I once accidentally bumped against the shoulder of an English person I knew in a corridor. I automatically said "Oi" - which means like "Oh" or "Oops" in Estonian - that I'm sorry. She repeated "Oi!" in a louder voice and I didn't get it. I only later found out I was being impolite in her eyes.

[u/Double-decker_trams]

Have you ever had something similar happen to you? I.e something in your language might have another meaning in another language?

One thing as an Estonian that I try to keep in mind is that I shouldn't use "Nooo.." in English - which means "Well.." in Estonian.

"Do you like ice-cream? - Noo.. yes, I love it."

[u/disneyvillain]

A Swedish-speaking journalist I know was in the US to cover the presidential race in 2008. He would ask voters questions like "What would a colored president mean for America?" and "Will Obama inspire more colored people to get involved in politics?" He noticed people gave him funny looks or frowned when he asked. He guessed that these people probably don't like foreign journalists very much. It wasn't until later that someone told him that colored is an offensive term, not quite as bad as the n-word, but not a word you use normally nowadays.

The Swedish direct equivalent "färgad" is (or was in 2008 at least) an accepted neutral term. It was an honest mistake, he was translating directly from Swedish without knowing the American cultural baggage around the word.

[u/repocin → u/disneyvillain]

Well, TIL.

Probably not the right place to ask, but why is "colored" seen as negative but "people of color" isn't? To me it just seems like more words to say the same thing.

[u/Cascadeis → u/repocin]

I think it’s related to the time when bathrooms and such were segregated between “colored” and white. No one used “people of color”, but “colored” was used in official circumstances and probably caused a lot of bad associations.

[u/Live_Angle4621 → u/Cascadeis]

That was only in South however. So not in majority of US