Too many lonely nights? (French/English)
A friend of mine went to France armed with a basic grasp of the French language. He needed some household goods but was stumped as to the correct word for pillows. Trying (as we Brits do) to cross the language barrier by speaking slowly in English with an attempt at a French accent he proceeded to repeatedly ask a store assistant je voudrais un 'cushion' pour mon lit. The store assistant was not at all impressed, and it was only upon consulting his dictionary at home did he realise that the English word 'cushion' sounds awfully like the French word for 'pig', cochon. Needless to say we soon understood the store assistants disgruntlement at his repeated requests for a pig for his bed!
Sent by: Suzanne
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I love it I think it's a great way of knowing what they mean and I understad what people mean as I am going skiiing soon :)
A common gaffe occurs when meeting a French person for the first time. English speakers wanting to introduce themselves might say something like 'Je veux me introduire.' However, this means ' I want to insert myself!' I've seen the shocked/amused/worried look on dozens of French faces. Try 'Je veux me présenter' instead...
Un cochon also means a dirty man! Just like you would call someone "a pig" in English. So Suzanne insisting on "un cochon pour son lit" is really funny!
I also needed an extra pillow once in France. I tried to explain that I needed "something to put under the head while sleeping." Eventually the hotel clerk produced a "traversin" which was more like what I would call a bolster, but close enough.
As a student of French in France, in my reasonably decent French I was enthusing over natural French products like jam (no preservatives) to my Swiss-French companion.
I turned bright red and was mortified while he laughed and laughed. Guessing that the French said preservatives, I said something like: it's great that the French don't use any ±è°ùé²õ±ð°ù±¹²¹³Ù¾±´Ú²õ! The word the French use is 'conservateurs'. In French, I had been rabbiting on about French jam not having condoms in it. Hell, it LOOKED like English.
In Scotland the old fashioned pottery hot water bottle was known as a pig.
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