One i like to use:
Disasteriffic - A state of things that are disastrous but not out of ones control providing they don't ignore the problem.
(not a real word to my knowledge)

The_root_of_all_evil:

werepossum:
The best in language barriers I've heard is Coca-Cola when they moved into China and couldn't sell product. Turned out Coca-Cola in Chinese translated to "Bite the wax tadpole." They then changed the name slightly to translate into "Let the mouth rejoice" and sales took off.

Urban Myth, but closer to the truth

Dang, I hate it when I fall for those. I should have known Coca-Cola was too smart to do that. But it's even stranger than an actual Chinese shopkeeper would advertise "Bite the wax tadpole" on his own. (I blame government schools.)

It never seeems to amaze me the word "Engrish" being said by various languages. I know it's not their fault, but it just really makes me giggle.

Favorite word? : Kayak-Paddle

Evilbunny:

Really? I'd think it's actually pretty easy to learn to speak. I agree with you when it comes to learning how to write it, but we only have like two or three verb forms (I run, you run, he runs, we run, they run) as opposed to spanish, which has like six. Our adjectives don't change form when describing singular and plural nouns (the nice girl, the nice girls), like they do in a lot of romance languages. And finally, our inflection doesn't really affect the meaning of words, like it does in chinese.

well actually spanish has latin, romanian, italian and french to borrow from, they are all romanitic languages and share the same base, french/italian/spanish are almost the same language, one or two letters different in a lot of word

english also has something like 500K words, the next closest isn't even half that

english has strong roots in saxon/tuetonic (german), gaelic/celtic, latin, arabic, hebrew. it has no family it fully belongs to, so there's no language for it to borrow on if you are learning it for the first time

english also has a LOT of grammatical rules to it and a lot subtle ones as well that change the meaning of the sentence.

frankly most of the people who say it is easy to learn are the native speakers and frankly most of them don't know how to speak the language themselves all that good.

and german is actually pretty easy to learn, teaching myself it right now, mostly cause the course i'm doing shows the similarities between english and german.

it's language bases that are foreign to us, such as hebrew, arabic, japanese, cantonese/mandorin that have different pronunciations and sound structures that make it difficult. like arabic and pretty sure hebrew as well have a couple syllables that are throat sounds and kinda sound like you are clearing your throat or have something stuck in it.

also i call into question that list because there is no chinese language, china has several different languages, the 2 main being mandorin (northern what Jet Li speaks) and catonese (southern and what Jackie Chane and Bruce Lee speak)

Wazzelbe:
M
Finally, "Ne ge": "Na ge" (nah guh) is Chinese for "This (something)", but slang causes it to be pronounced as "Ne ge" (neh guh) rather than "Na ge".
This basically wound up with me thinking the foreign exchange students spent much of their days addressing themselves and each other in a way I had not expected; "Nega, PLEASE!"
I finally asked and got set straight on that one.

Russel Peters has a sketch about that word when he was in china, from what he was saying it's the chinese version of "ummm" and "like" well at least how the teenage girls use the word "like"

it's a darn funny sketch, well Russel himself is pretty funny

cleverlymadeup:

frankly most of the people ... and frankly most of them don't know how to speak the language themselves all that good.

Irony or Deliberate? Only you can decide.

The_root_of_all_evil:

Irony or Deliberate? Only you can decide.

a bit of both and a lack of coffee, only on my second timmies of the day, don't drink tea here cause the barbarians here can't brew a good cup of earl grey

also i think i have the bad habit of doing a few things at once too

Potassium permanganate and manganese to name a couple.
Also aa deserves a mention as it doesn't even sound like a proper word. But it is. It's a type of lava I believe.

Piemaster:

Also aa deserves a mention as it doesn't even sound like a proper word. But it is. It's a type of lava I believe.

a'a it's also a bike by my favorite bike company kona or used to be at least, and yes it is a type of lava, i think the word is hawaiian

then we could also add

Hummu Hummu Nuku Nuku Apua'a, which is also one of their old bikes, the name sticker took up the whole top cross bar, it was kinda funny

English is a bugger of a language, but personally I reckon German is a bloody nightmare to try and learn. All the verbs and whatnot change depending on whether the noun is masculine, feminine or neutral. And there's all those -chs everywhere, meaning whenever I try and speak it I sound like I have a sponge lodged in the back of my throat.

I love procrastinate, pretentious and definitely (which half of the English-speaking internet population cannot spell, a fact that never ceases to be amusing).

