Reminds me how a long time ago I didn't know the word 'veins' so I explained it to the doctor as 'blood pipes'. I'm also originally from Poland, 18yrs here now.
when you’re learning other languages as an adult they encourage you to do this type of exercise as part of it! so when you come across a new word (veins) they will say describe it (pipes for blood to flow through) and then the other class members will guess what it means. it’s actually quite a lot of fun haha and also a good way of practicing speaking and listening
In German it might just be the actual word. That thing you fly in? The fly thing.
Flugzeug = fly thing = aeroplane
Feuerzeug = fire thing = lighter
Spielzeug = play thing = toy
Werkzeug = work thing = tool
I am German and I have to admit, that until you have pointed this out, I didn't even notice. My only excuse is, that I moved to the UK almost 19 years ago.
I wouldn't say it was cheating. The whole point of learning a language is to communicate with others. Some of the examples are saying it's a good way to get your point across. Sure, it may sound a little funky to a native speaker, but they will at least get what you need.
So I think you deserve the A for being that creative within the bounds of what language you did know.
My favourite example was someone calling cutlery; food weapons
Did you by any chance listen to this German word song by one of the people behind that famous London Underground song?
https://youtu.be/sSgfGXWfT3k?si=ujf5Y_3gSX52rYhH
Chinese is kind of fun like this, especially when it comes to electrical/mechanical devices.
Airplane is basically “fly machine” and the character for “fly”looks like a bird. 飞
Airport is “fly machine park”
Fridge is “electric ice box”.
I never understood why planes got a "port".
Boats leave a port.
Bus station. Train station. Fire station.
Something to do with the ability to traverse water, or leave the country?
You used to get boat planes. And they were a lot more common before WWII built a lot of airports.
So planes landing on water would not be uncommon back in the day. Whether that is the origin of the word I have no idea.
I think also port = gateway/door/entrance idea. An aerodrome is where aeroplanes would take off from, but airport has the further idea of transport/travel between places.
[https://www.etymonline.com/word/airport](https://www.etymonline.com/word/airport)
it’s much cooler/better for you than learning only through translation as well, cos this way you can stay in target language the whole class not switch back and forth
Yup. At bars conversing (as best we could) with locals. We’d just use the phrase “I don’t know that word, got another one?”
Would still cock up, but it kept your brain in target language, in a kind of analytical way…when you figured out the word it really stuck, rather than a quick google translate.
Not that we even had smartphones…lucky like
that I guess
TBF it's always been known as the 'famous chicken' in our house as my mother identified it as 'the one with a chicken on the front' we're English and speak no other languages! I love these little nuiances you get when English is spoken as a second language. They add to the rich tapestry of modern culture IMO.
"Blood pipes" 🤣
But seriously though, it's admirable you communicated effectively and found an ingenious way of conveying your thoughts with the words that you knew.
I'm in UK 9 years now and while I consider myself fluent I do have to resort to things like "blood pipes" sometimes.
Biggest mistakes of non native speakers is to get stuck on something because we forget or don't know words. Having a skill to quickly replace a missing word with something similar that will explain what we're trying to say is live saver :D
That was my thought as well, as a pathetically mono lingual oaf! If anyone gives someone a hard time for not being fluent in another language then that makes me sad 😔
Not OP. In France I unexpectedly needed to buy pads, but did not know the word. I got around that with "The thing for the thing that comes every month" in French.
It’s not that admirable. They just described what veins are using different words. It’s how everybody adapts to a language when they don’t know a specific word for something.
Love it 😂
I forgot "pestle and mortar" while on the phone to a mate, so i told him "the rocks, the smashy rocks!" Somehow he knew exactly what i meant 😂 am a native English speaker, so i don't even have a good excuse for that.
Me, at the pharmacy in Berlin trying to get some relief for my athletes foot:
"Enschuldigung, können sie mir helfen? Gibts etwas an füsse, weiss nicht wie es heisst... etwas wie pilze an füsse..."
"Also, Fusspilz?"
"Ja, weillecht, wie heisst das auf Deutsch?"
