When I was about seven years old, my brother and I went to the clinic my father worked at to sing Christmas carols to his colleagues and spread some holiday spirit. And one of the songs on our roster was the beloved classic Feliz Navidad. Unfortunately, however, I didn’t know very much Spanish at the time, so I ended up singing “próspero baño y felicidad” instead of año. (In other words, I wished them a prosperous bathroom instead of year.)

As embarrassing as this may be to look back on, I know I’m far from the only one who’s made a hilarious linguistic mistake of this nature. Redditors have recently been recalling the funniest miscommunications they’ve experienced while traveling and talking to speakers of other languages, so we’ve gathered their most amusing stories down below!

#1

We were in Rome in an old hotel by the Colosseum. It was very loud in our rooms. My friend went to the front desk and kept explaining to the receptionist that it was too loud in his room. The guy was not helpful and my friend was pissed. He then got out his Italian book and realized he spent 15 minutes telling the guy “I don’t like my ears!”.

Image credits: Missmoneysterling

#2

I was in Milan recently. I speak a little Italian. It am not confident enough to hold a conversation. I was caught off guard by somebody asking me a question in Italian. I replied with “No hablo inglese” which means I do not speak English…..but in Spanish. I’ll blame it on the jet lag. I’m sure I confused that person thoroughly.

Image credits: NJAKBSH

#3

Went into a clothing store in Paris, browsed through the racks, declined offer of assistance from clerk. After I left I realized it was a dry cleaner.

Image credits: IndependenceFree2364

#4

I used to live in Japan and when I first moved there my motto was “I’m okay with making 10,000 mistakes daily.” This was my first major one.

I was invited over by a very sweet couple in my apartment complex for dinner one of my first nights. They had a baby.

When I entered the house I wanted to show off my newfound Japanese skills from my paper dictionary. What I meant to say was “ie ga kirei” – or “your home is beautiful.” What I said was “ie ga kirai” – “your home is disgusting.” They kept their smiles up but I could tell they were a bit jarred.

It got worse. During dinner I said the other thing I had learned “akachan ga sugoi kawaii” – “your baby is very cute,” but what I said was “akachan ga sugoi kowaii” – or “your baby is terrifying.”

This time they weren’t so stoic and the dad sort of choked on his food. I asked what was wrong and they told me that they weren’t used to people being so direct. I told them what I was trying to say each time and they looked SO relieved and we all laughed until it hurt. I worked with the husband and everyone at work the next day thought it was absolutely hilarious.

That was the first of many, many situations like that.

Image credits: trivial_sublime

#5

My favorite was when I was in a tiny town deep in the Pyrenees in France just after coming to the country. I was running to catch a train and could hear it coming but couldn’t figure out where the station was (pre-Smartphones) and I started panicking. I saw an older couple walking towards me but all of the French I knew flew out of my head because I was in such a tizzy.

So, basically I ran up to this nice couple and yelled “Ooh ay el choo-choo” while making the “pull the cord” motion. This nice couple pointed me in the right direction but they were doubled over laughing the entire time. Couldn’t blame them, honestly. Made my train

Image credits: pharmdoll

#6

In Boquete, Panama whilst attempting to buy jeans I spent five minutes telling a store order about my desire to buy pants for horses (caballos) instead of men (caballeros) in my broken Spanish.

Image credits: TomMFive

#7

My Thai friend taught me how to ask for a glass of red wine and fried shrimp… or so I thought. I ordered and once the staff and my friend stopped laughing they let me in on the joke. I asked for red chicken and fried mosquitoes

Image credits: heliepoo2

#8

In Salzburg as a group of about 15 family and friends. We asked a nice German woman to take our photo. She takes one then says “OK, Back up” so we all shuffle as a group like 3 feet backwards. She immediately starts laughing and explains she meant she was taking a backup photo. Safe to say the smiles in the second photo were genuine.

