Il y a deux Marocains, trois mecs Belges, et une Americane sur un toit à Marrakech (Quelle blague, hein?) La langue en commun est le français.
Two Moroccans, three Belgian guys, and an American are sitting on a rooftop in Marrakech (What kind of joke is this?!?). The common language is French.
Belge 1 [enjambe les jambs du mec Marocain] : “Sore-ee”
Marocain [il se lève, avec enthousiasme] : “Souris?!? Où?!?”
Belge 1 : “Quoi?”
Belge 2 : “Non! Il n’a pas dit ‘Souris’ mais ‘Sorry’, comme l’anglais, c’est le mot Belge pour ‘Excuse-moi’ “
Marocain [soulagé et confus] : “Oh, d’accord. J’ai pense qu’il y a une souris ici!”
Belge 1 : “Oui, et maintenant je souris…”
Moi, l’américaine, je l’ai expliqué, en anglais, l’utilisation les mots flamand en le Français Belge et les mots français en le Flamand. Et donc, ça c’est la raison pour laquelle j’apprends plusieurs langues!
Anyways, this is probably a story where you had to be there to find funny. Or maybe Belgian…
En tout cas, c’est probablement une histoire où il fallait être là pour la trouver drôle. Ou peut-être Belge …
As a passionate language learner who has spent numerous occasions in Belgium, I found this whole situation utterly amusing. So French-speaking Belgians have clearly adopted Flemish/Dutch sayings like “Sorry”. And Flemish/Dutch-speaking Belgians will sometimes use French expressions like “Salut”, “Ça va”, and “Bisous” – especially on the phone. This is something I noticed Moroccans doing as well, particularly on the phone. I frequently observed Moroccans in the middle of a dialogue in Arabic where the only phrases I recognized were “Ça va” or “Bien sûr”.
So clearly it’s way cooler to talk on the phone in French than other languages….
**Explanation for those who don’t speak French…
Souris = a mouse, or first-person singular “to smile” and is pronounced the same way as “Sorry” in a Belgian accent…
You can see how this could lead to a misunderstanding, particularly when participants may have been in a slightly altered state of mind…
Life Happens 