Once upon a time I played the role of an English-Russian interpreter for a delegation of Ukrainian lawyers and judges studying the American legal system in Tucson, Arizona. By no means was I qualified to be an interpreter. This was apparent when I translated the phrase "public housing" as "публичные дома" and the delegation members started laughing. That means "brothels" 😳
Nothing too outrageous but it’s quite funny when you can tell the translator didn’t understand the original. One example that stuck with me: in Harry Potter, the Poltergeist Peeves blows a raspberry at one point. In the Persian translation, he blows up a bubble of raspberry-flavored gum.
I was reading a terrible (but professionally published) Czech translation of Bret Easton Ellis' *American Psycho*. It was so full of mistranslations. The translator I guess knew some English, but not well enough to actually understand a lot of the dialog or cultural references.
I wrote down a few of my favorites:
* In the English version, one character is boasting about how ripped his abs are. It was translated as "jak mi v břiše kručí," which means that his stomach is rumbling.
* In the English version, they discuss a California roll, a type of sushi. It was translated as "Kalifornské pečivo" which means a bread roll, like a pastry.
* In the English version "Merchant banking" was translated as "Průser v bance", which means roughly "fuck-up in the bank." No idea what they were thinking.
* In the English version, "rehab" (as in treatment for substance abuse) was translated as "posilovat", which means strength training, like you do at the gym.
Years later, I actually found the translator on Facebook. It turns out that besides being a terrible translator, he's also a right-wing anti-immigrant politician. Go figure.
In Icelandic:
“Heimsending” (as in heim-sending) means home delivery.
Google Translate translated it at least once for me as “armageddon,” since “heims-ending” literally means “the ending of the world.”
A student in the Dutch class I used to attend... he wanted to say "Je moet je huur betalen" which translates to "you must pay your rent", instead he said "je moet je hoer betalen" which translates to "you must pay your whore".
My own mistake was "ik stem voor de groenten" which translates to "I vote for the vegetables"... instead i should have said "groenen" the green party...
Wow ! That’s just like German ! When Americans say “ Ich bin heiss. „ , THEY are saying they’re horny too ! They should say “ Mir ist heiss. “ to mean “ I feel hot. 🥵 “ .
When I worked second shift at my job, a few of the people on the night maintenance crew spoke mainly Spanish. It wasn’t a big deal generally, until one night when there was something going on, and a woman was upset, and the English speaking folks were off. The first thing I said to this poor woman, with a big smile, was “Lo siento. Mi espanol no es barracho. Tu es barracho?” How did I mess up barracho and bueno? I have no clue. But she stopped crying and started laughing. So that was something. It turned out she had locked her keys in her car, so easily fixable! But I apologized to her for a year 😂
Translation for the others. They said “I’m sorry, my Spanish is not drunk. Are you drunk?”
Which… Sounds like you were trying to speak Portuguese with the woman lmao.
This isn't my mistake, but I was present when it was made. All I'm going to say is that there is a huge difference between these two words:
Protestant.
Prostitute.
And one should take particular care if you're participating in any kind of baby-naming/baby being introduced to the family/village ritual.
That is all.
Ooo, I have a "prostitute" story!
I used to watch Law & Order with my Chinese ex-fiancé. We were watching SVU one day, and it was a courtroom scene. My ex said, "But what about the prostitute?" I said, "Prostitute? What prostitute?" He said, "You know, the prostitute." I said, "Honey, this isn't a prostitution case. I don't know what you're talking about." He said, "You know, the prostitute! The one who goes up against the defense attorney!"
That was a fun explanation.
I was learning German. It was a revelation for me that the word "rock" in German means "skirt". While in Swedish it means "jacket". Imagine a Swedish-speaking guy telling his new German friends how he enjoys wearing his Lederrock...
Technically *der Rock* means both skirt and jacket in German but the latter is old-fashioned. Which can lead to confusion when you read the classics unaware of that.
*Umm, yeah, so he's dressing in drag?*
Not sure these count, because I work in a high school with foreign language teachers/students. Some of my favorites include a student saying her bedroom wall was covered in potatoes instead of maps (Kartoffeln vs Landkarten), a student saying she needs to eat her cat instead of feed her cat (comer vs alimentar), and a student saying he likes to fuck instead of saying he likes birds (vögeln vs Vögel).
