An example of what I mean:
I, in China, told an English speaking Chinese friend I needed to stop off in the bathroom to “take a shit.”
He looked appalled and after I asked why he had that look, he asked what I was going to do with someone’s shit.
I had not laughed so hard in a while, and it totally makes sense.
I explained it was an expression for pooping, and he comes back with, “wouldn’t that be giving a shit?”
I then got to explain that to give a shit means you care and I realized how fucked some of our expressions are.
What misunderstandings made you laugh?
Haha I know its an endearment, since we’ve all been friends for years now. One thing that got me recently was one of them talking about the new whipper-snipper he just bought and how quiet it was, being electric.
I had no idea what the hell a whipper-snipper was, but know a “whippersnapper” means young person where I’m from.
Turns out a whipper-snipper is the same as a weed-whacker / weed-eater in my part of the world.