Mike Hord wrote:

>>>My favourite mistake was asking a German farmer for a place to set up =
my
>>>tent: "Haben Sie ein platz fur mich zum kampfen?" =3D> "Do you have a
>>>place for me to fight?" (Dutch "Kamperen" !=3D German "Kampfen").
>>>     =20
>>>
>>Good one!
>>   =20
>>
>
>I seem to remember a possibly apocryphal story involving a major ballpoi=
nt pen
>manufacturer which touted its new pen design as leak-proof by declaring =
in
>Spanish speaking nations that it won't leak in your pocket and "embrazar=
" you,
>"embrazar" being taken as the Spanish word for embarass.
>
>Or so they thought.  The story goes on to say that "embrazar" in fact me=
ans
>"impregnate", which naturally caused a good deal of confusion as to what
>exactly was in the pens in the first place!
>
>My meager Spanish is incapable of establishing the veracity
>of this claim; Snopes has no easily found article on the issue and Babel=
fish
>translates "embrazar" as "to embrazar", "impregnate" as "impregne", and=20
>"embarass" as "embarass".  Perhaps Babelfish isn't so good with single
>words?  I'm sure someone will step forward and deny/verify.
>
>Mike H.
> =20
>
Could be true! But the detail is: "embrazar" does not exist in spanish.=20
"embarazar" does, and means "to make pregnant".
But, if you hear both words, could be easily mistaken. So the story=20
could be true. There are a lot of adds with poor translations, or things=20
really well translated, but for the wrong planet region. I mean, words=20
in Spain have different meaning than in many american countries. An=20
example: in spain, "venga!" is colloquial for "it=B4s ok!". But in the=20
rest of the spanish speaking world, it means "come in!"

Another case, this time with portuguese:
Camisa is spanish for Shirt
Camisita (ita, usual ending meaning "little) is spanish for Little Shirt
Camisa is portuguese for Shirt
Camisinha (inha, usual ending meaning "little") is portuguese for Condom
So, if you go to Rio and ask the hotel maid to "passar mi camisinha"=20
(the logical sentence for a spanish speaker who wants his shirt been=20
ironed) you will see her face, and probably your condoms will be fused=20
to the ironing table.

The last one: I had an old boss who was named Fachin, an italian=20
surname. Just imagine the hotel clerk face when he pronounced his name=20
as "fackin" in perfect italian, but in the states.

R. Fraga


--=20
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