Friday, October 2, 2020

Man's Translation Fail Results In Hilarious Misunderstanding


Man, oh man, we love a good old translation fail. Due to this guy's poor ability at speaking Chinese, he ended up in a hilarious misunderstanding with his mom and sister. Poor dude thought his sis was in real hot water. Fortunately, the truth came to light, and all the laughs were had. Get some more translation fails with these dumb mistranslated tattoos and shirts that people witnessed. 

1.

Text - r/tifu + Join u/throwawaysumtingwong • 1d TIFU by sucking in Chinese M This happened pre-pandemic. So l'm (31M) 100% pure Chinese but really bad at it. They taught it at school, but it was really shitty, like we were learning kindergarten level Chinese in High School. I speak (very poor) Mandarin and Hokkien. In this conversation, my mom was speaking in Hokkien and me in broken, mixed with English Hokkien. Anyway, I was having breakfast with my mom when she told me Mom: (in Chinese) Do yo

2.

Text - Me: I dunno. They're here once a week. Why? Mom: (Sis' husband) just fired five of his workers. So here's where I fucked up. The word she used for "to fire" (si) sounded like the phrase used for "to give birth" (si kah). I dont know pinyin Chinese sorry. In my Kindergarten level Chinese brain, I took this to mean that my brother in law has 5 children outside his marriage to my sister and that's the reason she and her kids were staying at our place. What was actually happening was that my

3.

Text - My thoughts: The fuck? They've been married for 12 years. If they're that old then this has been going on longer than I thought. Me: How long has sis known? Mom: Around last week I think. They won't stay long, just until... Me: *whispering* I'm gonna kill him. Anyway, the next thing I do is go to my sister and ask her if she's okay. Sis: Yeah? *confused* I'm fine? Me: Everything's going to be okay. Stay here with the kids as long as you like. Sis: *confused still* Umm... okay?

4.

Text - Me: Do they(the kids) know? Sis: "Why do they have to know"? My thoughts: "Okay, she's not yet ready to tell them. That's fine." Me: I can't believe he'd do this to you... Sis: Do what to me? What did Mom tell you? I told her what I thought my mom said to me and she burst out laughing. She asked me how in the world I came up with that interpretation. I told her about the word sounding like giving birth and all. She was literally on the floor laughing. They now have an embarrassing story t

5.

Text - TL;DR My mom told me my sister's husband fired five of his workers. Because of my poor Chinese, I thought it meant he had 5 illegitimate children. EDIT1: We spoke in Hokkien, a Chinese dialect which for Mandarin speakers will find different. There is some discussion below as to its nature and origins. Do back read as its very educational and there's some stuff in there that I didn't know of. EDIT2: As pointed out by u/noonespecific the Hokkien words were "Si kah" to give birth to a son an

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