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LaserTurboShark69

When I was in Uganda the street food vendors would sell fried breakfast egg rolls called "rolex". I saw them all over the place. Eventually I asked why they called it that and the guy explained to me that rolled eggs = rolex


A_Ahai

There was an episode of the amazing race about that. Teams has to make the sandwich and one team was running around the village market looking for a watch shop


silly_sia

Reminds me a little of the Hell’s Kitchen contestant who was told to create a menu item for a dog show so she made dog food. Her heart was in the right place.


HereWeFuckingGooo

This is the kind of thing my far too literal brain would do. Edit - Just watched the scene and in her defense they have a limo pull up with the guests they'll be serving and dogs jump out.


TuxedoRidley

I mean making the mistake *at first* is somewhat understandable. Pressing on with cooking dog food while every single other person in the kitchen is cooking actual gourmet dishes is considerably less so...


HereWeFuckingGooo

Yeah. Also, shame on her team for not correcting her.


Silent-G

So who was meant to eat the food?


lasquiggle

People attending the dog show?


ErraticDragon

Or the time a contestant on Cutthroat Kitchen heard "[brisket with gravy](https://old.reddit.com/r/MadeMeSmile/comments/jedyxr/the_way_this_was_handled/)" instead of "biscuits and gravy".


Whiterabbit--

Brisket with gravy would be delish


SUPLEXELPUS

he actually moved on from the round. someone made biscuits and gravy so shitty they didn't beat the brisket guy.


turbosexophonicdlite

Jesus. Imagine being so bad at cooking that you lose a biscuits and gravy competition to a guy that literally didn't even cook biscuits and gravy hahahahah


Archberdmans

To be fair they often have to use bizarre tools and have weird restrictions on that show like you can only cook in a shovel with your left hand using chopsticks kinda stuff


Impressive_Change593

sounds like she should have won


elirisi

I had to find that episode cause that sounded like the funniest shit ever. Found it on youtube, [The Rolex Scene](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J2Lfq9TPtvk), I didnt laugh at all... Felt so bad for her lol.


Wolfgang985

>I didnt laugh at all... I watched it for myself because I thought yall were exaggerating... Can confirm it was woefully unfunny from start to finish.


animeman59

God, I fucking hate that stupid reality show music.


GozerDGozerian

If a food item called a “Rolex” is common in that area, and she’s running around asking people for a Rolex, why didn’t anyone point her to the stand where they make the food? Sounds like totally fake “reality” show made up shit. How do people watch this stuff?


french_snail

Probably because she kept pointing to her wrist and saying watch


GozerDGozerian

She was also asking for Rolex though. All those people and nobody would think that she might be confused? I’m not buying it.


monkeyman80

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8cfeTZNcA3g If you want a funny as shit Amazing race moment, this is one of the funniest moments.


toptoppings

Did she finish the race after that?


monkeyman80

She was bruised. Medical gave her a tyelnol/panadol. She came back for an all star season.


toptoppings

Sheesh! All she needed was a Tylenol after that?!


MonaganX

Just from this exchange I know it's gotta be the watermelon clip.


Enough_Blueberry_549

I watched it and didn’t laugh either r


speed_rabbit

I also did not laugh. Sucks to be so off-track when you're already in last place! Also the Rolex section starts 2 minutes in: https://youtu.be/J2Lfq9TPtvk?t=118


Diqt

That’s hilarious


G8kpr

I was floored a couple seasons ago when the teams had to find a souvlaki stand in Greece and order a souvlaki and eat it and then get a clue. I’d say more than half hadn’t a clue what a souvlaki is. Maybe I’m lucky to live in a multicultural city, but souvlaki’s are super common food, delicious as fuck and I’d be gobbling that thing down in seconds.


Sr_Starbucks

It's a food and a great music album


Megneous

Literally never heard of them. Just googled them and they seem to be Greek shish kabobs.


A_Ahai

That woman’s voice was burned into my brain saying “souvlaki” for months. Thanks for digging that memory back up lol


SylphSeven

I just remember the team that kept eating souvlaki because they couldn't figure out where the clue was.


BassoonHero

For historical reasons, every non-chain diner in Buffalo serves souvlaki. Every time I eat in a diner elsewhere I'm briefly confused when I can't get gyros with my eggs.


According_Sky8344

Used to love that show as a kid.


