Tonal similarities to offensive English words

[DrinkDrankDrunk]

My black(African American, if you will) friend accompanied me to Shanghai recently, and while there we visited a souvenir shop. Another shopper, a woman, was directing the cashier to grab something from behind the counter and stated, "nay geh, nay geh"(that one) repeatedly. Having no grasp of any Mandarin beyond hellos and thank yous, my friend, in complete shock, mistook it for something rather derogatory and offensive towards his ethnicity. A moment later laughs were shared.

Any other phrases which might offend the equally unprepared? They need not be racially charged.

[大肚男]

给, sounds a lot like gay. which is hilarious when combined with 那个。

I remember my first day in China, we laughed whenever our professor would say it.

[thechamp]

i find '不必' as in '弟子不必不如师‘ quite funny. Especially in super serious contexts.

[muirm]

I am guilty of giggling at bubi's, pu's, and pi's. The fun part is bringing other learners down to your level of humor, and then sharing in the laughs.

[tooironic]

I've always had a penchant for 法庭.

What a silly thread.

[hbuchtel]

On my first trip back from China I proudly told my friends of my new Chinese name, which was based on the name given to my elder sister. The conversation went like this:

Me: "My sister's name is 蒲安梅, and mine is 蒲安竹!"

Friend: "Poo On Me and Poo On You?!?!"

Me: "Oh, no, no, you see, 'mei' and 'zhu' are both traditional . . . oh forget it . . ."

[Demonic_Duck]

给, sounds a lot like gay. which is hilarious when combined with 那个。

I remember my first day in China, we laughed whenever our professor would say it.

[heifeng]

Once I was attempting to tell someone a name (thankfully the actual person w/ this name wasn't there) and it had the character 冬 in it...which then resulted in all kinds of giggles. For about a split second I was really thrown off until the anatomical jokes started and even references to these subjects . Geeeeez!

[歐博思]

My roommate is from Shanghai. He told me that the "EA Sports: it's in the game" slogan is very funny to Shanghainese speakers. Why?

In Shanghainese the f*bomb is pronounced more or less "cena". When the announcer says the "it's in the" part of the phrase, to Shanghainese ears it can sound like "EA Sports: f**k the game"!

[tooironic]

That reminds me of the lift in my friend's apartment. When it picks you up to take you back down to the lobby an automated voice says, "Going down." Of course, all my Chinese friends thought it was saying, "夠淫蕩".