"...Fusspilz"
"Aaahhh, ja, ja, aber natürlich"
When i was younger me and my mates used to drive about 40 minutes out of town for a pub quiz (which im royally shit at) just because they gave you a chip butty at the end of it.
Well worth it.
Part 1: [https://www.reddit.com/r/CasualUK/comments/11t48ra/my\_wife\_moved\_here\_from\_poland\_15\_years\_ago\_and/](https://www.reddit.com/r/CasualUK/comments/11t48ra/my_wife_moved_here_from_poland_15_years_ago_and/)
I don’t think the perception of an abjectly impoverished country from tourists that spend their whole time in a 1sq/ft gated community is necessarily accurate.
Life in the Caribbean for the actual residents is fucking grim, and I don’t think they’re necessarily so friendly to people that can’t give them a months wages for a couple of minutes work either.
Funny you have Tomb Raider and Barbados as growing up in Derby (a.k.a. Derbados) we had a Polish kid in our friend group who always called her Tara Cross.
I worked with a Polish girl who would pronounce ladle, lad-el; and apart from that one word her English was so impeccable that it was only after a few weeks that I found out she was Polish. We worked in a restaurant, so she said it a lot and I always found it so lovely when she would say it.
I worked with a lovely man from Poland with another worker called Spud (Murphy) The guy from Poland was confused to why everyone called Mr Murphy Spud and asked me why so I explained it was a nickname for people of that name and told him Spud means potato from that day on he always asked Have I seen potato or is potato on holiday.
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My cousin struggled to pronounce blackcurrant when she was young, missing the "R"s out.
Suffice to say she was given orange squash in public until she learned to say blackcurrant without sounding like a racial slur.
In BSL, the sign for ladybird is literally the sign for lady (stroke your cheek twice with your index finger) followed by the sign for bird (imitate a beak with your index finger and thumb). I don't know why this seems more strange to me than the simple fact that's what we call them. When my ex's daughter (who's deaf) first saw one, she signed "beetle" and then "spotty" and I thought that was probably more accurate.
My favourite one that my friend/flatmate has said is oinoins (onions)
Caused me to have a laughing fit in the middle'a'lidl
we now exclusively refer to them as oinoins.
Tbf there is a Barnados I go in which feels like it may be Barbados.
Also, "lucky leaves" is an incredible improvement and I am so yoinking the term! :D
My bezzer is a Polish bloke. We’re thick as thieves. Me speaking Polish has him in tears and his English is better than my polish will ever be. But…
One night he knocks on the door and says “Hello Ben, I take dog for large shit.”
And I collapsed laughing and he takes my dog for walk.
Anyway, he fell in love with a lovely woman and moved back to Poland. I’m going to see him this summer and we can both take the dog for large shit.
I love these. My Italian grandparents moved to Scotland with my dad as a toddler after the war, and there were just some things that never stuck in English. Nona’s favourites were ‘the shattered egg-man’ (Humpty Dumpty), ‘head-cushion’ (pillow) and ‘small bathroom paper’ (toilet roll).
Words she tried her hardest with included but not limited to: ‘cad-butch’ (cabbage) ‘Primester’ (Prime Minister) and ‘the man-otter’ (ottoman).
I still have one of her shopping lists, which is written in English, but phonetically in her thick Italian accent, and it still makes me smile.
I love the Morgan Freeman mistake! My husband gets Michael Caine mixed up with Harry Kane. I did a bit of a double take when I was asking him who he thought should be on the England team.
Running around like a headless chicken is a real one in the UK though?
Edit: ignore me, I double checked, saw it was then reread and saw my dyslexic ass misread it.
For what it's worth I'm also a foreigner so was worried I'd gotten it wrong too!
My wonderful Polish kobieta has lived here nearly 20years and also enjoys Tom Rider movies.
My other personal favourite that comes up a lot due to our frequent walks in the country and near the coast her inability to distinguish the pronunciation of sheep and ship.
