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Most embarrasing event abroad | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Cultural Experiences in Foreign Languages |  | |
| Solfrid Cristin Heptaglot Winner TAC 2011 & 2012 Senior Member Norway Joined 5128 days ago 4143 posts - 8864 votes  Speaks: Norwegian*, Spanish, Swedish, French, English, German, Italian Studies: Russian | Message 1 of 10 23 October 2011 at 2:27pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
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We have had a couple of threads discussing most embarrasing mistakes in a foreign language. Sometimes it is not a language mistake as such, but the fact that you are in foreign country, unable to explain yourself, or that you misunderstand a cultural context and do what is seen as weird by others that get you into trouble.
Having spent quite a lot of time among foreigners, and posessing an incredible ability to make a fool of myself,either due to physical clumsyness or Norwegianness, I have a vast amount of examples to chose from. I'll leave aside the stories that are too embarrassing to tell even after 20-30 years have passed, and go to one that just barely passes. At the age of 14 I was sent to live alone in France a year, and I had a vocabulary of about 20-50 words when I got there. Just about a week after I arrived, I was taken to visit some friends of my host family. I was a bit surprised that we were told to keep our shoes on when entering, because in Norway you always remove your shoes when you enter a house, but I did as I was told. We were taken around the house to see how beautiful it was, with magnifiscent tapestries, chandeliers and Persian carpets, but I could not help noticing that in every room there was a foul smell. And then I discovered the origin of the smell. There was a huge dog poo, that was stuck to my left shoe. I was so horrified realizing that I had been stepping all over their valuable Persian carpets with that thing, that I literally fled crying from the house. My host family came after me, to find out what was wrong, but my French was so limited that I had no way of explaining to them, and even though they spoke some English, I was at that point so petrified of shame, that I was unable to come up with anything understandable, even in English. They probably thought I was out of my mind, but in the end they just shrugged their shoulders and we went home. I was however never invited to that house again. I may add, that after this instance I developed a 100% accurate radar for dog poo, which served me particularly well in Brussels, which in spite of being a wonderful city, is covered in it. I do not need to actually look down, my brain just seems to scan the street in front of me so that I can avoid it, and I have not stepped into dog's poo since. So, what is your most embarrassing moment among foreigners? (Oh. and any story which is likely to get you in jail, or make you lose a job opportunity - leave that out :-). 7 persons have voted this message useful | |||||||||
| egill Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5490 days ago 418 posts - 791 votes Speaks: Mandarin, English* Studies: German, Spanish, Dutch | Message 2 of 10 24 October 2011 at 2:23am | IP Logged | ||||||||
I must admit I'm curious about this statement. Is there some stereotype about Norwegians I didn't know about? As for my story: I was on my own (my travel companions had to go back early) in the Philippines and had just purchased a pair of long pants there as all I had brought were shorts and I was heading somewhere a bit colder. I took the midnight bus from Metro Manila to Banue and when it came time to check for tickets after riding for a bit, I realized to my horror that I couldn't find my ticket. Fortunately a man whom I had been conversing with was able to explain the situation and vouch for me. Slightly embarrassing, but these things happen. Crisis averted. On the way back, I took extra precautions with my ticket. I had it in a zippered pocket of my rucksack and took it out only when it came time to board the bus and put my stuff away. With the kind of care usually reserved for human infants, I gingerly took the ticket out of my backpack, and placed it into the zippered pants pocket of my snazzy new pants and closed it up. We set off and I ended up having a nice conversation with the same passenger from last time. Though tired I was in good spirits. When it came time to check tickets again, I nonchalantly reached into my pocket and confidently found.. nothing. I scoured my belongings and clothing to no avail. The man whom I'd been talking with said something to the effect of "again, seriously?". Both him and the collector (and in my distorted my memory the whole bus) had the unmistakable expression of "stupid Americans" on their faces. After some extended conversation involving a lot of gesticulating, we came to the understanding that I was just a blithering idiot, not a sinister fair-dodger. The rest of the trip was deafeningly silent. After returning I popped into a small shop to buy a bottle of water. As the clerk handed me a handful of coins for change. I put them in my pocket and turned to walk away only to feel them sliding through my pant leg and hit the ground, making loud coin-sounds as coins are wont to do. I grinned like an idiot for a good minute. 4 persons have voted this message useful | |||||||||