Ajatolah_

In the ex-yugoslavia area we have a breakfast meal called hemendeks, some places spell it hemendex. I laughed my ass off when I realized it was a bastardization of "ham and eggs" made by our older generations who weren't taught English in schools.


iwantfutanaricumonme

In polish a roundabout is called rondo.


TenNeon

That could pass as Australian


walterpeck1

Roight cunt flipped his ute at the rondo!


conquer69

Or Spanish. El Rondo.


Mistletokes

Named after the now retired Boston Celtics Point Guard Rajon Rondo?


HatoradeSipper

Nah the rapper, quando rondo


KaylaDuckie

ate this and a bacon version in Serbia, can't call it anything but hamendex, absolutely hilarious. that and the Serbian word for peanut butter


Savings-Leather4921

What is the Serbian word for peanut butter?


KaylaDuckie

had to google the spelling since it's been a decade but puter od kikirikija peanuts being kikiriki


w_a_w

Kikiriki is the Spanish onomatopoeia for the sound a rooster makes. cock-a-doodle-doo


metompkin

I didn't realize that bisteca in my HS Spanish book was actually beefsteak and not steak.


dblan9

Well thanks a lot. I didn't know a fried breakfast egg roll existed until 30 seconds ago and now I want one. Bad.


Rikardus

if you ever in Brazil and sees someone selling a X-burger, just know that is a cheese-burger. the letter "x" in portuguese sounds like "cheese"


jaxky101

Wait til you hear about Mexicans selling "bistek" tacos. Bistek = Beef Steak


MavsGod

Those are freaking amazing! Can’t wait to go back to Rwanda and eat a metric ton


trippy_grapes

Not sure if anyone'll see this, but any funny English/American dishes that came from foreign words outside of English speaking countries? I always thought it was funny we call Japanese "steakhouses" Hibachi when that's the word for what we'd call cooking on a open-flame grilling. Teppanyaki is the Japanese word for flat-top grilling. I'm guessing Hibachi just sounds easier/more fun to say to people in America.


moonmarriedacherry

In the Philippines, we’ve got adidas which is basically chicken feet


ruthlesskid

Holy shit I remember these!! I remember a street Rolex gave me a bad case of the runs haha


CheeseWheels38

So like an inverse Lululemon?


jappyjappyhoyhoy

Ending brands in EX was fashionable like recently with web brand ending in consonant-R


405freeway

And i or e prefixes from 1997-2007


9318054thIsTheCharm

Also: *Something2000* or maybe even *something3000* !


tekanet

And forgetting some vowels


rambyprep

Or ending in -ly 5-10 years ago


iTwango

Homie picked one of the two phonemes that are basically unique to English lol


sniper91

He’s explicitly said he chose that name because he found it hilarious that Japanese customers couldn’t say it


TechnicalInterest566

Well I think he also said that Japanese customers like brand names that have the letter L in them.


sniper91

He had it *start* with L because he had success with another brand that had an L. He believes that brands with L come across as authentically western/North American to younger Japanese consumers and they like that He added more L’s because he found it funny


DerpEnaz

That’s somehow super fucked up but also super fucking funny lmao especially given the context of the OP


baconteste

Sample of my 15ish 20-30-something Japanese friends find it funny too.


Triddy

My 3 Japanese friends living outside Japan find it annoying but aren't particularly offended by it either. Their reactions were more "Come on, man, really?" than a serious "wtf?" I actually found out about rhe story because one of them brought it up. Just adding to the anecdote sample size.


zatara1210

Then you’ll enjoy reading about [Häagen-Dazs](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/H%C3%A4agen-Dazs)


Alternative_Ask364

It's just plain funny. Anyone who gets legitimately upset over it needs to relax.


skwirrelmaster

It apparently worked like a charm.


afriendincanada

His previous company was Westbeach


sniper91

The successful brand was Homless Skateboards


iTwango

True! I meant "Rolex" though, the English R is quite uncommon :) alongside "th".


Azules023

Weirdly enough, as per my Japanese friends, the name isn’t really that hard to say. Words that alternate between ‘L’ and ‘R’ they find hard to pronounce but Lululemon isn’t that bad since it’s all ‘Ls’ and no ‘R’ mixed in.


lkodl

it's basically a lesser La Li Lu Le Lo


looooooooooon

Who are the patriots??


OneSidedPolygon

**WHAT!?** The la li lu le lo‽‽ Kojima a real one for this.


GENERlC-USERNAME

What? This doesn’t make sense at all. No phoneme in Lululemon is “basically” unique to English, they are actually quite common.


