Thursday, December 4, 2008

Learn English funny commercials

In the beginning of the video, the former German coast-guard is instructing the new colleague on how to use the radar base (in German language).
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- Mayday, mayday. Hello, can you hear us? Can you hear us? Can you xxx over. We are sinking, we are sinking.
- hello, this is a German coast-guard
- we are sinking! we're sinking!
- what are you thinking about?

MAYDAY= Mayday is an emergency code word used internationally as a distress signal in voice procedure radio communications. It derives from the French "venez m'aider", meaning 'come to my aid', "come [to] help me." It is used to signal a life-threatening emergency by many groups, such as police forces, pilots, the fire brigade, and transportation organizations. The call is always given (or it should) three times in a row ("Mayday Mayday Mayday") to prevent mistaking it for some similar-sounding phrase under noisy conditions, and to distinguish an actual mayday call from a message about a mayday call. If the distress message is not voice generated then we use SOS with the same meaning.

The confusion here is between "sinking" and "thinking", because with a German accent, "think" is pronounced "sink".














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