| LanguageSponge Triglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 5560 days ago 1197 posts - 1487 votes Speaks: English*, German, French Studies: Welsh, Russian, Japanese, Slovenian, Greek, Italian | Message 3 of 10 24 October 2011 at 9:00am | IP Logged | ||||||||
While I don't have a story to tell just yet (not one that involves mistakes *abroad*, anyway, I do have to comment on this. Yesterday afternoon I was in London and lost my ticket, too. It's sort of like a pass that gets you cheap Tube tickets - I had bought it a few weeks before and you are only supposed to need to buy one in your life - that was the first Tube journey I'd needed it. Having read your entire story, I remembered that I have a pair of jeans with a hole in the left pocket, probably due to my house keys. As I am left-handed, I tend to put everything in the left pocket. So I went to go check the pair of jeans I was wearing yesterday and sure enough, it was the pair whose pocket I've been meaning to sew back up for about two months. So now I know where my bloody card went; thank you, mystery solved :P
I can vouch for this. My time in London explained above happened because I was in Brussels for a long weekend. And despite my girlfriend saying her home city is lovely and whatever else, it is covered in dog mess, none of which I stepped in, thankfully, however I found it quite difficult to get past that. That aside, it was a great weekend. Edited by LanguageSponge on 24 October 2011 at 9:12am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| Arekkusu Hexaglot Senior Member Canada bit.ly/qc_10_lec Joined 5175 days ago 3971 posts - 7747 votes Speaks: English, French*, GermanC1, Spanish, Japanese, Esperanto Studies: Italian, Norwegian, Mandarin, Romanian, Estonian | Message 4 of 10 24 October 2011 at 7:54pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
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My first time in Tokyo, I lined up to take the train. I was first in line. In a matter of seconds, the station quickly became very busy and a long queue formed behind me. The train arrived, the doors opened and I went in to sit down, quite proud that I was able to secure a seat despite the crowd.
For some reason, however, no one else came in the train. As I was sitting, a message was heard, but I couldn't make out what it said. I looked back at the queue and no one had moved. No one even dared to look at me. I figured I shouldn't be in the train, so I got out and regained my spot in the line, in front of everyone, extremely embarrassed. The doors closed and the train left, empty. I'm still unsure why. The Japanese are notorious for their politeness, but I learned the hard way that they aren't very interested in being the one to stand out and go help a foreigner. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||||||||
| Solfrid Cristin Heptaglot Winner TAC 2011 & 2012 Senior Member Norway Joined 5128 days ago 4143 posts - 8864 votes Speaks: Norwegian*, Spanish, Swedish, French, English, German, Italian Studies: Russian | Message 5 of 10 24 October 2011 at 11:40pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
There are a number of sterotypes about Norwegians, most of which are false. I must however admit, that there are certain characteristics that are common to a lot of us. - We are not terribly sophisticated - We seem rather impolite to people from other cultures - We think people actually mean everything they say - We do not ask for help unless we really need it, we do not offer help or to share unless it is really needed - An example from the first was when I was in Bruges, at a very fancy dinner, and I was asked whether I wanted white or brown bread. "White" I said, beamed at the waiter and took a piece of white bread. And it was only when I saw the frozen look on his face, that I realized that I was not supposed to serve myself. He had some contraption which he was supposed to serve me with. Leave it to the Belgians to make me feel like a peasent in town even after 20 years working in an international setting. - We are not good at saying "Yes, sir, No madam", we seldom remember to introduce people, and we are so informal that it is often perceived as impoliteness. An example (which is actually from a Swedish colleague, but might as well have been from a Norwegian one) is the following story: At a meeting in the internationl organization in Paris which I work with, the Swedish representative came up to the secretary of the meeting, left some papers at the desk, and said in German " "Das kannst du behalten" (you can keep that) and turned around and left. The Swiss delegate told me afterwards that he was in shock. No good morning, no shaking of hands, no asking about the family, no good bye, and he had used the informal "du" to him. I explained to him that in a Scandinavian setting, that would have been perfectly all right, but I do not think he was convinced. - Also some of the more subtle things Spaniards say to "cumplir" (fulfill the expectations of politeness) are too complicated for us. At the age of 11 I was once at a friend's house when lunch was being served, and they asked me if i wanted to have lunch with them. I said yes. They were a bit set back, and asked me if I did not like to eat at my own house. I said I loved to eat at my own house, but it was so kind of them to invite me, that I was happy to eat with them. Then my landlady turned up, and insisted I come home, and I answered that I could not, it would be rude, I had been invited to lunch with my friend's family. I was of course teased about this episode for years after that, and found out the hard way, that in Spain they are obliged to invite you to eat with them if you are in the house when food is served, but you are expected to say no. After that, when people invited me to eat with them, I would ask "Do you mean it, or do you just ask because you have to". Which of course made me seem even stranger, and made everybody uncomfortable. I also have an example for the fourth issue, but that will have to wait, as it is very long, and it is almost midnight. :-) Edited by Solfrid Cristin on 24 October 2011 at 11:45pm 6 persons have voted this message useful | |||||||||
| egill Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5490 days ago 418 posts - 791 votes Speaks: Mandarin, English* Studies: German, Spanish, Dutch | Message 6 of 10 25 October 2011 at 8:43pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
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@LanguageSponge
Glad that mystery's solved. I'm always paranoid about pocket-integrity now. @Solfid Thanks for the response, I hadn't heard of some of those before. I must confess that most of what I know of Scandinavian stereotypes are from Scandinavia and the World comics! 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| cathrynm Senior Member United States junglevision.co Joined 5919 days ago 910 posts - 1232 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Japanese, Finnish | Message 7 of 10 25 October 2011 at 9:24pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
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I was in Japan once, I think the whole time there, I was just a giant bundle of confusion and awkwardness everywhere. Before I left, I called Bank of America and then told them I'd be in Japan, but of course, when I get there the first time I use the card it gets marked fraud. I call them up, and then I don't know what happens but they me to FAX a copy of the card to the USA on a FAX machine. So I go to the hotel, and yes they have a FAX but they won't FAX anything with a credit card number on it anywhere. I tried to take a picture of the card, email it to a friend back in the USA on my cell phone, and have that Faxed in, but no that they couldn't get that working either. I had like a $300 in cellphone calls to Bank of America to try to fix this, ulimately, I never got it working, and I was stuck in Japan with only credit cards -- which got me basically stuck in tourist areas. For the most part, I'm just touristing around and not really involved too much with trying to communicate too much in Japanese, I was with friends from the USA and this was more about being with them than trying me trying to learn any language or anything, so that was no big deal.
I did find that I was just unbalanced by the place, and I was always loosing things or forgetting or just generally lost and bewildered. I did manage to actually feed myself a few times -- though a few times I just ordered random stuff on menus that I had no idea what it was. For the most part, I think I was able to buy stuff by picking up off the shelf, bringing it up to the counter and giving them money. This seemed pretty simple. I think I just seemed pretty lost, because I did get short-changed there once and I couldn't figure out how to complain about this. It was like a 100man en bill, it was actually kind of a drag. I was pretty good with machines and signs and notes and things. I can actually read okay, so I think I was basically okay as long as I didn't have to comunicate with anyone. Anyway, I survived. Maybe I'll go back there again some day. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| Jeffers Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 4703 days ago 2151 posts - 3960 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Hindi, Ancient Greek, French, Sanskrit, German | Message 8 of 10 20 November 2011 at 1:37pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
Off topic, but I didn't notice much dog mess in Brussels when I was there last April. And my children have a similar radar to Solfrid, but it works in reverse for them. But we weren't in any residential areas of the city, and maybe that is the difference. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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