While we were living in the United States, my wife worked as an assistant teacher at a primary school. She had to help out with lessons, sing and dance with the children, and do all sorts of other activities that would make me want to uppercut the nearest kid I could find.
During one particularly hectic week at school, my wife was asked to help tidy up the playroom for an upcoming visit from the school board. This included putting toys away and rearranging furniture items, like tables, stools, desks and — apparently — bean bag chairs. I didn’t quite understand the way she articulated this last item, so I asked her to repeat it:
THE WIFE: “I said, ‘We even had to move the sit-sacks,’ ”
Click here to learn more about the term “Denglish.”
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Oh God, My Wife Is German. 
You probably know that your wife’s term for beanbag chairs is a literal translation from the German “Sitzsack”.
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I do now, but not then. Back then, I simply thought it was adorable. :)
Thank you for the info though, Bochum!
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Sit-bags, I like it!
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Me too! Glad you dig it too, Brick!
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Perhaps I don´t understand some underlying irony here (since I´m not a native speaker of English) but I recall that I´ve heard the word “sit sack” before (as well as “bean bag chair”)……
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I don’t doubt it. It’s a very literal translation, and it makes more sense. They aren’t really ‘bags’ at all. :)
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Sitz-Säcke, stimmt! lachhhhh :)
Do you know this here: Das ist mir Wurscht = That is me sausage ;)
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Woah! I have not! I must ask The Wife right now! Thank you Alle!
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Ah, the amount of times that I have tried to convey something to my husband by literally translating something from German into English and he has only stared blankly… Just imagine how people in Hannover would look at you if you tried to tell them to sit on a Bohnenbeutel!
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Well that settles it. I am going straight out the door to say that to a random German. :)
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LOL
That’s hilarious!! I giggled… but then… there are different funny translations for German sentences. How about: “I have tomatoes on my eyes.” or
“There lies the rabbit in the pepper.”
There are many more…
Thanks for the laugh!! :-)
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Of course! Thank you for the comment!
Can you think of any other funny German expressions?
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Hmmmm. let’s see:
“My English is under all pig.”
“I think, I spider.”
“What too much is, is too much.”
“To thunder weather once more.”
“You are such a fear-rabbit.”
“It’s highest railway.”
There are only a few… I hope you’ve got fun. :-)
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Haw! Nice! Thank you for the list, Raani. :)
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I think the comments are as good as the story. I like how my students, when speaking German, always add ge- to the front of words to indicate past tense. “I ge-taped it on my locker and now its verloren.” “I ge-pressed the button and nothing happened.”
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THAT IS EXACTLY WHAT I DO.
Oh that is so perfect. But hey, what else can we do? We haven’t learned the real past tense yet! :)
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I always wondered why you call it beanbags, as that is just plain wrong. There are no beans nor a bag in a beanbag. In Dutch it is called a zitzak, which, like in German makes total sense. So this could have been my story had it come up in my conversation with the hubby! 1-0 for Denglish ;-)
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