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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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#10

Different-Funny-Language-Meanings

Monolinguals are the worst Report

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

In England we call them ladybirds. Bug is an American term, not an English term. We call insects, err... insects.

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

Btw, "bug" should be for Hemiptera, but it became a general term for invertebrates with exoskeleton (not only insects). Btw2, ladybug is NOT an Hemiptera

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

Wow, how did the little red lady bug garner so much religious connotation? Not to mention comparisons to farm animals with which they have literally nothing in common ?

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Carol Anne Benoit
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3 years ago

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Mary Baker
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3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Awww!! My son's alter ego was "Lady Bug" when he was little. I must tell him this!

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

"God´s little cow" - in Russian! And the word for God is also minimized :D So cute cuteness..

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

South African English: Ladybird; Afrikaans: Our Lord's little cow

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

True in Polish as well. Though it's called biedronka it's also known as boża krówka (God's little cow).

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

In Latvian... well, you can't even translate it. It's 'bizbizmārīte'. It's like 'bzzzbzzzbug' :)

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

Awwww! Love all these names for ikkle bitty ladybugs!

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

Polish also has a less comon name for a ladybug meaning "Gods little cow" 😅

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

Finnish: Alder Greta (leppäkerttu, Kerttu is a Finnish woman's name so Greta could be a good translation for that)

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no_name
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4 years ago

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Unaffected
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4 years ago

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

What? Boja kraviçka is not a ladybug. A ladybug is kalinka and boja kraviçka is a longer red bug with blag on it and it likes to ingest European homes especially in the winter

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

Argentina (cause is not like the other spanish spoken tell it) cow of san antony.. yeahh, i know

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

French: coccinelle (ladybug), English: insecte demoiselle

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Hanneke Legerstee
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4 years ago

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

American is not a language :) American English of course is ;) So, without specification, bug is an English word. Also, ladybird? For a bug. The Brits win!

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

In Argentina it's Saint Anthony's little cow - vaquita de San Antonio

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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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#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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