Image credits: Nimble-Crabb

#9

I hired a tour guide in Hanoi. At one of the stops he explained that we were at the temple of Little Richard. So I ask “Did you say Little Richard?” He nods proudly “Yes, Little Richard!” I’m like “This temple is dedicated to Little Richard?” He is emphatic “Yes! This is the temple of Little Richard”. I want to tell him that I’m pretty sure it is not, but just shrug “okay, whatever”. Later I looked it up and discovered we had visited the temple of literature.

Image credits: Civil_Connection7706

#10

My partner is allergic to peanuts and in Japan we used Google translate to communicate it.

It worked well except in one cafe where the waiter came back with a Google translate screen saying there might be peanuts in the poodle.

Image credits: llamaesunquadrupedo

#11

I was in Japan a few years ago with a friend of mine. We flew in to Tokyo to stay for a few nights in Shinjuku before using the rail pass to travel around. We checked into the hotel etc then headed out for food and some drinks, my friend had researched a place called Piss Alley to go to, which despite it’s name was a good idea. We went into a little restaurant for food and they’d put out a perfectly square piece of tofu to snack on, although at that moment we had no idea what it was. We figured it must be soap to clean our hands before eating, which seemed logical, so at the same time we picked up the tofu and started smushing it into our hands. All the staff and other customers just looked at us horrified, after a few seconds we figured it wasn’t soap!

Image credits: MiserableScot

#12

The Greek word for ‘yes’ is ‘nai,’ which sounds negative. The situation we experienced was:

Me: Excuse me, could you tell me if this is the way to the Acropolis?

Elderly locals in Greece: Nai.

Me: Ah, I see. Well, thank you anyway. I’ll try to find another route. (As it was clear that they do not understand English very well)

As we turn around, the locals are left bewildered, even though they just confirmed that we are on the right path.

Later on, we realized that in the Greek language, ‘nai’ means ‘yes,’ even though it sounds negative. We’ve been going in the right direction! We made fun of this until the end of our vacation. :D.

Image credits: MatijaMaverick

#13

I was backpacking in Patagoina and were trying to re-enter Argentina after being in Chile for a month. The boarder officer demanded to see my sheep’s, and I understood nothing, cause I never had any sheep. We got more and more frustrated with each other until the officer went to get a colleague who spoke better English. The other officer checks my papers and again ask me about the whereabouts of my sheep. I explain that I left Argentina on a ship, and that’s when it clicked for us. Turns out, according to my documents, I left Argentina on a sheep and they wanted to declare it before I came back.

Image credits: Icy-Abbreviations224

#14

I introduced my boss as my egg while in Colombia for work.

Image credits: Tiny_pufferfish

#15

I ordered a Diet Coke in Tegernsee in Bavaria and got delivered a vegetarian Thai red curry. Still ate it.

Image credits: dave_gregory42

#16

My boyfriend visited me when I was living in France and kept mixing up “excuse me” and “thank you.” Pretty simple and harmless, but the scathing looks every time he bumped into an old lady and thanked her were withering and priceless.

#17

I was living and working in Italy for a few years, and I really tried to learn the language. My Italian isn’t too bad now, but initially, it was pretty rough at times.

During that early period, I once stopped in at a cafe’ to get a sandwich and a drink. I saw that they had peach tea in bottles in the cooler, so I asked for “tè alla pesce”. The woman at the counter gave me the strangest look. I figured that I’d pronounced it poorly, so I again said, speaking as distinctly as i could, “Vorrei un tè alla pesce, per favore.” She then burst out laughing.

I was ordering fish tea.

I should have asked for “tè alla pesca”. That’s a mistake I definitely never made again!

#18

At a hostel in Nicaragua I said in Spanish “I’d like to poo here for five days” instead of “I’d like to stay here for five days” (cagar vs quedar) ?.

#19

I tried to explain my aussie housemate that i have problems with my “gum”. I translated it 1:1 from german, i created “toothmeat”. He had a big laughter.

#20

When traveling solo in Vietnam, I boarded a public ferry in the lower delta.

I noticed that everyone on board was white and dressed kind of fancy, but I figured it was just Europeans traveling in SE Asia.

