Sunday, October 5, 2008

when i should have been doing work i was losing myself in the evils of cyberspace, and stumbling around in the blogosphere, i came upon this post which reminded me of a story my mom told me.

there was an American who moved to Israel and was having a problem with bugs. so she called a chiloni exterminator. but instead of calling the bugs by their correct name, charakim, she called them chareidim. i can only imagine the conversation that ensued

woman: yeish li ba'aya im hachareidim

exterminator: ah giveret, gam yesh li hamon hamon ba'ayot im hacharedim aval ein mah la'asot itam

woman: aval ani soneit otam, v'ani rotzah l'harog otam!

exterminator (laughing) gam ani rotzeh l'harog otam...

5 comments:

rickismom said...

It would be funny if it wasn't half-true......

G6 said...

My father always laughed ruefully at (and here I'm not sure if it was himself or) his brother who, when first learning their way around the modern Ivrit, asked for a "Pishpaysh", instead of a "Mishmaysh".
Hmmmmm bedbug vs. peach?

I too had a few chuckles directed at my own expense when in a flower shop I was telling the man how many "pieces" I wanted. I said Chatichim instead of Chatichos... apparently quite a different connotation..... V'hameyvin Yovin ;)

tembow said...

i know someone who walked into a pizza store and wanted a regular slice so he asked for a "pashut pizza!!" (instead of pizza ragil) :)

nmf #7 said...

LOL. Had me laughing all the way through.
With my moth problem- I went to ask for a spray to prevent Shayish- granite.
It's really Ash- moths.
Oh well.

Jewish Side of Babysitter said...

When I went to Israel for a short time I didn't even bother trying to speak hebrew, I only spoke English and was surprised how almost everyone was able to communicate with me in English.

But that is a funny story.

My mother has a story she told me, I just can't remember what it was.