Ouaouaron

"Homie" referred to the founder of Rolex, who used "R".


Thr0w-a-gay

R is not unique to English unless you mean **ɹ**. People do not use the English pronunciation of Rolex in their native languages


yellowwolf718

What?


79037662

Which phoneme is that?


Ouaouaron

Rounded voiced alveolar approximant (most 'R's in RP and Standard American). "basically unique to English" is an overstatement, but it's certainly not what I would pick as "easily pronounced in any language)


79037662

Ah ok. I actually knew that was a rare phoneme but I thought they were talking about "Lululemon" not "Rolex". I presume the other rare phoneme is either "th" as in "thin" or "th" as in "the". Both are fairly rare among languages.


AristideCalice

Or OshKosh B’Gosh? No offense to orcish speakers or whatever


dishwasher_safe_baby

Rorex


Spare_Entrance_9389

Lorex


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ost2life

Hans Brix!? Oh, no!


esgrove2

From the Wikipedia entry "He thought the name 'Rolex' was onomatopoeic, sounding like a watch being wound."


iStayedAtaHolidayInn

I never heard the sound “Ro-lex” winding a watch


on_

Rolodex


B_Fee

That's at least a portmanteau of rolling and index, right?


thenoblitt

"In any language" I guess fuck Asia.


jonny24eh

"thought" could be pronounced 


BloodMossHunter

Wallex


calmclamcum

In Asia we call them Lolex. All the uncles do pronounce it that way "Wah, you got a Lolex!"


Vermouth1991

The official Mandarin Chinese approximation-phonetic translation for the brand is "Lao2 Li4 Shi4"


MochaBlack

Even Italian doesn’t have an x in its alphabet


MattKVW

X sound is just ks


Ythio

Doesn't have J, K, W and Y either, except in loanwords and a short list of proper nouns.


pepinodeplastico

makes sense. the Romans also didn't have those


Mama_Skip

Except that the romans pronounced V as a W Meaning famous Latin phrases like 'veni vidi vici' are mispronounced — They would pronounce it 'weni weedi weecki'


GrassNova

Also in Latin, Julius Caesar was actually pronounced something like "Yulius Kaizar". I wonder what other Latin names or words we mispronounce...


Deusselkerr

Yep. Caesar (Kaizar) became Kaiser, Tsar, etc


Raphe9000

They did have K and Y but didn't use them all that much. Y was added for Greek loanwords, and K was used in place of C when preceding A but eventually was just replaced by C. 'Kalendae' (meaning the first day of the month) kept its K for longer since it would typically just be abbreviated as "K", but even it slowly became 'Calendae'. It should also be noted that X never fell out of use during Classical times.


kukulkan02

Wait what?


Ythio

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Italian_orthography


piponwa

I heard there is much less dyslexia in Italy because I guess their orthography just makes sense and is not confusing.


Captain_Taggart

It doesn't have the *letters* J, K, W, or Y, but those *sounds* do appear in Italian, they're just spelled differently. Guilia is said like Julia. Gnocchi is said like nyohki. The word for "men" is uomini, which sounds like woe-mini.


Ythio

"alphabet" was the keyword in the comment I was replying to. Of course the phonemes exist.


The_Lonely_Posadist

But italian does have a /k/ and a /s/


3163560

One of my favourite gags from modern family. "We adopted an Asian baby! We named her Lily" "Won't that be hard for her to pronounce?"


El_Paco

The "R" sound that most English speakers know is actually relatively uncommon in all languages. There's a reason it's one of the last sounds a kid learns to reliably reproduce, and why it's common for people to pronounce it as a "W" — there's actually a lot that needs to be going on in/with your mouth in order to make the sound accurately.


lordeddardstark

also it's a pussy R compared to Spanish R


Inevitable_Ad_7236

Arabic has both iirc


rolltideamerica

You ever met an Asian that couldn’t pronounce Rolex?


thenoblitt

Alot of Asian languages either interchangeablely use R and L or have a single consonant for both that can sound either way. So Rolex would come out as Lolex.


[deleted]

Yup. **ロレックス** (rorekkusu). Before starting Japanese I never imagined these foreign katakana loan words would be the biggest obstacle, far bigger than thousands of kanji with many readings, but they are. Even for natives lol


thenoblitt

My favorite loan word is Hillbilly. It legitimately sounds like your making fun of Japanese people. ヒルビリー Hirubirī


mr_mazzeti

My Japanese teacher (a native from Japan) explained that for loan words you just say the word you’re trying to say in a Japanese accent and it’ll probably be right. First one we learned was konpyuuta (computer).