Then, 15 minutes into the ride someone started pouring champagne and passing it around to passengers. I was impressed with the service on a public ferry…

The person pouring champagne got to me and gave me a puzzled look as I reached for a glass.

It was then I realized I got on a private boat.

We had a good laugh and they dropped me off at the next public ferry dock.

#21

Tried to teach a Japanese gentleman how to make puns in English (he was an English teacher). We were in a restaurant so I picked up my glass of water and said: “Hey, water you doing now?” (bad pun but it was just for educational purposes).

He laughs and says: “Oh yeah I get it! So, hey bro… potato salad!”

I laughed so hard that he thought he had made a great pun.

Image credits: Mysterious-Metal-309

#22

Just moved to france, started new job, haven’t spoken french for a long while and am quite rusty. i need to set up a meeting with a colleague. she happens to be a woman. instead of telling her ‘let’s meet at your room in the office’, i translate from italian and say ‘on se voit dans ta chambre’ e.g. let’s meet in your bedroom. she had a good laugh.

few days after, another colleague, still a woman. i need a favor (work related) and in italian one can say ‘mi fai un favore’ or ‘mi fai un piacere’. of course i translate the second saying ‘j’ai besoin d’un plaisir’ which very roughly translates to ‘can you pleasure me’. she also had a good laugh, luckily.

i am proud to report my french greatly improved since then.

Image credits: hyp_reddit

#23

I was in an electronics shop in Mexico trying to buy a new charging cable. With myself speaking no Spanish and the young guy behind the counter speaking no English, he pulled out google translate on his phone.
Into which I typed ‘micro-usb’ in English, which happened to come up as ‘micro-usb’ in Spanish.

Image credits: Aruma47

#24

I was in Kyrgyzstan, but both people spoke English in this situation, just not perfectly. Was more of a “misheard” rather than “mistranslation”.

Checked into a hotel, went to my room, realised I didn’t have a wifi password so went back to reception. Asked for the password, the girl there insisted she had already given it to me and got quite heated in her insistence.

So I said “if you gave it to me, I’ve lost it”. So she demanded to come up and search my room. And I was kind of bemused, I didn’t see why she couldn’t just give me a copy but thought maybe there was a unique access code or something.

She comes in to my room, walk around a bit, grabs my passport from the bedside table and waves it in my face yelling “See I told you I gave it back to you”

At which point I fell on the bed laughing and said “Wifi password, not passport”. To which she pointed at the piece of paper on the back of the door that had the password on it.

Weirdly we got a long quite well during the time I was there and I ended up going to her cousins wedding in another city.

#25

We recently were in Amsterdam.

The hotel we were staying at had sent us an email a couple days before to fill out our information-names, emails, passport info, etc. My wife had done it already to speed the check-in process.

Apparently it’s rare that people do that ahead of time, because the woman who checked us in (age 30-ish I’m guessing) at the hotel made a comment about “oh that’s great you’ve done this, most people don’t” and my wife replied “I guess I thought we had to.”

Hotel lady came right back with “we appreciate it, you’re so neurotic!” I stifled a laugh.

I’m not sure if a) she was looking for a word meaning “on top of things” and missed, b) that was the word she intended to use, but she doesn’t fully understand the meaning or know it can have a negative connotation or c) she meant what she meant..lol. The Dutch are known to be blunt.

The way she said was positive and even with the Dutch being blunt, I don’t think hospitality workers would intentionally insult their customers, so I’m pretty sure it’s mostly a) with a little bit of b). Either way it was funny and we joked about it the rest of the trip.

E: I included age only because this is the kind of flub I might have expected from someone older. It’s my understanding that the older one is in Europe, the less English training they would have had in school. That’s what I’ve been told previously anyway.

#26

My sister and I both worked at Target in college. One day she called me on the walkie-talkies when we were both on shift and said:

“Hey, I have some Spanish speakers and I have no idea what they’re asking me, can you translate?”

“Sure, what are they saying?”

