An example of what I mean:

I, in China, told an English speaking Chinese friend I needed to stop off in the bathroom to “take a shit.”

He looked appalled and after I asked why he had that look, he asked what I was going to do with someone’s shit.

I had not laughed so hard in a while, and it totally makes sense.

I explained it was an expression for pooping, and he comes back with, “wouldn’t that be giving a shit?”

I then got to explain that to give a shit means you care and I realized how fucked some of our expressions are.

What misunderstandings made you laugh?

  • Sneezycat@sopuli.xyz
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    21 days ago

    To be fair, ñ in Spanish is a whole letter by itself and not just a funny n. As in, it has its own entry in the alphabet, and it has a dedicated key on the keyboard. So even lazy people don’t write n instead :P

    • eldavi@lemmy.ml
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      21 days ago

      dedicated key on the keyboard

      not on us keyboards; hence all the anal. i literally have to find a source to find ñ and á to copy/paste it. lol

      • ilinamorato@lemmy.world
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        21 days ago

        On smartphones you can tap and hold, and on physical keyboards there’s usually an alt key combo you can put in.

        • eldavi@lemmy.ml
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          21 days ago

          on physical keyboards there’s usually an alt key combo you can put in.

          they’re disabled and the last time i needed it was years ago; i also didn’t turn it back on to use it back then as well. lol

          even on my phone; it’s more convenient to just switch languages than find that character. jeje