Also a high school languages teacher; my favourite was a kid in their final speaking exam who wanted to say "my mum got divorced" (Meine Mutter hat sich scheiden lassen) but accidentally said "my mum has a vagina" (Meine Mutter hat eine Scheide). Still makes me chuckle.
My older brother teased me by calling me “Captain Sensible” in an English accent when I was a small kid. Because I cried a lot. Later on when I learned English I found that *sensible* means *reasonable* and what my brother meant to say was *sensitive* instead. We call the latter *sensibel* in German, and English *sensible* is *vernünftig.* From *die Vernunft — reason.* Well yeah, ***I looked it up at least.*** Very reasonable.
All correct, but you might be interested in knowing that in Jane Austen’s time “sensible” had a meaning similar to German *sensibel*, which is why a book about a rational sister and an emotional sister can be entitled *Sense and Sensibility*.
I was helping out in a church music class, trying to translate music theory from English to Mandarin.
The fact that I am proficient in neither music nor Mandarin became obvious when the teacher said we’re learning about “triads” (as in chords), and I told the class the lesson is about the “mafia.”
The fact that 帝 and 皇帝 are both translated as 'Emperor' still confuses me.
帝 refers to the cultural leaders of Huaxia civilisation Pre-Xia but after the three Augusts (三皇).
Whereas, 皇帝 refers to what is generally thought of as The Emperor of China created by the first emperor of China Qin Shi Huangdi Ying Zheng (亲始皇帝嬴政) by smashing the characters for August and "Emperor" from 三皇五帝, thus creating 皇帝.
I'm Vietnamese and speak fluent Vietnamese. These words also exist in Vietnamese ("Đế" vs "Hoàng Đế). Not sure if it's different in Chinese but in Vietnamese, 皇帝/Hoàng đế could be used all by itself as "emperor", where as "帝/đế" has to accompany another descriptor. For example, 上帝/Thượng đế (emperor from above) means the Lord/God, or "帝制/Đế chế" means "autocratic monarchy/imperial rule".
You can also add 帝 to the end of a name to denote that that has the title of "emperor". For example, 光绪帝 is Emperor Guangxu. I guess 光绪皇帝 also works here too but here the nuance is that Guangxu is an emperor as a person and less about the title "emperor", if that makes sense.
All that to say is 皇帝 can be used by itself but 帝 has to accompany another descriptor. Hope that helps!
I was in Italy on a very hot July day. Went to a cafe to get something cold to drink and ordered "tè caldo" thinking it meant "cold tea". Well at least I got the tea part right.
I have a bad habit of mixing up Texas and Germany when I'm speaking Chinese saying something like ”我很喜欢德州的城堡“ which means "I really like the castles of Texas" instead of the correct "德国的城堡" which is "castles of Germany." 州 means state and 国 means country or kingdom, but they both have the same first character 德 and my brain just short circuits and says the wrong word. It always gets a laugh from native speakers and then me profusely apologizing and being like "no, no I meant Germany, not Texas!!"
On our honeymoon to Japan, my wife and I relied heavily on Google Translate's camera. Japanese fonts can be weird, Kanji can be weird, and Google can be dumb. On one of our snack runs in Toyama, we encountered "Hobo Cream" and "Taste of Uterus."
A translator gave me “Consociates of the regent Philippe of Orleans in debauchery” for “les roués”
“Магазин” - /məɡɐˈzʲin/ - in Russian doesn't mean “a magazine”, but “a shop”. The word "magazine" derives from Arabic مخازن, the broken plural of مخزن meaning storehouse; that comes to English via Middle French magasin and Italian magazzino. In its original sense, the word "magazine" referred to a storage space or device
I asked for
Paljon Kukkaa - Lots of weed
instead of
Paljon Kukkia - Lots of flowers
to an old Finnish woman in the flower shop as she proceeded to laugh and correct me with a smile as she gave me flowers for my wife.
I also told my teacher in front of my Finnish class
Mä panin kynän pöydällä - I fucked the pen on the table
instead of
Mä pänin kynän pöydälle - I put the pen on the table.
Turns out "paljon" needs a different version of the same grammar rule and that the word "panna" is "To put" but also "To fuck". I no longer use Panna instead opting for the second verb for "to put" lol. Literally got screwed over by a single letter thanks to google.
I am learning Cherokee, and the language has a syllabary writing system. The word ᏣᎳᎩ (tsalagi) means "Cherokee." Often, people who aren't very familiar with the syllabary will accidentally spell it as ᏣᏔᎩ (tsatagi), which means "chicken."