Evilbunny:

Really? I'd think it's actually pretty easy to learn to speak. I agree with you when it comes to learning how to write it, but we only have like two or three verb forms (I run, you run, he runs, we run, they run) as opposed to spanish, which has like six. Our adjectives don't change form when describing singular and plural nouns (the nice girl, the nice girls), like they do in a lot of romance languages. And finally, our inflection doesn't really affect the meaning of words, like it does in chinese.

I agree. I'm Italian and I've studied both French and, obviously, English. I found English to be quite easy to pick up, especially when compared to French; Italian and French may have the same roots, but the sheer amount of verb forms and all those accents make everything harder (Italian has the same "problems", but it's more forgiving on the accents).

j-e-f-f-e-r-s:
English is a bugger of a language, but personally I reckon German is a bloody nightmare to try and learn. All the verbs and whatnot change depending on whether the noun is masculine, feminine or neutral. And there's all those -chs everywhere, meaning whenever I try and speak it I sound like I have a sponge lodged in the back of my throat.

actually i've been able to pick up german pretty easily, been doing some "learn the lang on cd" type stuff but the lessons show the stuff that english and german share, cause english does have a strong teutonic root to it

but yes there's some oddities to it and not even counting the slang, like to say "will you come have a drink with me?" you say "will you drink with me come?" at least i think that's how it literally translates

but english is way more complex and subtle with its rules, not even starting in on the homonyms and contractions or the fact that this is a sentence in english

Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo.

and you can even increase the amount of times you use the word up to 9 times i think

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buffalo_buffalo_Buffalo_buffalo_buffalo_buffalo_Buffalo_buffalo

They don't have pretzel sticks in sweden? O_o

Evilbunny:

Really? I'd think it's actually pretty easy to learn to speak.

Of course English is easy; we Americans wouldn't speak it if it weren't.

werepossum:

Evilbunny:

Really? I'd think it's actually pretty easy to learn to speak.

Of course English is easy; we Americans wouldn't speak it if it weren't.

Hey, now, I only speak two languages: English and Bad English!

Me, my favourite word would have to be procrastinate:

Why? 'Cos that one word could pretty much sum me up, as a person. I'm lazy to a fault, but give me work, and I'll eventually do it. Consider procrastination (hell, it even sounds funny) my sin (actually, wouldn't be considered sloth?).

- A procrastinator

being the loyal escapist (escaper? escapee?) i am trying to track down the song 'Kempt' by the australian comedy band Tripod as i think it is right on topic with this particular thread

but i cant...

Because they have never made a music video or played it live

so poot

feel free to look it up yourself, i really do recommend it if you'd like an intelligent play on words.

now that i've gone and written this now i really cant leave without a link

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FHIu2ErqgbQ&feature=related there, its tripod, watch it

well, this was a waste of time.

irishdelinquent:
lol personally I love it when people elaborate upon simple things. I tend to notice that Americans do this a lot. For example, I've heard many Americans use the phrase "Ice Hockey" or "Tuna Fish". This makes me giggle. I know that tuna is a fish, so why say it? Why do you need to through the "ice" on there? I can gather that it tends to be on ice, being a canuck and all :P

That's funny I never really realized we did that to be honest. Just always accepted that it was tuna fish..oddly enough when we go tuna fishing we just say tuna. hehe ^_^

Also I think the word 'shuck' is highly amusing and fun to say. It means to peel off or to strip off. In America we most commonly use it when saying, "gotta go shuck the corn before dinner." or something along those lines. Amusing...No I'm not a redneck. hehe

^_^

James while John had had had had had had had had had had had a better effect on the teacher

thats a sentence in english

thats right, common sense once again falters in the cold light of logic

ooh, thats a good quote, i'm writing that one down

I believe their are 22 single letter words in the english language. Whatever they are, they are my favourite words.

I have a Korean friend and I always end up explaining all the sexual terms.

I once had to explain to a guy why his refusal to spell "come" properly was resulting in profanity filtering. That was interesting. I also had a lovely Scottish mate on EvE called Lacktale from whom I would adopt many phrases and repeat loudly while giggling, much to his chargrin.

"och, weeshed!"
"shuttup you!"
hehehehe

I had to try and explain what a sieve was to my french flatmate who's usually got a fantastic vocabulary. It felt like a little bit of a Fawlty Towers moment when she handed me a bottle of Cif instead.

Speaking of Cif, why'd they have to change the name? Jif was a much better one, in my opinion. Just sounds better. Jif. Jif jif jif jif jif. Jif off. To jif. To be jiffed. Jif and the beanstalk. The meaning of jif....

Shutting up now.

EDIT: Apologies for this, I've been up most the night trying to get an essay done and my brain's starting to turn into something resembling jelly.

