Multi/Bilingual Language Thread

[CombNWattles]

I have a story about this, but first let me give non-Afrikaans speakers some context...

'baie' means 'very' or 'much'
'dankie' means 'thank you'
...so "Baie dankie" is "Thank you very much" in Afrikaans.

We had some out-of-country visitors and it was their first time in South Africa. One woman wanted to learn to say 'Thank you' in Afrikaans and she was struggling to remember the word pronunciation. My mother suggested she remember the phrase 'buy a donkey' as it is so phonetically close to the original 'baie dankie'. The woman thought this was a very good idea and she became quite excite to use it at the first opportunity. This happened to be, that very night, at an elegant restaurant in Cape Town. The waiter came over to take their order and upon completing the task, the woman loudly and proudly said, "Pick an ass."

Poor dear was so embarrassed when told of her mistake. True story.

#secondhandembarrasment

 

[CombNWattles]

Ich spreche ein bisschen Deutsch, aber sehr nicht gut.

 

[CombNWattles]

Ich spreche besser Deutsch als mein Bruder; er sagt “du bist kein Wagon Fuhrer” for “you are a bad driver”.

His reasoning:

Du bist kein = you are no

Volkswagen = people’s + car, so wagon = car

Fuhrer = ruler, king

So, du bist kein Wagon Fuhrer = you are no car king = you are a bad driver.