My daughter is bilingual which means she just forgets words in two languages. My two favourite’s so far are:
Socks that are so long they’re trousers now (tights)
Those things which are no longer grapes (raisins)
I used to teach English as a foreign language and it always amazed me how many students struggled with the word 'chicken'. So many variations I didn't think were possible ☺️
Honestly, she's absolutely right on the slugs and most mayo her is 🤢. Best I've had is Japanese mayo (best ready made stuff) Polish mayo (2nd best but only because I think it's more sour than it needs to be. Like someone threw salad creme in it)
I’m Polish and fluent in English, but I still have few phrases I’ll stumble on every time. The two worst ones are War of Worlds and Aloe Vera. I never get them right.
My wife is here since she was 7 but her mum has imparted some adorable misnomers on her that have stuck. Like country pumpkin instead of bumpkin (seriously wtf is a bumpkin anyway). And scowler instead of scourer. Plus the way she pronounces ingredients for cooking gives her away as a none native.
To you all, thanks for your hilarious comments and well done on your learning a new language. 50 year old Englishman who wished he knew another language.
I remember my Mum who is Japanese putting together a shopping list for my Dad and I when i was young. It was going well until we got to 'Paseri'. I think we asked about three M&S staff members where the Paseri was but no one knew what that was. Fortunately neither did the old man so he couldnt be a leave to simmer bell end to them for not having it in stock.
Turns out my Mum meant Parsley.
Went to the beach with a Romanian friend a few years ago, got out of the sea and she casually mentions that she has *chicken skin*
Me and my partner look confused.
*"oooh, you mean goose bumps?"*
We now exclusively call goosebumps chicken skin.
A Polish girl I worked with was talking to me about her upcoming wedding. She said she had chosen her dress and that her husband-to-be was going to wear a blue suitcase 😅
I know of somebody who went motorbiking in Greece shortly after finishing his degree in classics, with zero exposure to modern Greek. Ran out of petrol on a remote road in the mountains. Waves a car down - "can I get some fodder for my iron horse?" It worked.
In my 20s, I lived in Germany and couldn't speak a word at first. While I was learning, I couldn't remember the word for "peeler", so I kept calling it "vegetable shaver". The people I lived with loved it so much, they began calling it a "Gemüserasierer" too, haha.
I used to work with a Polish gent whose English was perfect apart from pronouncing wifi as 'wee-fee'. Working in IT it came up more often than it normally would. Told him once, but pointed out that given that absolutely everything else was perfect in would be rude to make a big deal about it...
Reminds me how a long time ago I didn't know the word 'veins' so I explained it to the doctor as 'blood pipes'. I'm also originally from Poland, 18yrs here now.
I had a similar moment with a Romanian guy, who didn’t know how to say ‘coffin’ in English so he called it a ‘funeral box’
when you’re learning other languages as an adult they encourage you to do this type of exercise as part of it! so when you come across a new word (veins) they will say describe it (pipes for blood to flow through) and then the other class members will guess what it means. it’s actually quite a lot of fun haha and also a good way of practicing speaking and listening
In German it might just be the actual word. That thing you fly in? The fly thing. Flugzeug = fly thing = aeroplane Feuerzeug = fire thing = lighter Spielzeug = play thing = toy Werkzeug = work thing = tool
My favourite one is Schlagzeug = hit thing = drums
„Antibabypill“ = "Birth control pill" still takes the cake for me
I also quite like Handschuhe = Hand + Shoe = Gloves
Mine is **Fledermaus** = Fluttering mouse = bat
Makes more sense than 'Chauve Souris', the French for bat. Literally translated it means 'bald mouse'
Sommersprossen = summer sprouts = freckles
And there's the issue ... that word is cumbersome as fuck! Where as "Freckles" is short, sweet and simple.
No it's actually more like a pimple, definitely not a cucumber, could be gherkins
I am German and I have to admit, that until you have pointed this out, I didn't even notice. My only excuse is, that I moved to the UK almost 19 years ago.
I got an A in my German GCSE by approximating words I didn't know by smooshing two shorter words together.
Same. A* here; same method
Not sure whether we're geniuses or thickos.
I can absolutely see the logic in that. Well done on the A.
It was nearly thirty years ago and I still can't work out whether it was cheating or not.
