Accidental innuendoFreddy Woo writes, "A woman I used to work with once walked into a car workshop to get her windscreen replaced, and uttered the immortal line, "Have you seen the size of my crack?"
What innuendos have you accidentally walked into? Are you a 1970s Carry On film character?
Extra points for the inappropriateness of the context
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chthonic, Thu 12 Jun 2008, 12:05)
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I like your "shoes"Cantonese is a tonal language, which means the the pitch with which you say a word is just as important as the word itself. I strongly suspect that this linguistic characteristic exists solely for the purposes of making us gweilos look silly.
For example, "choy sum" with a tone 4 "sum" is the name of a particularly tasty vegetable, often served in restaurants. "Choy sum" with an almost indistinguishably higher tone (tone 5) means "remove your top". I was once given a filthy, filthy look by a middle aged waitress when I got the two mixed up.
My worst accidental innuendo involved my girlfriend's mother. She doesn't speak much English, but I had taken a few Cantonese lessons and tried to make small talk. My conversational gambit was "Ngoh chong yi lei go hai" (I like your shoes).
Alas, my teacher did not warn me that "hai (tone 5)" means shoes. "Hai (tone 6)" means "cunt".
Whoops.
(, Sun 15 Jun 2008, 15:26, Reply)
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