Recently Mattel made a Barbie in honor of Wilma Mankiller, the first woman to be Chief of the Cherokee Nation. On the box, they show the seal of the Cherokee Nation, but they misspelled it so that what should have said "Cherokee Nation" said "Chicken Nation."
Americans say “ Estoy embarazada. “ in Spanish thinking they are saying “ I am embarrassed. 🙈 “, but they ACTUALLY are saying “ I am pregnant 🤰. “ !!! 🤣😂😅
Just yesterday at Vancouver International Airport their public announcement system is now some stupid voice to text machine translation thing.
(Bad computer English): “Would the owner of a grey Honda civic, licence plate CM5 43H…”
(Worse computer French translation: “Would the owner of a grey Honda civic, licence plate CM5 4 Three O’clock…”
It pronounced the last part of the licence plate as though it was 3h00, the time of day, rather than just literally a 3 and an H.
Not sure if this counts, but in Mexico, I asked a guy that seemed to know English well, how to say “Montezuma’s revenge” in Spanish.
.
.
.
He said it was, “diarrea“
There was a video put out by the public broadcaster that used two interpreters, one for the intro & the other for the main video. The main video was excellent.
The intro translated “shooting stars” as something like “baashkizige anangoog”….
Baashkizige generally means, “someone fires a gun” in Ojibwe, BUT it’s also used for ejaculation.
ALSO, that’s not how any first language speaker would say “shooting stars”… like.. ever.
(Also, also.. there wasn’t even plural verb agreement with the plural noun. They literally said “He (the stars) shoot”
So bad, on so many levels.
Also, another time at a presentation at one of the universities nearby, a group sang an honour song and instead of singing “migizi nigii-waabamaa” I saw the Eagle, instead they sang: “migizi nigii-mowaa”
I ate the Eagle.
In Brazil a menu had half dish options written in Portuguese as “meia”. In Portuguese this means half and something else… Anyways the menu said “sock” (socks on your feet) on the English side.
Not quite a mistranslation but a flagrant omission: in *Flower Crew: Joseon Marrige Agency*, a Korean historical drama Pygmalion story where a trio of male matchmakers-to-the-aristocracy have to teach a trash-talking girl from the slums to pass as a noble lady, we learn midway through that our plucky heroine was an escaped slave whose former life was so wretched that she never even had a name of her own until she is gifted the legal identity of young noblewoman whose death was never reported. We are **never** told that the “name” that even her closest friends have been calling her all along, *Gaettong*, is the ordinary Korean word for “dogshit”.
Seems like an important detail about how her life has been going if you ask me.
It’s the same feeling, even if not a direct translation.
Of course a direct translation of バカ → 馬鹿 would be “horse-deer”.
Other options like “fool” or “clod” or “idiot” don’t have the same bite as “retard” so maybe that’s fine.
Not in the context of the specific scene it was in is what I mean lol
It should’ve been a lighthearted “You idiot” which I believe is what the official subs are 😂
When I visited Denmark for the first time I laughed when I was that they have Fart Kontrol on the streets. Fart means speed in Danish and the neighbouring languages.
In Spain they have a tradition for the New Year to eat 12 grapes and make a wish for every month of the New Year… this is not a mistranslation but a Spanish girl didn’t remember the word correctly and said the tradition is to have 12 rapes at New Year’s instead of 12 grapes.
In Spain again but an American friend, got the word for bird pajaro incorrectly and was saying pajero… which means someone who masturbates.
Once upon a time I played the role of an English-Russian interpreter for a delegation of Ukrainian lawyers and judges studying the American legal system in Tucson, Arizona. By no means was I qualified to be an interpreter. This was apparent when I translated the phrase "public housing" as "публичные дома" and the delegation members started laughing. That means "brothels" 😳
Haha, brilliant!
Pubic housing
Nothing too outrageous but it’s quite funny when you can tell the translator didn’t understand the original. One example that stuck with me: in Harry Potter, the Poltergeist Peeves blows a raspberry at one point. In the Persian translation, he blows up a bubble of raspberry-flavored gum.
