of our occasional
no-so-friendly „false friends“ in language.
#Post#: 16273--------------------------------------------------
Re: Funny Language Learning Commercials
By: MartinSR Date: May 29, 2019, 2:52 am
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[quote author=SHL link=topic=1105.msg16272#msg16272
date=1559105137]
... the interpreter translated the Spanish as „intoxicated.“ The
doctor made a diagnosis of drug overdose....
[/quote]
It's interesting. I'm always skeptical about medical
translations done by interpreters who know little to nothing
about the subject they translate. Sometimes even the common
words may have different meanings for medical professionals.
On the other hand if the doctor have been taught Latin he would
know what 'intoxicatio alimentaria' means (Spanish: intoxicación
alimentaria). The English meaning of 'intoxicated' (as drunk or
after a drug overdose) is probably a bit surprising for
non-native speakers, because the 'intoxication' is literally
'intake of toxins' and 'toxin' (according to the Cambridge
Dictionary) is 'a poisonous substance, especially one produced
by bacteria, that causes disease'.
The are more interesting medical false-friends in Spanish by the
way, e.g. 'constipación' is mostly used in Spain when you talk
about your inability to breathe due to the nose occlusion when
you catch a cold. In other languages (including those from the
Romance group, like Latin 'constipatio') we would rather think
about the mild bowel problems with obstructed defecation (not to
confuse with complete bowel obstruction which is
life-threatening). According to the Spanish Wikipedia
(
HTML https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constipaci%C3%B3n)
it may be used
in both meanings depending on the situation).
#Post#: 16275--------------------------------------------------
Re: Funny Language Learning Commercials
By: Nikola Date: May 29, 2019, 4:31 am
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Steve, your comment reminds me of the jokes about people filling
out forms and struggling with the "sex" part, eventually putting
down "twice a week".
#Post#: 16278--------------------------------------------------
Re: Funny Language Learning Commercials
By: Chizuko hanji Date: May 29, 2019, 5:57 am
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This is funny! Thank you for laugh, Nikola.
As for the Japanese lady's part, it often happens. Basically
Japanese thinks saying no instantly is a bad manner so they
can't say NO quickly. If you don't understand what the clerk is
saying, you should say "no" or "hold on". But Japanese people
say yes. One of my friend, a British, asks me why Japanese smile
when they don't understand. He says that it's normal to show
confusing expression when you don't understand, but Japanese
always smile.
#Post#: 16282--------------------------------------------------
Re: Funny Language Learning Commercials
By: SHL Date: May 29, 2019, 11:52 am
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Ok class: „If you are in the South, you say ‚hey, fellar give me
a Buuuuuuud Light“ , in New York you say „Hey! Give me a Bud
light! You a problem with that?!“ In East LA you say, „Give me a
Bud light Holmes...:“more importantly, if someone asked your for
a Bud Light you say, „no speak English.“
Funny and so true.
#Post#: 16284--------------------------------------------------
Re: Funny Language Learning Commercials
By: SHL Date: May 29, 2019, 4:33 pm
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[quote author=Nikola link=topic=1105.msg16275#msg16275
date=1559122315]
Steve, your comment reminds me of the jokes about people filling
out forms and struggling with the "sex" part, eventually putting
down "twice a week".
[/quote]
Nikola,
What got me was filling out my yearly State Bar Licensing form
to keep my California license as a lawyer. You have to pay an
annual fee of around $400 USD of course, but which I guess isn’t
too bad (not that I like paying it because they don‘t do
anything for you but send a boring magazine each month). But
again, what got me was the questionnaire, new this year asking
for gender. I thought, „Oh that‘s easy- male or female, right?
Not so fast ( I don‘t know if you know the German equivalent
idiom for this, „langsam mit den jungen Pferden- slow with the
young horses-great expression. Another reason I love German so
much ;)).
But, male or female as an answer? Ah, maybe. We had about 5
additional options: transgender, non-defined/indeterminate (or.
something equally strange), XX (no idea what that is), some
other weird choice, and then the fifth was a blank to fill in
with the words „Please describe.“ I thought „what is all this
goofy stuff, and I don‘t even understand and who wrote this??
That‘s where all our dues are going.“ Seriously, the craziest
thing I‘ve seen in my life. Ok, I can get the question about
sexual orientation, gay, straight, lesbian, bisexual, all for
statistical gathering purposes. But then the list went on to all
sorts of weird things about „sexual fluidity“, and of course the
transsexual thing had to be in there, which I expected.
And, they offer recommended additional payments, like $100 extra
to fund free legal services to needy transsexual people, or
something. I said no to those. Right down the line, NO on all
the optional stuff. I figured I‘d rather give it to Icelandair
to help fund my Summer airfare to Berlin.
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