“They’re looking for (heavy Spanish accent) an ‘eyes cram ma chin’”

I was laughing so damn hard and responded “they’re speaking English not Spanish, they want an ice cream machine!”

It’s been over 10 years and it still makes me laugh.

#27

Got my Spanish and French mixed up in the alps and ordered a ‘cafe negro’ instead of a ‘cafe noir’.

Image credits: shnu62

#28

I was getting robbed by 5 dudes with a knife against my throat in Santa Marta, Colombia. In the chaos I kept trying to say “it’s okay amigo, no problem amigo” but it kept coming out as “amor” instead. I didn’t realise until after it was over that I kept referring to my muggers as my lovers.

Image credits: Signifi-gunt

#29

First time in Spain, this is 16 years ago. I didn’t speak a word of Spanish when I went there, but I had to learn because not many people spoke English.

You always speak about weather, right? And it was hot, end of July, beginning of August. I had this tiny English-Spanish wordbook, no Google translate at that time.

Just saying, it’s a miles wide difference between “hace calor” and “estoy caliente”. I just thought it meant that I feel hot, because it is very sunny and high temperatures.

Turned out, that what I was saying had a whole different meaning. A nice Spanish girl told me not to say it like that, because yeah, it means I am hot – but like in sexy, not because of the weather.

I wished the ground would swallow me. I had been using that phrase for at least two weeks. I was sooo embarrassed. Nowadays, it’s a funny story.

#30

Ive posted this before in a similar thread, but English is not my first language. We were visiting chicago. I had been to New York before so I knew of the subway there. I did not realize the term ‘subway’ was unique to the style of train. We couldn’t find where to get on the railway in Chicago so stopped at a gas station and I asked how to get to the subway. The guy gave me directions. We walked about 20 minutes, turned the corner to where he said it’d be, and found the restaurant Subway. It was such a funny moment.

#31

I was traveling. Stopped at a small diner in Virginia and asked for coffee. The waitress put her hands on her hips and said “codfish, we don’t sell codfish here.”.

#32

At a restaurant in Yogyakarta, a woman approached me and asked if I was finished? I said “not yet but I won’t be long” she said “no, are you finished?”
I said “look I’m a fast eater, I really won’t be long, do you really need this table?” To which she said “no, are you from Finland?” Lmao.

#33

In February 2002 my husband and I were checking in to a hotel in Paris (from US). My best friend since childhood was 4 months pregnant and left a message for me. Due to a language barrier the message read ” your wife has delivered a baby boy.” What she meant was she had a sonogram and would be having a boy in several months. We were getting some serious looks from staff.

#34

In 2001 I was in Italy and needed a bus ticket in La Spezia to get to Cinque Terre, and I only knew little Italian but asked a store clerk how to buy the tickets. They told me a machine outside the bus sells the tickets.

I walk to the bus and see a machine across from it with instructions in Italian. People are loading on the bus and sort of waiting on me and watching as I fumble with the machine, figuring if I stuff in enough money, a ticket has gotta pop out.

Stuff in money, machine acts like it’s good, press button. Out comes a CONDOM lmaoooooo. I’m all stunned and turn around to the bus and all its passengers while holding this magic condom, and THERE is the ticket machine BEHIND me and NEXT TO the bus, notttttt across from it. Lol.

#35

When me and my family were in France, a woman asked my dad something and he tried to say in French, “Sorry, I don’t speak French”, but he actually said, “Do you speak no French.” He walked away feeling very proud of himself, and then realised that something wasn’t right there.

He walked up the stairs to our apartment with his head hung and told us. The woman was really nice though, at first she was confused, and then went, oh, and spoke in English.

#36

I was ~16 and working in a kitchen, trying to explain to my coworkers that my dad was a lawyer. I said he was an “albóndiga” (meatball) instead of an “abogado” (lawyer). It took them a solid few minutes to keep it together long enough to explain my mistake to me. Oddly enough, my dad is on the heavier side, so once I was shown the error of my ways, I told them my original response still held. .

