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30 Times People Hilariously Worked Their Way Around Forgetting Or Not Knowing Particular English Words
If you want to learn a language, you have to be OK with failing. You're gonna mess up sentence structures, mix up genders, and even forget the simplest words. It's bound to happen. But if your ego doesn't crumble in the process, you'll realize that it's the only way to master a foreign tongue. And that people don't give a damn about your mistakes; they respect the effort.
Sam Collins is a 26-year-old gay man and the CTO of a medical software company, who also streams on Twitch every week. He grew up in an English-speaking part of Canada, but later moved to the French-speaking area. And that's precisely where he met Vince, his boyfriend.
Vince isn't a native English speaker. But he's killing it. I mean, he finds a way out of a sentence even when he doesn't know the right words. This one time, for example, he forgot the word 'lid' so he held up a pot and asked Sam, "Where is his hat?"
The genius one-liner caught Sam completely off guard. He liked it so much, he even tweeted it. But the man wasn't the only one who loved it. Nearly 800,000 people have liked the example of Vince's linguistic freestyle, and many have responded to it with other brilliant English word 'replacements' as well. Continue scrolling and check them out.
Image credits: chemicollins
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Judging by the way Sam described his boyfriend, no wonder Vince had come up with something so simple yet so brilliant on the spot. "He's an absolute sweetheart," Sam told Bored Panda. "Our friends consistently call him an 'angel' because he's so thoughtful and kind. He can be a bit nervous in big social situations, but once you get him talking, he's happy to geek out and have fun! He tries hard not to depend on his French, so he makes a lot of word substitutions (like calling a pot lid a hat) when he's talking. I think it's cute as heck."
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Flexi Panda 3 years ago
Once I couldn't remember how to say still water, so I ordered "water without bubbles". It worked 🤷♀️
Sam acknowledges that couples who have some sort of a language barrier between them face additional challenges. But that's nothing they can't solve if both partners are committed to one another. "Healthy relationships are built on good communication, so being in a bilingual relationship sometimes means working twice as hard to communicate clearly," the man said.
"We often find each other totally missing important things that the other person said, which can definitely be frustrating, but we make sure to be understanding and kind to each other when it does happen. On the plus side, we've both drastically improved our second language skills!"
The attention Sam's tweet has received was not something he expected. So many people have been relating to it. Sam himself thinks the Internet's reaction is really cute. "Amazingly, everyone has been so positive about it! Almost zero negativity. Lots of people sharing similar stories and talking about what it's like to live in a bilingual relationship. It's amazing! I'm happy to share in that joy with so many people."
Interestingly, Joshua Wolf Shenk, author of Powers of Two, wrote that long-term couples "start to match each other in the basic rhythms and syntactical structures of their speech." This happens because of something psychologists call emotional contagion, which causes us to mimic everything from our partner’s accent to their laugh, bringing us even closer together. But it doesn't happen overnight.
"Be patient with your bilingual partner, and give them ample time to speak their mind," Sam added. "Celebrate the little mistakes and unique sayings that come from each other, and laugh about them together."
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Weronika Natalia Doliwa 6 years ago
Once... a long time ago... during the finals in high school my entire class suffered a brain fart, one that affected out teachers as well. The most famous I think was "a round item to hold water".... Everybody knew what it was but we forgot the word. After 3 days of thinking a history teacher (which whom we first shared our dilemna) opened a door in the middle of math class and shouted "guys ... it's a barrel!"...
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Laura Jones 6 years ago
we are English and we have always called milk cow juice. mind we do have funny names for lots of things
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Rose the Cook 6 years ago
This reminds me of a student who didn't know the word "cow". On seeing the picture of one he declared, That's a beef".
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GirlFriday 6 years ago
One of my Irish relatives says this about the stove. Open the fire or close the fire for turning the burners on or off.
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chi-wei shen 6 years ago
Maybe he didn't know there are some German loanwords in English. Nowadays it's usually the other way round.
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Charlotte Anderson [STUDENT] 6 years ago
In my family I forgot the word fajitas so I said fahotties (almost right......I guess)
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chaos kitten 6 years ago
one when i was looking st some gardening things on pinterest, the pic was asparagus and i had to send a pic to my bff and ask what it was called cos i hadn't had it in about a decade and the best i could come up with was "long boi artichoke"
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What do you think ?
Jess-a-men 6 years ago
I'm german, but I write stuff in english. One time, I forgot the word "barrel". No problem, just enter the german word for it (Fass) in my translation app... except I'd also forgotten the grman word. I'd forgotten the exact same word in two different languages. I ended up substituting "round crate" until I remembered.
Nomadus Aureus 6 years ago
One day I had to be constantly switching between 3 languages and my brain was frankly short circuiting. So I called my mom to ask what the word for "cow holder" was. Barn. I was looking for the word "barn"...
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Cinka 6 years ago
I am french and once went to a Tiffany store asking for handcuffs for my husband's birthday. I wanted cuff links... the lady laughed and said there might be a market for Tiffany handcuffs ;)
Berry Budgie 6 years ago
I remember once i was talking to one of my British friends and i forgot the word for Britain. I called it Britland.
Jessica Bertram 6 years ago
funny! my bestie is Danish, and i always jokingly call Denmark Daneland, and we both find it excruciatingly funny
Load More Replies...
Jess-a-men 6 years ago
I'm german, but I write stuff in english. One time, I forgot the word "barrel". No problem, just enter the german word for it (Fass) in my translation app... except I'd also forgotten the grman word. I'd forgotten the exact same word in two different languages. I ended up substituting "round crate" until I remembered.
Nomadus Aureus 6 years ago
One day I had to be constantly switching between 3 languages and my brain was frankly short circuiting. So I called my mom to ask what the word for "cow holder" was. Barn. I was looking for the word "barn"...
Load More Replies... Cinka 6 years ago
I am french and once went to a Tiffany store asking for handcuffs for my husband's birthday. I wanted cuff links... the lady laughed and said there might be a market for Tiffany handcuffs ;)
Berry Budgie 6 years ago
I remember once i was talking to one of my British friends and i forgot the word for Britain. I called it Britland.
Jessica Bertram 6 years ago
funny! my bestie is Danish, and i always jokingly call Denmark Daneland, and we both find it excruciatingly funny
Load More Replies...
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