What a gay day!
When I was learning German at school our teacher, Mr Sprake, told us of a time he was in Germany on holiday, where they were enjoying very sunny, warm weather. He attempted to comment to his German friend how 'humid' it was that day by saying Es ist sehr schwul heute. Unfortunately, the word schwul when mis-pronounced means homosexual instead of humid, so he ended up sounding like Larry Grayson, saying 'What a gay day!'
Editor's note: Just a case of an extra couple of dots! Adding an umlaut to the 'u' in schwül and pronouncing it slightly differently, gives you the word for 'humid'.
Sent by: Karen
Comments
Woa! I was about to tell my German-talking guy to turn the fan down coz it's cold! Good job I stumbled over this!
The same distinction is made in Spanish. I had a friend in Spain who, after a dancing with a girl, said muy caliente instead of muy calor. He got slapped!
Oops, my friend and I always say Ich bin kalt. Wait until I tell her what it means. At least thats one phrase I won't use again.
I'll be going to Germany soon, hopefully I'll remember this advice and won't make an embarrasing mistake!!
I can't actually remember how many times I have said Ich bin kalt, whoops! Won't be saying that again.
During a German lesson our teacher asked us for the answer which was a letter and number. When she said 'G 6' we all burst out laughing because in the German pronunciation (geh sechs) it sounded like 'gay sex'!
A friend of mine was in an advanced English class in southern Germany. Her teacher made the statement: 'A gay man is a happy man.' He couldn't quite understand why my friend and another girl who had both been exchange student in the US were laughing so hard.
This same problem occurred in France when a female friend walked into a crowded lift and said Je suis chaud which won her many interested looks from the men. She wanted to say J'ai chaud, I am hot, not 'I am horny'!
The German words for temperature are kalt = cold, warm = warm, heiß = hot. But while in Germany, I discovered you have to be very careful how you say you're feeling cold etc. You should say Mir ist kalt - I am cold. If you say Ich bin kalt it means 'I am frigid'. If you say Ich bin warm it means 'I am homosexual'. And if you say Ich bin heiß it means 'I am horny'!
Ik ben warm (Lit.: I am warm)
Doesn't mean anything in Dutch
Instead it's: Ik heb het warm.
Lit.: I have it warm
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