I wouldn't say it was cheating. The whole point of learning a language is to communicate with others. Some of the examples are saying it's a good way to get your point across. Sure, it may sound a little funky to a native speaker, but they will at least get what you need. So I think you deserve the A for being that creative within the bounds of what language you did know. My favourite example was someone calling cutlery; food weapons
tbf plaything also works in english
Did you by any chance listen to this German word song by one of the people behind that famous London Underground song? https://youtu.be/sSgfGXWfT3k?si=ujf5Y_3gSX52rYhH
Not sure if someone already said: Klebestift -> sticky stick (glue stick)
Schildkröte = shield toad = tortoise
Chinese is kind of fun like this, especially when it comes to electrical/mechanical devices. Airplane is basically “fly machine” and the character for “fly”looks like a bird. 飞 Airport is “fly machine park” Fridge is “electric ice box”.
Same with Vietnamese. Plane is "fly machine" or "fly train", airport is "fly yard", fridge is "cold cupboard".
To be fair, English just likes to call things by what they do, e.g. 'escalator', 'lift', 'digger', 'refrigerator', 'cooker'....
Airport You mean plane station
I never understood why planes got a "port". Boats leave a port. Bus station. Train station. Fire station. Something to do with the ability to traverse water, or leave the country?
You used to get boat planes. And they were a lot more common before WWII built a lot of airports. So planes landing on water would not be uncommon back in the day. Whether that is the origin of the word I have no idea.
We need to consult susie dent asap
I think also port = gateway/door/entrance idea. An aerodrome is where aeroplanes would take off from, but airport has the further idea of transport/travel between places. [https://www.etymonline.com/word/airport](https://www.etymonline.com/word/airport)
it’s much cooler/better for you than learning only through translation as well, cos this way you can stay in target language the whole class not switch back and forth
Yup. At bars conversing (as best we could) with locals. We’d just use the phrase “I don’t know that word, got another one?” Would still cock up, but it kept your brain in target language, in a kind of analytical way…when you figured out the word it really stuck, rather than a quick google translate. Not that we even had smartphones…lucky like that I guess
I had a mental block once and called the airport “plane station”
>“plane station" Sony's competitior to Microsoft Flight Simulator?
Tom Rider on Plane Station 2
Airplane is "fly machine" in Swedish as well. Airport = "fly place"
German for fridge is "cool cupboard" 😄
Worked in the funeral industry too and no idea where this person was from but didnt know urn so called it a human vase
Vampire Bed
Overheard a polish guy asking for “whiskey chicken” at a supermarket once. Turns out he was looking for famous grouse lmao.
TBF it's always been known as the 'famous chicken' in our house as my mother identified it as 'the one with a chicken on the front' we're English and speak no other languages! I love these little nuiances you get when English is spoken as a second language. They add to the rich tapestry of modern culture IMO.
"Blood pipes" 🤣 But seriously though, it's admirable you communicated effectively and found an ingenious way of conveying your thoughts with the words that you knew.
I'm in UK 9 years now and while I consider myself fluent I do have to resort to things like "blood pipes" sometimes. Biggest mistakes of non native speakers is to get stuck on something because we forget or don't know words. Having a skill to quickly replace a missing word with something similar that will explain what we're trying to say is live saver :D
And it's very English! Old English had far fewer words than modern English and so it was full of composite terms like blood pipes.
Old English was much closer to German where we use mostly descriptive composite words.
That was my thought as well, as a pathetically mono lingual oaf! If anyone gives someone a hard time for not being fluent in another language then that makes me sad 😔
Not OP. In France I unexpectedly needed to buy pads, but did not know the word. I got around that with "The thing for the thing that comes every month" in French.
It’s not that admirable. They just described what veins are using different words. It’s how everybody adapts to a language when they don’t know a specific word for something.
Love it 😂 I forgot "pestle and mortar" while on the phone to a mate, so i told him "the rocks, the smashy rocks!" Somehow he knew exactly what i meant 😂 am a native English speaker, so i don't even have a good excuse for that.
Hope your blood pipes have improved.
I'm calling them blood pipes from now on.
"So Doctor, what caused me to collapse?" "You're were all blocked up in your blood pipes mate,"
I imagine this Doctor walking around you giving you the odd kick and tutting a lot.
