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Learning a new language is challenging. However, it's just as rewarding. I mean, having the ability to interact with someone who grew up in a a completely different environment? Juk tai nuostabu. And the lessons aren't just a painstaking grind. They're full of fun things as well. One of them is literal translations, the "word-for-word" translations that tend to drift away from the sense of the original word on sentence. One of the members of the Facebook group Monolinguals are the worst has urged others to share the funniest literal translations they know, and, believe me, they delivered. Scroll down to check out these linguistic gems and upvote your favorites!

Interestingly, the United States is largely monolingual. In fact, only about 15-20 percent of Americans call themselves bilingual, compared to 56 percent of Europeans surveyed in 2006 by the European Commission.

According to Arabic professor Mahmoud Al-Batal, the inability to speak a foreign language makes it difficult for Americans to compete globally on a linguistic and cultural level. Others who criticized the United States’ monolingual nature have highlighted problems in university-level language courses that result in students failing to reach higher levels of proficiency in a foreign language.

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#9

Different-Funny-Language-Meanings

Monolinguals are the worst Report

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Daria B
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4 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Ahahahah! True. Interestingly, the cooked / prepared fish has a completely different Sino-Korean word. (Like the difference between "pig" and "pork" in English)

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#14

Different-Funny-Language-Meanings

Monolinguals are the worst Report

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Sleep Meister
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4 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

The term 'whisky' derives originally from the Gaelic 'uisge beatha', or 'usquebaugh', meaning 'water of life'. Gaelic is the branch of Celtic spoken in the Highlands of Scotland.

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Matt Kennedy
Community Member
4 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

The Irish invented it, it's original name is 'uisce beatha' (with a 'c') and it derives from the Irish language, one of the languages of the Gaels, not from Scottish Gaelic. The Gaels being the Celtic Irish, Scots and Manx (Isle of Mann). Scottish Gaelic developed from Irish, as almost all Gaelic/Celtic Scots came from Ireland. The name Celtic isn't a language, it's a people. We all speak our own version of the Gaelic language.

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Šimon Špaček
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4 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

In our fairytails is a common quest "go to the midnight side and bring me the water of life". Lots of those are inspired in Germany. Midnight side means North (noon side is South because Sun is on South at noon). In those days to travel to Ireland and get back alive you had to be a badass hero.

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Олексій Зубенко
Community Member
4 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Not only. In Cossacks times in Ukrainian lands the strong alcohol was called "okovyta", from "aqua vita"

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Paulina Pyrzyk
Community Member
4 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

In fact probably based on latin ' aqua vitae ' (water of life), also in other european languages the water of life is the word for alcohol. In polish for instance it is okowita, local spirit made of wheat or potatoes.

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Colm Corcoran
Community Member
4 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Fun fact, the word Whiskey actually comes from 'Uisce', Although you pronounce 'Uisce', ish-ka, if you pronounce it according to English it's more like uiskey, which eventually became Whiskey

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porcupine
Community Member
4 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Can someone settle this for me? My uncle is from Dingle and all of my cousins have traditional Irish names. One of them is Eilish, which we and her father have always pronounced with a long “e” sound where the second “i” is; “Eye-leesh.” Apparently there’s someone famous with that name now (I’m old and unhip or unlit or something) but everyone is pronouncing it with a short “i” sound as in “dish” or “fish.” Which is correct?

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SeamusRGN
Community Member
4 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

general rule of thumb for any name anywhere in the world: ask the person how to pronounce it. it doesnt matter if they pronounce it "wrong", its right for them. same goes for spelling.

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#21

Different-Funny-Language-Meanings

Monolinguals are the worst Report

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David Jeu
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4 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

If you literally translate "pineapple" in French it become "pomme de pin", which translated back in English means "pine cone".

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#26

Different-Funny-Language-Meanings

Monolinguals are the worst Report

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Iggy
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4 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I can see why German isn't the international language of romance! Nipple isn't much better, though, to be honest!

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#28

Different-Funny-Language-Meanings

Monolinguals are the worst Report

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Gosiulka Bloem
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4 years ago (edited) DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Same in Dutch (sinaasappel or appelsien) and from Dutch (as far as I know) it was borrowed into many languages, including Russian.

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#30

Different-Funny-Language-Meanings

Monolinguals are the worst Report

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Martz Migraña
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4 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I've never in my Hispanic life heard someone showering with an artichoke.. this is maybe from a very specific country or region, and not part of the common Spanish language, I think.

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Note: this post originally had 100 images. It’s been shortened to the top 30 images based on user votes.