Linguistic Mystic has a rather hilarious post on the joys of foreign language miscommunication. Just one of many quotes:
A co-worker of my dad’s name is Dick de Cock, which is a perfectly normal name in the Netherlands. However, when he got a promotion and suddenly had to travel all over the world, he got a lot of weird looks.
One way of joking ( ie making them ridiculous) in Anglo Saxon culture is ( I have been told so by natives) to add the word balls to their name.
For instance : (1) Linaresballs ( might be the name of an alcoholic drink) or (2) Balintballs ( my guess: colourful wallpaper).
Image in this Dick de Cock case… Madness on top of weirdness.
Haha x) It would even make a bad porn name.
Just realized: a much better title for this entry would’ve been “Help, I’m A Cock!” :)
Childish, childish. The “ck” in the name Cock is obviously silent (as in the name Cockburn) and the full name is pronounced Dick de Co. Shows how juvenile Anglo Saxon culture still seems to be. Reminds me of poor girls in middle school with names like Regina…
Who are the name police?
Um, as a certified Dutch Speaking Person â„¢ I can tell you the “ck” is not silent — at least when pronounced in Dutch.
I am corrected, Barry. But it still is childish how some people respond to those folk’s names that just happen to sound the same as the genitalia sobriquet…
I have to agree with urbangraffito…
It’s even worse when you’re famous; look at Urethra Franklin…