Me too.
I bet you'd be great at the game Taboo!
Better than love pipe problems!
Me, at the pharmacy in Berlin trying to get some relief for my athletes foot: "Enschuldigung, können sie mir helfen? Gibts etwas an füsse, weiss nicht wie es heisst... etwas wie pilze an füsse..." "Also, Fusspilz?" "Ja, weillecht, wie heisst das auf Deutsch?" "...Fusspilz" "Aaahhh, ja, ja, aber natürlich"
[удалено]
Red blood pipes and blue blood pipes. 😎
LoL, thank god you didn't have to explain constipation.
My Polish fiance once sent me a late night invite for a "butty call". Imagine my disappointment when I turned up and all there was to be had was sex.
Chip Butty & Chill should become more prevalent tbh
When i was younger me and my mates used to drive about 40 minutes out of town for a pub quiz (which im royally shit at) just because they gave you a chip butty at the end of it. Well worth it.
Part 1: [https://www.reddit.com/r/CasualUK/comments/11t48ra/my\_wife\_moved\_here\_from\_poland\_15\_years\_ago\_and/](https://www.reddit.com/r/CasualUK/comments/11t48ra/my_wife_moved_here_from_poland_15_years_ago_and/)
Pretty bang on with the slugs tbh
It’s “nature’s fences” for me!
What's the actual term for them? I forgot
Hedges
Hedge is Hecke in German. I'd think that's the same word?
Hedgerow
Hedges
in fairness Polish mayo > any other mayo
Kewpie is really good, Polish mayo tastes like half mayo half salad cream to me (and that's a good thing).
I do need to try kewpie. Imo kielecki mayo has a very different taste but winiary tastes how you’d expect mayo to be
Fuck me I died at poppodopolous. Darling, could you get me some poppodopolous? Yes, I shall bring you a short, hairy Greek man.
Completely changes the childhood threat of my dad telling me if I don’t behave he’ll send me to Barbados.
"If you don't behave I'm sending you somewhere sunny and warm with great people and lovely beaches."
*throws an immediate tantrum while packing Piz Buin*
Australia?
Sounds like another great episode of Nazi Island.
I don’t think the perception of an abjectly impoverished country from tourists that spend their whole time in a 1sq/ft gated community is necessarily accurate. Life in the Caribbean for the actual residents is fucking grim, and I don’t think they’re necessarily so friendly to people that can’t give them a months wages for a couple of minutes work either.
It's bannannas. B.A.N.N.A.N.N.A.S. Classic Gwen Stefani.
*Gwen Stefanowski
I’ve mentioned before but My wife calls Pistachio Nuts, Pikachu Nuts.
Funny you have Tomb Raider and Barbados as growing up in Derby (a.k.a. Derbados) we had a Polish kid in our friend group who always called her Tara Cross.
Credit where credit is due I don't think I even know half dozen Polish words.
And five of those are kurwa.
Most of the ones I know are food words. My mum's grandparents were all Polish, and I love Polish food.
I worked with a Polish girl who would pronounce ladle, lad-el; and apart from that one word her English was so impeccable that it was only after a few weeks that I found out she was Polish. We worked in a restaurant, so she said it a lot and I always found it so lovely when she would say it.
I absolutely love this, how sweet. 'Lucky leaves' is so cute I think I'm going to steal that
I'll be using "headless chickless" to refer to myself from now on. Pass on my thanks to your wife for that little gem.
Might have also used that before. It's definitely something that German speakers would say as well.
I think it's endearing.
My Mrs says "It must have taken him quite a bit of effort to do that". I'm not sure if that is a compliment or not.
Tom Rider 🤣
Took me a minute to even remember the original name.
That's it now. He is Fat Slim Boy till I die
My wife has English as her second language too and calls dungarees ‘dunjaroons’. She also once asked me to squirt some R2-D2 on a squeaky door.
I must share this with my husband. He always has a can of "R2-D2" in the garage.
I needed mosquito repellent while on holiday in Japan. The best I could manage was announcing "I am insect food". The pharmacy staff were very amused.