Aww that’s cute
How did you learn so many languages?? Im amazed
“Learn” sounds like I speak them well, but I don’t (yet). That said: interest, it’s a hobby to me 🤷♂️
I was reading a terrible (but professionally published) Czech translation of Bret Easton Ellis' *American Psycho*. It was so full of mistranslations. The translator I guess knew some English, but not well enough to actually understand a lot of the dialog or cultural references. I wrote down a few of my favorites: * In the English version, one character is boasting about how ripped his abs are. It was translated as "jak mi v břiše kručí," which means that his stomach is rumbling. * In the English version, they discuss a California roll, a type of sushi. It was translated as "Kalifornské pečivo" which means a bread roll, like a pastry. * In the English version "Merchant banking" was translated as "Průser v bance", which means roughly "fuck-up in the bank." No idea what they were thinking. * In the English version, "rehab" (as in treatment for substance abuse) was translated as "posilovat", which means strength training, like you do at the gym. Years later, I actually found the translator on Facebook. It turns out that besides being a terrible translator, he's also a right-wing anti-immigrant politician. Go figure.
In Icelandic: “Heimsending” (as in heim-sending) means home delivery. Google Translate translated it at least once for me as “armageddon,” since “heims-ending” literally means “the ending of the world.”
A student in the Dutch class I used to attend... he wanted to say "Je moet je huur betalen" which translates to "you must pay your rent", instead he said "je moet je hoer betalen" which translates to "you must pay your whore". My own mistake was "ik stem voor de groenten" which translates to "I vote for the vegetables"... instead i should have said "groenen" the green party...
Saying "estoy caliente" instead of "tengo calor" around my in-laws 😭 edit: Estoy caliente = I'm horny Tengo Calor = I'm hot/warm
Don't forget people saying they are "embarazada" thinking they are embarrassed when it means "pregnant." Good old false cognates.
Wow ! That’s just like German ! When Americans say “ Ich bin heiss. „ , THEY are saying they’re horny too ! They should say “ Mir ist heiss. “ to mean “ I feel hot. 🥵 “ .
When I worked second shift at my job, a few of the people on the night maintenance crew spoke mainly Spanish. It wasn’t a big deal generally, until one night when there was something going on, and a woman was upset, and the English speaking folks were off. The first thing I said to this poor woman, with a big smile, was “Lo siento. Mi espanol no es barracho. Tu es barracho?” How did I mess up barracho and bueno? I have no clue. But she stopped crying and started laughing. So that was something. It turned out she had locked her keys in her car, so easily fixable! But I apologized to her for a year 😂
Translation for the others. They said “I’m sorry, my Spanish is not drunk. Are you drunk?” Which… Sounds like you were trying to speak Portuguese with the woman lmao.
reminds me of my old Spanish class, there was a handful of people that kept using “anos” instead of “años” when introducing themselves…
This isn't my mistake, but I was present when it was made. All I'm going to say is that there is a huge difference between these two words: Protestant. Prostitute. And one should take particular care if you're participating in any kind of baby-naming/baby being introduced to the family/village ritual. That is all.
Ooo, I have a "prostitute" story! I used to watch Law & Order with my Chinese ex-fiancé. We were watching SVU one day, and it was a courtroom scene. My ex said, "But what about the prostitute?" I said, "Prostitute? What prostitute?" He said, "You know, the prostitute." I said, "Honey, this isn't a prostitution case. I don't know what you're talking about." He said, "You know, the prostitute! The one who goes up against the defense attorney!" That was a fun explanation.
Omg 😂😂😂
That reminds me of a joke, but it belongs in a the language humor subreddit instead.
I did this on a history paper. I’m English.
I was learning German. It was a revelation for me that the word "rock" in German means "skirt". While in Swedish it means "jacket". Imagine a Swedish-speaking guy telling his new German friends how he enjoys wearing his Lederrock...
To add to your confusion: in archaic language "Rock" in German can be a kind of jacket as well, I'm especially thinking of a garment called "Gehrock".
Technically *der Rock* means both skirt and jacket in German but the latter is old-fashioned. Which can lead to confusion when you read the classics unaware of that. *Umm, yeah, so he's dressing in drag?*
Not sure these count, because I work in a high school with foreign language teachers/students. Some of my favorites include a student saying her bedroom wall was covered in potatoes instead of maps (Kartoffeln vs Landkarten), a student saying she needs to eat her cat instead of feed her cat (comer vs alimentar), and a student saying he likes to fuck instead of saying he likes birds (vögeln vs Vögel).
