Translation Gaffes?
 

anyone got amusing mistakes they have made using other languages? my own short list:<BR>asking for armchairs in a Cuban post office (sellos = stamps, sillones = armchairs)<BR>asking for "steel" in Yugoslavia (instead of steam iron)<BR>not a gaffe but amusing - as a teenager spending 10 mnutes working out how to ask for cheesy biscuits "avete biscotti con formaggio" only to have the proprietor say "si signorina, Ritz"

My little niece learing French:<BR><BR>Une pomme paresseuse! <BR><BR>(au lieu de "pourrie") ;o)

just remembered many years ago I told an Italian I didnt eat spaghetti because it was bad for my figure - he thought I was saying "figa" which is apparently italian for liver

Hm... well 'liver' would actually be 'il fegato'. Never mind!<BR><BR>

Telling a gendarme in Vence that I had lost "mes allumettes" (matches) and having him offer me a clic of his bic, when what I really had lost were "mes lunettes" (glasses).

See this thread<BR><BR>http://www.fodors.com/forums/pgMessages.jsp?fid=2&tid=1355323<BR><BR>for much more of the same. Just topped.<BR><BR>Best wishes,<BR><BR>Rex<BR>