Source can be found at the bottom of the article.
1/20. One of my fellow Korean teachers refers to aquariums as ‘fish museums’. It’s too cute to correct.
-kittymissles
2/20. I had a German high school teacher who was trying to rewind a tape to show us in class and blurted out “WHERE IS THE FAST BACKWARDS BUTTON?!
-mycartel
3/20. A Swedish person I met was trying to use the phrase “as the crow flies” and came up with “bird traffic” instead.
-yellacopter
4/20. I’m Arab American and I’ve been living in the US my whole life. In Arabic “Download” and “Put down” share the same word. So a while back my cousin came to stay with me for a few weeks. Every time he wanted me to drop him off somewhere he would say “Download me here” or “Download me there”. I never corrected him. It was awesome.
-jacksrdtt
5/20. It reminds me of when an ESL friend of mine referred to an air horn as “spray scream.
-Clown_Prince_of_Web
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6/20. I had a German friend that would get mad whenever he heard the phrase “back and forth” He always said “why the fuck would you go back first! Its forth and back!
-Klathmon
7/20. I know a Chinese girl that tried to say someone farted and said they “pooped air.
-arwelsh
8/20. My husband is from Switzerland, and speaks French. He was eating escargot one day, and went to throw the shells away. One of my dogs was begging for the buttery shells, and I over heard him tell her “No Bailey, no snail houses for you.” I have called all shells since then snail houses.
-ihateyoumagicman
9/20. A german friend of mine referred to a table cloth as a “table blanket”. Decently accurate and a little hilarious.
-mbigeagle
10/20. I was training Brazilian Jiu Jitsu with a guy from Lithuania. He was showing some white belts the triangle choke, and was telling them to flex their toes. Only problem? He forgot the word for “toes.”
“Grab you, ah, how do you say it? Foot fingers!
-SlamDunx
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11/20. This reminds me of the time I had to tell a Vietnamese programmer coworker that the opposite of “increment” is not excrement”.
-the2belo
12/20. Hahaha my polish friend refers to bean bag chairs as “sitting beans.” excessively cute.
-cakelin
13/20. My foreign friend calls a washing machine a washine. I don’t correct him because I want that to be a real word.
-happiest_tree_friend
14/20. My favorite from my wife is when she wished she had a bigger “dictionary word thing” like me. The word she was looking for? Vocabulary.
-pajamajoe
15/20. I called a stable a “horse garage” the other day. To my boss. Who was also unable to think of the word stable. We had to google it.
-14UR3N
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16/20. My Italian tour guide forgot the word for “veal” while translating a menu. Instead, she offered us “son of beef.
-roald_head_dahl
17/20. I’m Portuguese. I grew up with my father constantly telling me to “close the lights.
-tapehead4
18/20. I work with a woman from Laos. She was trying to find a word for ‘frostbite’ and said to me, “you know, cold eat you. cold eat your body.
-memumsy
19/20. A friend of mine told me that her Russian friend living in America was at the grocery store trying to ask for a beef tongue, but confused the butcher by asking for a “beef language.
-chrismbarr
20/20. French guy asking for a light: “May I take your fire?” Made me question my sexuality for just a second there.
-chathamhouserules
(Source)