Communication - Frequently mistranslated words and phrases

My lady is just learning English. As I have said in earlier posts she writes in Russian and I translate with Google. There are words and phrases that don't translate well that both sides should be aware of. My hope is that both men and women will contribute to this list so that we may learn together.

Phrase:

From Russian: 'I want to see you at/in full growth.'

English meaning: 'I want to see a picture of you standing up'

Ladies - In American English this has a sexual context, forgive us if we react in a surprised way.

Word translated from Russian: Expensive (In American English means great monitary cost)

What is meant: Precious (Term of endearment)

My lady used 'Expensive' several times before I realized what she meant. I kept thinking, why do her letters start with 'Expensive'.

Please, contribute!

Sorry, I have nothing to contribute but it is funny

and true !!! a word "dorogoy" in Russian has different meanings - including expensive and precious (dear). It depends on context. In my opinion she applies to you with "dear".
If you want to say the same to her in Russian than it will be "dorogaya" - the ending changes bcs of gender.

Learning language is a great adventurer

The funniest language confusion we had was when Lyuda wrote that she wanted to give me weasel. It sounded like a nice concept...but totally unexpected. In English and Spanish we use furry animal names as slang terms for a certain part of the female body. I tried (carefully) to determine what she meant, but she could never find that term again in her dictionary. He best guess was that she was responding to something I said about business pressures. She was referring to "emotional warmth."

So I wish good weasel to all.

When Lyuda got her visa to come here--after a year-long battle due to complications--she celebrated by drinking "shampoo." Her actual beverage was champagne. Sometimes when she is going to the kitchen she said, "I am going to the chicken."

I say all kinds of things wrong when I speak Russian, but I can't explain most of them because I'm too much in the dark. The other day I meant to say I was going to rest and instead I said I was going to die. Russian speakers can probably figure out that one.

it could happen when you change a preposition in one verb and say 's-dokhnut' (means to die) instead of 'ot-dokhnut' (to have a rest).

Anyway, I consider that everyone who tries to learn a language of his woman does it not in vain. The fruits of it will come once upon a time

I personally don't want to communicate using a translator. Sooner or later we will have to meet in person, and then we will need a common language. Besides, translators make so many mistakes.

It is very common to receive from a woman that supposedly knows good English, letters clearly translated by a software. Expressions like :

* "To me of 30 years", translated from "Мне 30 лет".
* "At me a son. To him of 3 years", translated from "У меня сын. Ему 3 года".

* Translators very often mistake the subject, the noun to whom the actions is related. For instance, a woman trying to say :
I was in Madrid for holidays. I bought books ...
She may have written something like this : "Я была в отпуске в Мадриде. Купила книги..."
And what they get may be something like :
I was in Madrid for holidays. She bought books ...
Who bought books? The translator couldn't understand the context, only knows that a female bought books.

* You can try this in Google Translator :
"вчера мне написал письмо мч" (Yesterday a man wrote to me a letter. "man" is abbreviated to мч from мужчина)
The translation becomes : "Yesterday I wrote a letter to Martyr"

* Свой
This word is so often miss translated. For instance, I have received phrases like :

"Tell me about my life". I suppose that she wants me to tell her about my life, not hers !
probably she wrote something like : "скажи мне о своей жизни"

And like these, many many mistakes. I must say that translators I have tried work better with Spanish (my native language) than with English.

Another good one:
What do you value in a relationship?
Answer: gravity (really meant "attraction").

Or: describe yourself:
Answer: sexual (Is a "false friend", meant is sexy)

Another good one with automated translation (you get the answer via ICQ in the wrong encoding, so you let it through google-translate/paralink in order to get proper cyrillic characters):

Question: What's your name ?
Answer: "of light"
Correct translation: Sveta

I once called Katya a "stinker," i.e., a troublemaker. That was a humorous conversation.