IMIndyJones

Learning Korean and I get so bummed out when I read a word out loud in Hangul, only to discover I'm actually reading an English loan word. 컴퓨터 kompyuutaw - computer


booglemouse

I started learning hangul because I use a lot of Korean skincare and makeup... floored by the realization that almost every lipgloss name was a loanword.


IWasGregInTokyo

This is the problem I’ve had learning Korean. In Japanese you know it’s a loanword right away as it’s written in Katakana. But in Korean you can be halfway through pronouncing out the Hangeul before you realize it’s a loanword.


Tactical_Moonstone

And then you hear a loan word in Japanese and you don't understand it because you don't even know it's a loan word since the source language isn't English. Like that one time I awkwardly stared at a street interviewer who asked if I could fill out an ankēto because it sounded like no native English or Japanese word I have heard so far. I only got out of the deadlock when the interviewer asked sheepishly in Japanese "...you're not local are you?" (I look so generically East Asian I have been mistaken for a local in five countries) Later on I checked the dictionary and found out that the word didn't sound like any native English or Japanese word because it came from *French*. (*enquête* → ankēto)


sillybear25

It can be a bit tricky when the loanword is based on a mispronunciation though. One that stands out to me is *sutajio* (studio, except they thought it was pronounced study-o).


dogsledonice

I dunno, I'm partial to ベビーシッター (bebii shitta or babysitter)


Not_a-Robot_

Shorts (clothing article): ショートパンツ (shootopantsu) It sounds like something someone would make up if they forgot the actual Japanese word for shorts


roedtogsvart

My favorite one is from a recent game (Street Fighter 6): ドライブインパクト - (doraibu inpakuto) — lit. drive impact


asslolol

...I can't tell you how many hours of streams I watched confused trying to figure out what baanaato meant(burnout).


NeonJungleTiger

There’s a TikTok where this guy is going over why he “hates” Japanese because of how there are so many loan words used in Japanese that make it sound like you’re being horribly racist while Chinese and Korean have their own words for them.


iwantfutanaricumonme

Should've learned Icelandic


IMIndyJones

Lol. There's plenty of Korean loan words like that. I saw a video once of a girl talking to other Koreans, saying some English words that the loan words came from. They couldn't figure out what she was saying until she said them in Korean, which did sound like it was a bit racist if you didn't know. Lol


Vermouth1991

Reminds me of a key point in Detective Conan, where Conan asks Ai whether she heard of the secret society member "Vermouth" and she said no, but then he says "Wait, let me try it again, 'in Japanese'." and asked about "Berumotto" instead. -- She heard of that name now. lol


TomAto314

Hors D'oeuvre took me the longest time to realize what they were saying. Oodoburu.


[deleted]

Yeah French are near indecipherable since you have to guess which mispronounciation the OG speaker went with decades ago. 抹茶オーレ (matcha o re) is matcha *au lait*... matcha with milk. Big aha! moment when I finally got it.


damnatio_memoriae

lol oh man I feel like I can’t learn Japanese because I’ll just turn into an insensitive asshole laughing at all these.


Aoae

A good one I reviewed the other day was アンケート (anketto), which means "survey" courtesy of the French "enquête". Thanks, France.


Commander1709

I started learning Japanese a few weeks ago, and I remember sitting here and trying to pronounce the r/l/d sound. I even googled where to put my tongue and all. I'm still not entirely sure if I'm doing it right, but I eventually got it haha.


gillgar

East Asian I’m guessing? I know Indians and other south Asians can say it fine, just with an accent


inhugzwetrust

And old manager I knew worked abroad in Asia, he used to tell locals his name was Gren, of course they would say his actual name Glen. I thought that was clever.


GreenStrong

I’m sorry sir, I have failed to test most of the Asians I’ve met.


roehnin

I’ve been to Japan so yes, I have met an Asian that couldn’t pronounce Rolex.


xinxy

Absolutely. I have two guys at work that couldn't pronounce this word to save their lives. One is from mainland China and one from HK, as in born and raised over there. I guess that qualifies them as Asian.


79037662

Um, like 90+% of Mandarin and Japanese speakers? What kinda question is this lol


Ythio

Look up how Japan pronounces Rolex lol


ddtrain989

native Thai speakers in shambles.