#37

My wife and I were on a long trip around Europe. We were in a large German city and saw an Indian restaurant. Since we hadn’t had any Indian food in a while we decided to eat there.

We decided we wanted some papadom to start. I meant to order 4 papadoms but instead I ordered 4 orders. The guy looked at us a little funny but brought us 16 papadoms. We had a good laugh and ate them all.

#38

Was speaking to a taxi driver in eastern europe and was telling him about visiting Korea and he asked me north or south Korea. 

I confused the words for North and South when replying to him so I told him North Korea. 

We spoke for like 10mins before I realized my mistake, he was so confused because I kept saying it was great and he was like: 

Really? Do they have enough food? I heard life was difficult there.

And I was like: 

No, it’s awesome, they have tons of food, great place, you should go! ?.

#39

On a guided tour recently in Toledo, Spain, and the tour was in Spanish and English. English was the guide’s second language, and she really did a fantastic job. However, when talking about the history of the city, she noted the time of the “Spanish Indecision” and its impact on the city. Me and the few other English speaking tourists had a little chuckle.

#40

Okay, I was in Tibet with my parents, my father knows a little about Chinese and like showing off. We were in a bus and he tried to give his seat to an aged woman saying “ny shi fyu nv”, which means you are woman. But he didn’t pronounce it well, and pronounced like “ny shi chiu nv” which means “you’re a virgin” That attracted all the attention of the bus.

#41

I went to France as a teenager and our lovely guide at the monastery was showing us where the monks washed the pilgrim’s feet, just like how Jesus washed the applesauce feet (keep in mind I have never been a church goer or bible studier). Applesauce feet? Yes, applesauce feet. she meant apostle.

#42

When I first arrived in Japan I needed to go from Narita airport to Yokohama’s “Kanazawa” District.

So I asked the train staff for directions to “Kanazawa”. He gave me the list of stations and transfers.

About three hours into the journey, I suddenly realized it was getting late and got confused because Yokohama should be less than two hours away.

And instead of going along the coast, the train was in the mountains.

Finding a conductor, I double-checked the directions and found I was heading not to “Kanazawa District”, but “Kanazawa City”.

“Kanazawa City” is in an entirely different prefecture about six hours away.

#43

In Germany, I asked where the badezimmer (bathroom) was, and they were confused and told me they had toiletten (toilets), not bathrooms. Where I live in the US, it would be the same thing asking for a bathroom or toilet (although more typically a barhroom), and everyone knows you just need to go to the bathroom. Apparently, there it matters which you ask for because badezimmer is assuming you need to take a shower whereas toiletten assumes you need to use the toilet. I learned in this experience that just because you know what words mean the cultural context of a word or words is key.

#44

I was visiting my daughter in Quito, Ecuador with family. We were staying at an AirBnb a couple blocks from her apartment.

That particular part of Quito was relatively safe, but could get a bit sketchy after dark. We left her apartment late one evening and she reminded us to stay aware while we were walking home.

About half way to our place, a man coming the other direction crossed the street behind us and started following us a bit aggressively. We made the decision to just bolt for the door to our building and did so, succeeding in getting behind the locked door rather quickly.

The next morning we came out of the building to find the man in a conversation with my daughter. It turns out he was the caretaker of our building. The night before he saw us walking, recognized us and decided to keep an eye on us to make sure we got home safely.

#45

My wife and I were traveling in Peru where you have to haggle over every price, especially taxi rides. The following exchange took place in broken Spanish.

Wife: How much to get to ?

Taxi driver: $13

Wife: (thinking he just said $30) What?! No way. $15.

Taxi driver: Fine then, get in.

#46

I was touring Italy with my husband and a bunch of his family, including his young cousin who was and still is an extremely picky eater. She was living on buttered noodles for the 2 weeks we were there. One night she was seated with my husband, my brother-in-law, and me at dinner (presumable because we were the youngest adults and therefore “cool”). The waiter was disappointed that she only wanted buttered noodles and started listing all of the things they could make for her off-menu. Knowing that she would eat broccoli, I asked the waiter if they could make some. He was really excited and ran back to the kitchen. When the food came out he proudly presented a plate of cauliflower swimming in butter. He was so proud that even though she wouldn’t touch the cauliflower the rest of us snuck pieces off the plate and ate it for her. We later learned from the concierge at our hotel that cauliflower is roughly translated to white broccoli in Italian.