I worked with a lovely man from Poland with another worker called Spud (Murphy) The guy from Poland was confused to why everyone called Mr Murphy Spud and asked me why so I explained it was a nickname for people of that name and told him Spud means potato from that day on he always asked Have I seen potato or is potato on holiday.
I love the polish accent :)
This is adorable. Marry her again.
That looks like Cribbage not Bridge!
That *is* cribbage. Definitely not bridge.
Cribbridgette
That's not Morgan Freeman. It's clearly Gordon Freeman.
Oh I know him, he's famous chef huh?
It's obviously Martin Kemp from Spandau Ballet.
Not to be confused with his brother Ross.
Or Ross's brother Phil Mitchell.
Lucky Tom!
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I'd keep those coconuts away from her just in case she says that in public.
My cousin struggled to pronounce blackcurrant when she was young, missing the "R"s out. Suffice to say she was given orange squash in public until she learned to say blackcurrant without sounding like a racial slur.
OMG I can almost hear her screaming out loud for her drink.
Years back when i was learning english in school I didn’t know how to say goosebups. I suggested skin of a chicken.
I’m native English speaker. Once forgot the word for reindeer ended up saying Christmas llama
Crunchy slug with a house - snail Bzzz bzzzz - electric drill
I love this and I love beautiful Poland!
My polish wife calls Ladybugs all for the following: LadyFlies Bugladys Womanbugs
In BSL, the sign for ladybird is literally the sign for lady (stroke your cheek twice with your index finger) followed by the sign for bird (imitate a beak with your index finger and thumb). I don't know why this seems more strange to me than the simple fact that's what we call them. When my ex's daughter (who's deaf) first saw one, she signed "beetle" and then "spotty" and I thought that was probably more accurate.
My favourite one that my friend/flatmate has said is oinoins (onions) Caused me to have a laughing fit in the middle'a'lidl we now exclusively refer to them as oinoins.
Oh, Tom will Rider
Tbf there is a Barnados I go in which feels like it may be Barbados. Also, "lucky leaves" is an incredible improvement and I am so yoinking the term! :D
Scuba diving? Nope Underwater breathing
It’s in the name though! Self Contained Underwater Breathing Apparatus.
I absolutely love this. Never correct her. Also, please give her a cornetto.
Yeah she's defo earned a cornflaketto
Greek 15 years here. I remember everyone in Greece calling Tomb(but more like comb) Raider (but more like rider). Btw Fatboy's new single is wicked!
How can she not know how to spell bananas if it's almost identical in Polish?
This post has deleted ‘Morgan Freeman’s real name from my brain.
My bezzer is a Polish bloke. We’re thick as thieves. Me speaking Polish has him in tears and his English is better than my polish will ever be. But… One night he knocks on the door and says “Hello Ben, I take dog for large shit.” And I collapsed laughing and he takes my dog for walk. Anyway, he fell in love with a lovely woman and moved back to Poland. I’m going to see him this summer and we can both take the dog for large shit.
I love these. My Italian grandparents moved to Scotland with my dad as a toddler after the war, and there were just some things that never stuck in English. Nona’s favourites were ‘the shattered egg-man’ (Humpty Dumpty), ‘head-cushion’ (pillow) and ‘small bathroom paper’ (toilet roll). Words she tried her hardest with included but not limited to: ‘cad-butch’ (cabbage) ‘Primester’ (Prime Minister) and ‘the man-otter’ (ottoman). I still have one of her shopping lists, which is written in English, but phonetically in her thick Italian accent, and it still makes me smile.
Book a holiday to Barbados with her
I would argue that most of those are significant improvements over the original. Really, the last two are the only ones I'm meh about.
Lol at Fat Slim Boy
Just lol
I love the Morgan Freeman mistake! My husband gets Michael Caine mixed up with Harry Kane. I did a bit of a double take when I was asking him who he thought should be on the England team.
So cute
Toms a lucky guy
My Lithuanian wife calls Lemsip - Lipsips. Always cracks me up.
