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From: eric@whuxle.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.jokes
Subject: Translation Humor - (nf)
Message-ID: <185@whuxle.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 12-Dec-83 20:19:35 EST
Article-I.D.: whuxle.185
Posted: Mon Dec 12 20:19:35 1983
Date-Received: Wed, 14-Dec-83 01:23:13 EST
Sender: eric@whuxle.UUCP
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#N:whuxle:22500001:000:956
whuxle!eric    Dec 12 20:19:00 1983

My favourite two "lost in traslation" jokes that really 
happened were told to me by my German I teacher. 

It seemed that he knew a friend who had been taking Italian
fro some two years. Anxious to try out his new language he waltzed
into a bar in the Italian section of New York and attempted to order
a drink. After finally muttering an obscure phrase which obviously
aroused the humor of the patrons, the bartender leaned over and said
in English
	"Alright, you can practice Italian, but my bar doesn't 
	serve orange sperm."

The second story happened in out class. We were going over the
exercises to one particular unit and we had to express the phrase
"I am warm" in German. Almost everyone wrote "Ich bin warm.", instead
of the more correct "Mir ist warm." The instructor was quite amused
since "Ich bin warm" translates idiomatically into "I am gay" as
in "homosexual". 


			From the asbestos bathtub of 
			Eric Holtman
			{harpo} !whuxlb!eric