Russian words that are dangerous to pronounce abroad

Imagine this situation. You have arrived somewhere in Vietnam on vacation. You are walking down the street with a friend and, not hearing something, loudly ask: “What?” And suddenly you catch the wary glances of passing Vietnamese, in which you can almost read the confidence that a serious fight is about to begin.

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And all because in Vietnamese “che” is an insult. Literally translated as “dog”, but, as in Russian, it is used as an expletive. And this is not the only Russian word that can put you in an awkward situation abroad; a list of them has been compiled by the publication “Yandex Zen".

There are sometimes funny coincidences, when the most innocent Russian words are completely similar in sounding to abusive or indecent expressions in other languages.

For example, in Egypt, Morocco, the UAE and other countries where Arabic is spoken, it is better not to call a cat on the street with the usual “kitty-kitty”. The fact is that in Arabic colloquial jargon, the word “kitty” refers to the female genital organs. A very ugly situation can arise if a girl is passing nearby at that moment. And if her husband with an explosive temper walks proudly nearby, a scandal is almost guaranteed.

A similar danger awaits tourists in Italy, only there the word “fig” will cause problems. It means the same as the Arabic "kiss". They say that in Latin and Central America the word “papaya” has the same meaning, so you need to be very careful when buying or ordering this fruit. It’s better to say “fruta bomba” - they will understand.

However, the opposite is also true - foreigners also have a lot of words that in Russian sound almost like obscene curses. The Chinese language has a special concentration of such indecent homophones.

The classic Russian swear word of three letters, which is written on the fence, is often found there. Moreover, this word refers to an entire nation living in China. It was, however, included in Soviet encyclopedias with the bashful addition of an extra letter - “hui”. But in reality there is no “e” there.

Continuing the topic, one newspaper told a story about how a Russian girl in St. Petersburg married a visiting Chinese man named X... Well, in general, you understand. There weren’t any particular problems with this, except for the giggling of the girlfriends. But when my daughter was born, the question arose - what kind of middle name she would have. The wife categorically opposed this option, which according to all the rules should have been written down in the passport. As a result, they came up with a completely different middle name for her. What exactly - history is silent.

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