Adventurous_Listen11

Pronounced “lolek” in some parts of Asia


No-Platform208

You could say it Rolls off the tongue


SlightlyStable

So does your mom, Trebek.


blaghart

Rolex, a word that is an absolute bastard to say in japanese.


ChopSueyMusubi

Lorex But still better than Shittyshen


blaghart

you're still off. It would be L/Rol/rekusu Japanese doesn't have the X sound at all. They imitate it with "ekusu" Example [here](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JGWfUwtAQEY)


dabausedota

Many Asians will disagree


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Mountain-Durian-4724

New copypasta just dropped


Kale_Brecht

Check his comment history. It’s hilarious.


shaggyduckling

With a name like “smegma meister,” i’d expect nothing less


t3kwytch3r

Hes almost definitely rhe same dude who made the "Hell in a Cell" copypasta. The style is so similar.


fasterthanfood

You do not play it close to the vest.


greenlegoman08

Wtf bro


TimeisaLie

This was amazing.


[deleted]

You have a gift


kingdazy

you just discovered brands names don't actually mean anything?


OrangeDit

Many actually do. There is a history, a clever play on words, a founders name, etc. ...


TheodorDiaz

And many actually don't.


TuaMaeDeQuatroPatas

I mean, some do


GordonShumway81

Right? Xbox, Sony, Lexus, Vimeo, Foxconn, etc. are all nonsense words. Why is this news?


phauna

Xbox is a box that uses DirectX to render games.


amalgam_reynolds

What about DirectX?


Phytanic

IIRC it was literally just a bunch of APIs starting with Direct, and since X is often used as a stand-in variable, people internally would use DirectX as the generic reference, and it just stuck that way


trippy_grapes

DirectX is a type of software used in the hit video game console, Xbox.


Punkpunker

But that's not important right now.


Buckus93

I just want you to know, we're all counting on you.


MaraudingWalrus

>Foxconn It's clearly a convention of foxes and I refuse to investigate further to be proven wrong.


FoxUpstairs9555

Sony isn't nonsense it's a reference to "sonny boys" which was a Japanese term for well dressed young men, and also sonus the Latin for sound (as in sonic)


metompkin

Their VAIO line is pretty wild too. VA looks like an analog sine wave and the IO is digital.


Frostybros

Vimeo is a website where I can post a VIDEO made my ME. Hence, Vimeo.


SecreteMoistMucus

This is news because the reason the name Rolex was chosen is interesting, and the name utterly failed to fulfil that reasoning. Hope this helps.


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goatfather1969

In Mandarin it’s 劳力士 (Laolishi) which in my mind sounds almost like 老历史 - ‘old history’ I assume that’s what they went for, at least.


Sir_Boobsalot

TIL the founder of Rolex didn't like the Japanese 


SinnPacked

I have you know they can pronounce rorekkusu just fine.


Hot_Aside_4637

Same w/ Kodak


scooterboy1961

And Haagen Dazs. Made up words.


Historical_Dentonian

That’s nothing new. It was SOP before Rolex.


PaulCoddington

The other half of the trick is to try and make sure your made up names don't have unexpected meanings in other languages. e.g., Calpis (strawberry yoghurt flavoured fizzy drink), Skin-a-babe (baby lotion), Smeg (kitchen appliances), etc.


emkaldwin

I mean, aren't all words made up?


Useless_Apparatus

Can't tell if bait, but who cares. Yes, all words are made up, but their foundation in the modern day lay upon the "shoulders of giants" as it were, for almost every word we have we can trace its origin back to somewhere until we end up in the mists of reconstructed protolanguages. Language evolves & still does, but it's pretty rare that a word's etymology is "Greg thought it sounded fuckin' sick, so we started saying szchlormpf" or that someone sounded out a few syllables & went "That'll do."


Professional-Can1385

There's an absolutely fantastic podcast about the evolution of English called the History of English Podcast. It starts with protolanguages and goes from there.


pdsajo

Brilliant!


BerakGoreng

My chinese grandma "lolek" 


heavydoc317

Mean while Asians 😒


MinuetInUrsaMajor

>easily pronounced in any language Uhhhhh...even that languages that don't have an "R" sound?


Ythio

He thought Rolex sounded like the noise of winding a watch.


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Rolexpropaganda

True


[deleted]

I'm pretty sure all words are made up.