Today, I was reading a book in German, which I don't know very well. Suddenly I reached a passage I had no trouble understanding. Excited, I showed my husband, saying I was finally getting the hang of it. He laughed and patted my head. Turns out, that particular passage was a quote. In English. FML
Collection
Halloween
A failed costume, stolen candy and a very real scare: Halloween, the one night when fear is allowed.
Today, I returned to Germany for a break from my studies abroad. I got lost while out for groceries, so I tried asking a guy for directions. I went totally blank and strained to think of the right words, prompting him to mutter about rude foreigners not bothering to learn the local language. FML
Today, I found out that my German wasn't as great as I thought it was. Trying to give directions to some German tourists, I tried to say, "I hope I don't get you lost." Turns out I actually said something closer to, "I hope I don't seduce you." FML
Today, a friend told me that when I read, I make all the expressions the characters in the book are making. Apparently, I have been doing this since I was a kid, and no one ever told me. FML
Today, a tourist from an English-as-second-language country taught me a new word. In English. FML
Today, I got my language final exam back. It was a 10-page essay front and back, and I saw that I received a D. The teacher told me the plot was too hard to follow and it jumped all over the place. It turns out he forgot to read the back of every page. FML
Today, I found out the German I've been learning for nearly a month is a dialect only spoken by people in a small area of the country. This means I'll need to re-learn most of what I thought I knew. FML
Today, I found out that while on foreign exchange for over six months now, I have been pronouncing the word for "night" in German wrong. Apparently, this whole time, the way that I have been pronouncing it in German means "naked". This explains a lot. FML
Today, I arrived in Germany for a summer-long stay. The family I'm supposed to stay with had said they spoke fluent English. They don't. I don't speak German. It's going to be a quiet two months. FML
Today, I was in an Austrian bar, making polite conversation in my broken German with a slightly odd middle-aged man. He said, winking, that he was near to his pension. I smiled and nodded, thinking he was talking about retirement. My friend later informed me that 'pension' is German for 'apartment'. Ew. FML
Today, I finally convinced my mom to read Fight Club. As English isn't her first language, she occasionally asked me to translate some of the words. Her latest question: "What's a dildo?" FML
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Top comments
kickazz16 15
What did you expect? A cookie?
Grimmerie 31
Did you recently suffer a sharp blow to the head?
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Comments (167)
Scands_59 14
I'm fluent in two languages, learning a third at the moment. I mistake English sometimes...To those who are close minded about German, don't hate, it's a very useful language. Deutschland
lauralavenderbab 0
How could you not realize that??
raerae1995 6
Blonde moment!!!
mogaconga 4
Been there, done that, just in reverse. I was listening to a German song that had English parts to it (Rammstein - Stirb nicht vor Mir) and when the German verse gave over to the English verse, my brain didn't make the switch. I would sit there confused, trying to figure out what went wrong in my head that suddenly I couldn't understand German anymore. It was two months before I even realized that the verse wasn't in German, and finally found out why everyone laughed at me when the song would come on and I would complain that I've forgotten too much German.
jokeson_me 3
today was my first day in spanish class, and as I had been studying all summer long I knew my spanish had gotten better... When the teacher began talking I found that I understood every word that she said! by the end of class I excitedly walked up to her wanting to show my excitment for the upcoming semester and about how i understood everything she said fluently.... until she explained she had been speaking engliksh all class long -_-
asiasweety 0
Uhmm half of yall dont even speak german and yall callin her dumb.. Mkay.
artmastr 0
You don't even know your own freakin' language!?!?
shawnagreenbean1 9
Ahaha how cute
music_ismy_life 7
Dafuq? How did you not know?
dunicha 20
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