#47

Me and a bartender at my resort were playing around and flirting but his nametag was rubbed off and I couldn’t see his name. After a week of translating my basic grasp of Spanish in my head everything was blurring together and I said “te amo” instead of “como te llamas”. But because I was trying to ask his name the “I love you” came out sounding very serious, not jokey like the previous flirting.

#48

Went to a cash only sushi bar in Kyoto. Realized after I sat down that I had enough cash, though it would be tight and I had to monitor so I didn’t over spend. It was closing soon and didn’t have time to run to an ATM. To make matters worse, the menu did not have prices and the chef’s English wasn’t very good.

After ordering nigiri I’d have to ask him “how much” so I could keep track of how much I was spending. This became really confusing after I ordered some hamachi. “How much?” “Hamachi.” “No, how much?” “Yes, hamachi.” Went back n forth like that for a little bit hahaha.

#49

I was on a boat from Chonqing down the Yangste river. A Chinese uncle sat down next to me and talked nonstop for an hour. His accent was so unusual I couldn’t even place it. I didn’t understand a word he said. When he finished and walked away, my friend came over and asked what we talked about for so long. I had to admit I had no idea. .

#50

Was in a bar deep in the Australian outback, past Alice Springs, and wanted to buy a round of beer for my friends. Asked the bartender for a pitcher of beer, to which he looked perplexed and handed me a postcard with a photograph of a VB roadtrain (massive transport truck with Victoria Bitters branding) on it and said that was the best he had. We realized to an Aussie my Canadian accent made ‘pitcher’ and ‘picture’ indistinguishable. He poured me a jug of beer.

#51

On our first day in Rome, my brain was exhausted with its use of rusty intermediate-level Italian. When my kid wanted gelato and they asked us to sit down, instead of saying “Can I take it to go?” I said “Can I touch it?” We were walking away from the shop when I said out loud to my family, “I just figured out why he looked at me like that.”.

#52

My first night in my small village in Japan, my translator had left for the night, and I was staying in a kind of community inn. A woman brought out my dinner, which included a small thing that I thought looked like some kind of berry on the rice (it was an umeboshi). She seemed very excited about it, pointed at it and said a bunch of things that I didn’t understand. I figured it was probably a local favorite or something and she was urging me to taste it, so I popped it in my mouth. Wow, it was sour, and hard…but I wanted to be polite so I attempted to crush it in my teeth and eat it without showing my surprise but instead showing her I liked it. I literally at it, pit and all, because I hadn’t realized there was a pit, and once I was that far in, it was already shattered in my teeth. After a good minute or so, I finally managed to swallow it. All the while she stared at me wide eyed. I was finished, and smiled at her, but she was stuck, just staring at me wide eyed and confused. So, I kind of opened my mouth a bit to show her, “look, I ate it all!” And she gasped in shock, then chuckled a little, then walked away perplexed. It was so awkward. Only months later did I realize that she was warning me about the sourness and the pit and I think I’m the first (and probably last) person she ever saw eat an umeboshi, pit and all.

I’ve lived in Japan for 15 years now btw, and have an entire family here.

#53

One summer afternoon as a maybe-old-enough-to-drink teenager in Paris I went in to Harry’s bar cuz I’d read about it as this cool American bar. It was completely empty but before I could explore, the bartender looks at me and says, “no shots.” And I’m like, okay, a bit early for shots, but whatever. But before I could go in any further, he more forcefully said, “no shots!” gesturing at my legs where clad not pants, but shorts. Cue my “oooohh, haha, yes sir… I’ll see myself out.
TLDR: French accent “shorts” sounded like “shots” to my American brain, and that was the funniest time I’d been kicked out of a bar without having a single drink.