10.12.2009

Pleased to kill you!

The Finnish language has some aspects that make life hard for foreigners. One of them is the usage of double consonants and vowels in words in ways that change the word entirely. Kuusisaari (a place in Helsinki) is quite different from Kusisaari (Piss Island). And minä tapaan sinut means "I'll meet you", while minä tapan sinut means "I'll kill you."

As found out by a man of foreign origin, who threatened to kill... ummm.. meet a social worker.

Threatening to kill someone is a criminal offence, so the incident was investigated. The prosecutor apparently couldn't decide what to do about it, so in the end he chose to accept that yes, the man said "I'll kill you", but didn't mean it sincerely enough so that there would have been an actual threat, so the charge was dropped.

2 kommenttia:

  1. OH! Now THAT is funny. The American language is not that challenging but I am sure there are instances of confusion. Notice I said "American" not English! I think we in the States have our very own language and we should make American the official language of the USA. other STRONGLY disagree and the discussion goes on----and on---and on!

    VastaaPoista
  2. Beautiful land you have there in Finland.

    VastaaPoista