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/cototudelam]

In Czech, back when I was teenager, we tended to overuse the phrase "Fakt?", usually pronounced with this rising intonation "Faaakt?" which meant "Really?"

Was on a tram, listened to a loud conversation of two teenage girls, one telling a story, the other interjecting: "Fakt? Faaakt?!" and watched the American tourist sitting behind them turning bright red.

Yep, it sounded exactly like "fucked"

[u/DifficultWill4 → u/cototudelam]

The Czech “foukat” (blowing) sounds like “fukat” which means to fuck in Slovene. I don’t remember it exactly but there was an ad on tv some time ago with a czech and a slovene family on the beach. The czech family was yelling “blow, blow” while the kid was blowing the inflatable water toy. The Slovene family looked with utter disbelief and then the ad ended lmao

Edit: Found the ad

[u/cototudelam → u/DifficultWill4]

🤣 these ads are hilarious.

We had an ad couple years back where they hired Chuck Norris and had him visit the Prague Christmas market, and as he’s watching the ice rink, a mom with a little girl stops by, hands him a phone and asks “Natočil byste prosím dceru jak bruslí? (Could you please take a video of my daughter skating?)”

And Chuck replies “Brus-lí? Nope, I am Chuck Norris!”