Singing Gremlin:
I once had to explain to a guy why his refusal to spell "come" properly was resulting in profanity filtering. That was interesting. I also had a lovely Scottish mate on EvE called Lacktale from whom I would adopt many phrases and repeat loudly while giggling, much to his chargrin.

"och, weeshed!"
"shuttup you!"
hehehehe

Haud your wheesht you afore I gie you a boot in the bahookie, baw-bag!

Scottish slang is awesome. :D

Necrohydra:

werepossum:

Evilbunny:

Really? I'd think it's actually pretty easy to learn to speak.

Of course English is easy; we Americans wouldn't speak it if it weren't.

Hey, now, I only speak two languages: English and Bad English!

I can speak a bit of Spanish, enough to say "Donde esta el cuarto de bano?" (Although I prefer the Steve Martin version, "Donde esta el cuarto de pee pee?") Unfortunately I can't understand a word of the reply. I really need to learn to say "Please point me toward the bathroom" instead.

On a related note, our offices were at one point cleaned by a Korean immigrant who spoke something way below Engrish - I could never understand a word he spoke, and he probably had some fascinating stories. He did the thing Americans are always accused of - speaking louder in an attempt to be understood. When he went beyond "Hello" he'd soon be screeching at the top of his lungs. He even at one point trying writing out words on my thigh - real uncomfortable. Dude, I can't even understand English when some strange dude is touching my thigh!

..I've never heard of scottish slang before...That's really interesting. *walks off to kidnap a scottish guy..perhaps irish too*

^_^

No, but the accents are damn awesome...

"Oi, Suzy!"... That never gets old..

If you like Scottish slang, you owe it to yourself to check out Rab C. Nesbitt: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DFPWbh4E6m8

Classic stuff in Scotland, though it's pretty much unknown in the rest of the world (including England). It's about a bunch of waters living in one of the roughest areas of Glasgow, and is far darker than any equivalent sitcoms. Also, check out Chewin' The Fat and Still Game.

These show's will tell you more about what life's like in Glasgow than rubbish like Braveheart ever could.

AnGeL.SLayer:
..I've never heard of scottish slang before...That's really interesting. *walks off to kidnap a scottish guy..perhaps irish too*

^_^

make sure you wash LOTS after, i might suggest just totally disinfecting yourself after, it's safer that way :)

actually scottish slang is pretty close to english slang with some minor difference peculiar to their tribe

nilpferdkoenig:
Mate
Crumpets
Tea Time
James

4 British classics

Which only Americans really use when playing British. :)
(O.K., I do use mate a bit)

The_root_of_all_evil:

nilpferdkoenig:
Mate
Crumpets
Tea Time
James

Which only Americans really use when playing British. :)
(O.K., I do use mate a bit)

yeah mate is used a lot
tea time is used by mostly older brits (would be grandparents and older), from what i've noticed in my dealings with them
crumpets same as tea time, mostly the older crowd
james for a driver, sure i'll pin that on americans
jeeves as well can go into that pile

tho for distinctly british slang go no further than these two

bloody hell (can also be bloody 'ell)
and
bollocks

much like "eh" is a canadian thing, tho we don't say it as much as ppl would think. and the whole oot and aboot thing is mostly the newfies accent coming thru

yeah the newfies have their own accent and dialect that's sometimes harder to understand than a good glaswegian or irish accent

Strafe Mcgee:
If you like Scottish slang, you owe it to yourself to check out Rab C. Nesbitt: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DFPWbh4E6m8

Classic stuff in Scotland, though it's pretty much unknown in the rest of the world (including England). It's about a bunch of waters living in one of the roughest areas of Glasgow, and is far darker than any equivalent sitcoms. Also, check out Chewin' The Fat and Still Game.

These show's will tell you more about what life's like in Glasgow than rubbish like Braveheart ever could.

Hmm.. I'm sure I remember Rab C. Nesbitt being popular down in London too... Albeit probably for different reasons. (the disproportionate number of Glaswegian homeless in London might explain it)

Doesn't the bloke from that have a new show out?

Glaswegian humour is usually pretty good, albeit a bit dark- a good example of this is Frankie Boyle's response to the self-immolating Islamic fundamentalist at Glasgow Airport:

"You want to bring religious war here? We've got a 400 year headstart and you don't even have a football team!"

It's consistently annoyed me that cleverlymadeup keeps mis-spelling "teutonic", as it somewhat undermined the authority of the otherwise good points he was making. Moreover, he failed to acknowledge Greek as a source of words in the English language.

My personal favourite word is "internecine", because it sounds better than a word meaning mutually destructive really should. Also I like "onomatopoeia", because it ironically doesn't sound anything like its meaning.