School is almost out, the holidays are booked, the bags packed and the sun cream is bought. According to a study commissioned by Holiday Autos the average adult is able to rattle off up to 15 words with French being the most common language.
Ill admit (sorry Dada Fairy) my husband is one of those holiday makers who loves to learn a few words before we depart what amuses me also is the kids get in on it too. Now don’t get me wrong in an increasingly multicultural world we live it this is something I absolutely encourage. One funny episode springs to mind. We were in Italy for a family weeding and when we finished a beautiful meal in a restaurant in Lake Como my son departed with a wave calling “ ciao” to the waiter. The poor guys was speechless this teeny tot speaking to him in his own language. He knew we were Irish holiday makers over for a wedding. To make it even funnier he insisted we all come back to the table and gave us a round of limocello (obviously not to the kid!!).
Lovely gesture by the restaurant who im sure still remembers the teeny tot, who is now 5 who greeted him in his native language.
I laughed at some of the findings of the survey which reveals, the average holidaymaker has experienced three ‘lost in translation’ moments when on holiday.
According to the poll…
- One man asked for directions and kept being told the price of a chicken.
- A holidaymaker thought he was asking a waiter where the toilet was, but was actually repeatedly asking where the man’s wife was.
- Another asked for egg on his pancake and got a raw egg.
- One respondent asked for a lemonade and ended up buying a newspaper.
- Another respondent regularly got the French words for rabbit and bread around the wrong way.
- A gentleman got a surprise in France when he asked for jam to go with his croissant and got a condom.
- One respondent ended up with a slap around the face. To this day he doesn’t know what he said
For anybody who wants to prevent the ‘lost in translation’ moments Holiday Auto have produced handy language guides that are available online and include top foreign phrases to help avoid any of the above.
I recall another episode long before we had kids when we visited China. My husband got food positioning and a quick call to his mother revealed a brandy and port should to do the trick. I was swiftly dispatched down the hotel bar for this miracle cure however I spoke no Mandarin and the bar man had little English. He duly poured what I though was a Bandy and Port however he told me that would be the equivalent of €500. I almost fainted. Queue frantic drawing and pointing at menus and we seem to have found a middle ground and he charged me what I though I was paying around €10 interestingly enough I still walked away with the same drink. I can also happily report it seemed to do the trick!!!
Note: This post is collaborative post, content created by myself with thanks to Holiday Autos
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