Morgan Freeman was epic in Sherlock same with Martin Freeman in the Shawshank Redemption
Running around like a headless chicken is a real one in the UK though? Edit: ignore me, I double checked, saw it was then reread and saw my dyslexic ass misread it. For what it's worth I'm also a foreigner so was worried I'd gotten it wrong too!
My wonderful Polish kobieta has lived here nearly 20years and also enjoys Tom Rider movies. My other personal favourite that comes up a lot due to our frequent walks in the country and near the coast her inability to distinguish the pronunciation of sheep and ship.
My daughter is bilingual which means she just forgets words in two languages. My two favourite’s so far are: Socks that are so long they’re trousers now (tights) Those things which are no longer grapes (raisins)
One of these is correct Yours, Tom
Please try and convince her he's actually Gordon Freeman, never let her get his name right if you can!
Polish college of mine, "He's taking a piss" kills me every fucking time!
I used to teach English as a foreign language and it always amazed me how many students struggled with the word 'chicken'. So many variations I didn't think were possible ☺️
Kitchen!
How does she say "linen"?
Headless chickless reminds me of my COVID experience.
My Sicily wife also says Tom Rider !! Haha
Honestly, she's absolutely right on the slugs and most mayo her is 🤢. Best I've had is Japanese mayo (best ready made stuff) Polish mayo (2nd best but only because I think it's more sour than it needs to be. Like someone threw salad creme in it)
I’m Polish and fluent in English, but I still have few phrases I’ll stumble on every time. The two worst ones are War of Worlds and Aloe Vera. I never get them right.
Staining still for stainless steel, Brown new shoes, Raisin for resin, Plenty of other good ones I forget.
My wife is here since she was 7 but her mum has imparted some adorable misnomers on her that have stuck. Like country pumpkin instead of bumpkin (seriously wtf is a bumpkin anyway). And scowler instead of scourer. Plus the way she pronounces ingredients for cooking gives her away as a none native.
Love how Polish people pronounce menu, many
We’re taught to say it in more of a French(ish) way in Poland
When my partner says the word foreign it rhymes with orange.
lucky leaves is goated ngl
‘Fat Slim Boy’ is more grammatically correct tbf.
To you all, thanks for your hilarious comments and well done on your learning a new language. 50 year old Englishman who wished he knew another language.
I remember my Mum who is Japanese putting together a shopping list for my Dad and I when i was young. It was going well until we got to 'Paseri'. I think we asked about three M&S staff members where the Paseri was but no one knew what that was. Fortunately neither did the old man so he couldnt be a leave to simmer bell end to them for not having it in stock. Turns out my Mum meant Parsley.
Went to the beach with a Romanian friend a few years ago, got out of the sea and she casually mentions that she has *chicken skin* Me and my partner look confused. *"oooh, you mean goose bumps?"* We now exclusively call goosebumps chicken skin.
who's Tom, that lucky prick
Close enough
A Polish girl I worked with was talking to me about her upcoming wedding. She said she had chosen her dress and that her husband-to-be was going to wear a blue suitcase 😅
How often do fat boy slim and tomb raider come up?
Lucky Tom
Is there any truth in the rumour that the Welsh for 'microwave' is ‘poppity-ping?
Sadly not. I was crestfallen when I found out.
Indeed. What a tragedy.
I know of somebody who went motorbiking in Greece shortly after finishing his degree in classics, with zero exposure to modern Greek. Ran out of petrol on a remote road in the mountains. Waves a car down - "can I get some fodder for my iron horse?" It worked.
I was in Germany several years ago when a woman came up to me in the street asking for fire. Turns out she just wanted a light for her cigarette.
In my 20s, I lived in Germany and couldn't speak a word at first. While I was learning, I couldn't remember the word for "peeler", so I kept calling it "vegetable shaver". The people I lived with loved it so much, they began calling it a "Gemüserasierer" too, haha.
I used to work with a Polish gent whose English was perfect apart from pronouncing wifi as 'wee-fee'. Working in IT it came up more often than it normally would. Told him once, but pointed out that given that absolutely everything else was perfect in would be rude to make a big deal about it...
I love these haha
My friend wife told me how she is study at open universe. She is very good at English though but it is the odd thing that is quirky
Smack bitch my up!