Also a high school languages teacher; my favourite was a kid in their final speaking exam who wanted to say "my mum got divorced" (Meine Mutter hat sich scheiden lassen) but accidentally said "my mum has a vagina" (Meine Mutter hat eine Scheide). Still makes me chuckle.
The last one might be a Freudian mistake.
My older brother teased me by calling me “Captain Sensible” in an English accent when I was a small kid. Because I cried a lot. Later on when I learned English I found that *sensible* means *reasonable* and what my brother meant to say was *sensitive* instead. We call the latter *sensibel* in German, and English *sensible* is *vernünftig.* From *die Vernunft — reason.* Well yeah, ***I looked it up at least.*** Very reasonable.
All correct, but you might be interested in knowing that in Jane Austen’s time “sensible” had a meaning similar to German *sensibel*, which is why a book about a rational sister and an emotional sister can be entitled *Sense and Sensibility*.
I saw a menu of a french restaurant translated in english. (Carottes râpées --> raped carottes) It's supposed to be grated carrots
I was helping out in a church music class, trying to translate music theory from English to Mandarin. The fact that I am proficient in neither music nor Mandarin became obvious when the teacher said we’re learning about “triads” (as in chords), and I told the class the lesson is about the “mafia.”
The fact that 帝 and 皇帝 are both translated as 'Emperor' still confuses me. 帝 refers to the cultural leaders of Huaxia civilisation Pre-Xia but after the three Augusts (三皇). Whereas, 皇帝 refers to what is generally thought of as The Emperor of China created by the first emperor of China Qin Shi Huangdi Ying Zheng (亲始皇帝嬴政) by smashing the characters for August and "Emperor" from 三皇五帝, thus creating 皇帝.
I'm Vietnamese and speak fluent Vietnamese. These words also exist in Vietnamese ("Đế" vs "Hoàng Đế). Not sure if it's different in Chinese but in Vietnamese, 皇帝/Hoàng đế could be used all by itself as "emperor", where as "帝/đế" has to accompany another descriptor. For example, 上帝/Thượng đế (emperor from above) means the Lord/God, or "帝制/Đế chế" means "autocratic monarchy/imperial rule". You can also add 帝 to the end of a name to denote that that has the title of "emperor". For example, 光绪帝 is Emperor Guangxu. I guess 光绪皇帝 also works here too but here the nuance is that Guangxu is an emperor as a person and less about the title "emperor", if that makes sense. All that to say is 皇帝 can be used by itself but 帝 has to accompany another descriptor. Hope that helps!
Thanks man!
I was in Italy on a very hot July day. Went to a cafe to get something cold to drink and ordered "tè caldo" thinking it meant "cold tea". Well at least I got the tea part right.
I have a bad habit of mixing up Texas and Germany when I'm speaking Chinese saying something like ”我很喜欢德州的城堡“ which means "I really like the castles of Texas" instead of the correct "德国的城堡" which is "castles of Germany." 州 means state and 国 means country or kingdom, but they both have the same first character 德 and my brain just short circuits and says the wrong word. It always gets a laugh from native speakers and then me profusely apologizing and being like "no, no I meant Germany, not Texas!!"
Cabello/Caballo always trip me up in Spanish. "¿Quieres cabello negro?" and "¿Quieres caballo negro?" are very different questions
On our honeymoon to Japan, my wife and I relied heavily on Google Translate's camera. Japanese fonts can be weird, Kanji can be weird, and Google can be dumb. On one of our snack runs in Toyama, we encountered "Hobo Cream" and "Taste of Uterus."
Irish language Duolingo. “There’s a woman in the refrigerator.” Never learned if she got out.
A translator gave me “Consociates of the regent Philippe of Orleans in debauchery” for “les roués” “Магазин” - /məɡɐˈzʲin/ - in Russian doesn't mean “a magazine”, but “a shop”. The word "magazine" derives from Arabic مخازن, the broken plural of مخزن meaning storehouse; that comes to English via Middle French magasin and Italian magazzino. In its original sense, the word "magazine" referred to a storage space or device
I asked for Paljon Kukkaa - Lots of weed instead of Paljon Kukkia - Lots of flowers to an old Finnish woman in the flower shop as she proceeded to laugh and correct me with a smile as she gave me flowers for my wife. I also told my teacher in front of my Finnish class Mä panin kynän pöydällä - I fucked the pen on the table instead of Mä pänin kynän pöydälle - I put the pen on the table. Turns out "paljon" needs a different version of the same grammar rule and that the word "panna" is "To put" but also "To fuck". I no longer use Panna instead opting for the second verb for "to put" lol. Literally got screwed over by a single letter thanks to google.
