The best examples that come to mind are when ordering food. As examples:

• You speak English and Spanish and are ordering a burrito
• You speak Thai and English and are ordering Tom Yum

I imagine it could depend on numerous things:
• You primary language or ethnicity
• What sort of restaurant
• Who you’re dining with
• Who you’re ordering from
• and probably a lot more…

  • ccunning@lemmy.worldOP
    3·
    11 days ago

    If you ask a Japanese person if they own a “computer” they will not understand. You have to call it a “con-puuu-ta” or even “pa-so-con” which is personal computer.

    In Thai it’s just ‘com’.

    If you’re ready for the bill at a restaurant it’s ’check bin’ which for some reason is ‘check’ and ‘bill’ combined. When I first learned this people were confused why I didn’t already know it, “but it’s English?!”

    • rumschlumpel@feddit.org
      4·
      11 days ago

      These wrong loanwords are always so weird! German has a ton of those, e.g. “trainer” is a coach, and “handy” is a cellphone. Add all the false friends because of the similar origins of German and English (even the latin-derived words often have completely different meanings) and it becomes a huge mess to untangle when you’re learning English as a native German speaker or vice versa.

      • ccunning@lemmy.worldOP
        4·
        11 days ago

        “Trainer” probably would work just fine in US English but I can see what it wouldn’t with British English. Of course that only makes things more complicated…

        “Handy” definitely does not work in U.S. English especially using it as a noun