One of the loving things about speaking a foreign language is the endless amusement that making a faux pas can provide.
I heard a fabulous language Faux Pas the other day and I have been chuckling ever since so I thought I would share it with you all here!
A business colleague of mine whose grasp of the French language is somewhat limited to ordering in French restaurants, wanted to congratulate an important French person on his achievements.
Extremely seriously, the English bloke held out his hand for a hand shake, grasped the French guys hand and said “Bien cuit Monsieur, Bien cuit”.
The solemn atmosphere soon descended into guffaws all around, as the French guy looked at the English bloke as if he was mad, obviously not understanding what Bien Cuit means for the average Brit. For those that were aware of what they’re asking for when they say Bien Cuit, there was no end of stifled giggles!
ps. Just in case you’re not a francophile, asking for your steak “Bien Cuit” in a French restaurant means asking it to be well done. In French however it means well cooked.
Piglet in France 
That’s wonderful, Piglet. Hilarious!
Another one I heard some years ago at our local market was an English lady discussing some home-made confitures with the stall holder. Do they have any preservatives in them, she asked. 🙂
LOL! Goodness knows what the stall holder must have thought!
I’ve heard one similar to that too… a guy meeting his future (French) family in law. He told them that he doesn’t like preservatives (meaning in food). The shock!
There’s a fabulous collection of language faux pas on http://www.upyourbottom.com. Please share yours!
Thanks for that Lorraine, what a wonderful (funny!) site you have! I will come and share some of mine soon 🙂
hehehee……and I hardly know any French.
Oh my, this one is going to make the rounds, thank you!
HAHA! I think I’ve done my share of faux pas, mostly with the ex-h’s family, natch, but they’ve passed into the forgotten mists of time, thankfully.
Good one, good one!!
*noting this in my language notes part of my brain now*
I think this is one that can easily be made by people learning the language – just when you think you’ve learned something, you say it in a different context and find out it has a totally different meaning! souvenirs, souvenirs!
Too hilarious! I have to share this one with D!
Hysterical! I’ve made a couple of faux pas that I’ll never forget!
I’m sure between us all we could write a book! I’ve just been have a good giggle over at Lorraine’s website “Up Your Bottom” – so many funny stories, could keep me busy all day!
Funny stuff! I always find myself saying completely ridiculous things…thankfully the French are so polite that they just nod & smile most of the time. A book is definitely in order; thanks for giving us a good laugh!
lol!!! reminds me of something that happened to me more than a decade ago (already ). An ex of mine who didn’t know a thing about English held up his glass, looked at me seriously and said quite loudly ” Up yours !!” instead of ” Cheers!!”. I almost died of laughter.
LOL! I have a HUGE long list of faux pas’ ..
Like when I asked if the meat in the butchers had “preservatifs” in it … (condoms rather than the correct french word for perservatives which is conservateurs) obviously got the weirdest looks ever. Actually never been back into that shop since … that was 2 years ago!
Both my French husband (in English) and I (in French) have committed some glorious faux pas. I even wrote a post about it when I made my pets-de-nonne (which I so wanted to make only because they are “Nun’s Farts”. The more the merrier, and this, I do find, is half the fun of being in a mixed-language marriage.