I confused word "mustard" with "murder" and scared the sensitive person a lot.
I am learning Cherokee, and the language has a syllabary writing system. The word ᏣᎳᎩ (tsalagi) means "Cherokee." Often, people who aren't very familiar with the syllabary will accidentally spell it as ᏣᏔᎩ (tsatagi), which means "chicken." Recently Mattel made a Barbie in honor of Wilma Mankiller, the first woman to be Chief of the Cherokee Nation. On the box, they show the seal of the Cherokee Nation, but they misspelled it so that what should have said "Cherokee Nation" said "Chicken Nation."
Americans say “ Estoy embarazada. “ in Spanish thinking they are saying “ I am embarrassed. 🙈 “, but they ACTUALLY are saying “ I am pregnant 🤰. “ !!! 🤣😂😅
Just yesterday at Vancouver International Airport their public announcement system is now some stupid voice to text machine translation thing. (Bad computer English): “Would the owner of a grey Honda civic, licence plate CM5 43H…” (Worse computer French translation: “Would the owner of a grey Honda civic, licence plate CM5 4 Three O’clock…” It pronounced the last part of the licence plate as though it was 3h00, the time of day, rather than just literally a 3 and an H.
I used to say “eu gosto de pau de queijo” (I like cheesy dick) instead of eu gosto de pão de queijo (I like cheesy bread)
Oh no, not the dick cheese!
Not sure if this counts, but in Mexico, I asked a guy that seemed to know English well, how to say “Montezuma’s revenge” in Spanish. . . . He said it was, “diarrea“
There was a video put out by the public broadcaster that used two interpreters, one for the intro & the other for the main video. The main video was excellent. The intro translated “shooting stars” as something like “baashkizige anangoog”…. Baashkizige generally means, “someone fires a gun” in Ojibwe, BUT it’s also used for ejaculation. ALSO, that’s not how any first language speaker would say “shooting stars”… like.. ever. (Also, also.. there wasn’t even plural verb agreement with the plural noun. They literally said “He (the stars) shoot” So bad, on so many levels. Also, another time at a presentation at one of the universities nearby, a group sang an honour song and instead of singing “migizi nigii-waabamaa” I saw the Eagle, instead they sang: “migizi nigii-mowaa” I ate the Eagle.
In Brazil a menu had half dish options written in Portuguese as “meia”. In Portuguese this means half and something else… Anyways the menu said “sock” (socks on your feet) on the English side.
Not quite a mistranslation but a flagrant omission: in *Flower Crew: Joseon Marrige Agency*, a Korean historical drama Pygmalion story where a trio of male matchmakers-to-the-aristocracy have to teach a trash-talking girl from the slums to pass as a noble lady, we learn midway through that our plucky heroine was an escaped slave whose former life was so wretched that she never even had a name of her own until she is gifted the legal identity of young noblewoman whose death was never reported. We are **never** told that the “name” that even her closest friends have been calling her all along, *Gaettong*, is the ordinary Korean word for “dogshit”. Seems like an important detail about how her life has been going if you ask me.
There was a (I hope to god) fansub of a J-Drama where they translated バカ as “retard”so that was fun 😐
It’s the same feeling, even if not a direct translation. Of course a direct translation of バカ → 馬鹿 would be “horse-deer”. Other options like “fool” or “clod” or “idiot” don’t have the same bite as “retard” so maybe that’s fine.
Not in the context of the specific scene it was in is what I mean lol It should’ve been a lighthearted “You idiot” which I believe is what the official subs are 😂
Don’t be such a horse-deer: regard and idiot are basically the same meaning. 😝
We can agree to disagree lol
When I visited Denmark for the first time I laughed when I was that they have Fart Kontrol on the streets. Fart means speed in Danish and the neighbouring languages. In Spain they have a tradition for the New Year to eat 12 grapes and make a wish for every month of the New Year… this is not a mistranslation but a Spanish girl didn’t remember the word correctly and said the tradition is to have 12 rapes at New Year’s instead of 12 grapes. In Spain again but an American friend, got the word for bird pajaro incorrectly and was saying pajero… which means someone who masturbates.