Can I be a simple American for a second?
B’kitzur, an Israeli friend of mine here needed help translating a list of foods given to her for her new diet. She looked at the list confused, looked at me, and asked “Mah zeh V-Shmoneh?”
I spent the next five minutes laughing.
Coming soon in falafel flavor.
Either it's funny to you or it's not. Maybe in 10 years, I won't laugh. Then again, it only took me a few months to get over the funny sound of MP-shalosh.
12 comments:
Here's one for ya........I sat in an eating establishment the other day with my son. It took me a while till I could figure out what they were advertising on a sign nearby......
וופר חליפינו
needless to say, I thought of your postings about funny things israeli's write in hebrew......
No, empirically speaking, V-shmoneh is funny....
Actually the most sensible spelling you could ask for...
Would you rather have
ווי אייט?
That of course would be like the mighty bulldozer which IS called:
די ניין
Daniel,
Actually, "Vi Ayt" would probably be better. Somehow, tranlating V-8 LITERALLY into Hebrew is a little cumbersome.
So, once upon a time I had friends in the army and according to them you get things like:
em seshesray (M-16)
ef sheshesray eye (F-16I)
but, strangely enough,
rio (R 10--which is a kind of vehicle. I'm a girl, don't expect so much in the kind-of-vehicle department.)
I think you should make a whole category of direct and indirect translations. That would be great!
It's a good idea, Ilana... : )
And then there's בן אנד גרי...why not בן וגרי?
Thanks for this one Benji, I was rolling!
Who are Ben and Gary?
What kind of ice cream do you eat anyway? Maybe it should have been spelled:
בן אנד ג'רי
which should clarify everything.
:-)
Bahn Ened Jarai?
Ilana,
I LOVE the literalness! "V-shmoneh," indeed!
Benji, I think she was trying to say "Ben and Jerry's."
Sheldon
Bohn Anad Gree?
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