Priceless Language Moments 7

Britney Spears will never sound the same again after this one.

I was riding in the car with Taebun, who sometimes listens to American pop songs, and the Britney Spears song "Womanizer" came on. Somewhere in the middle, he asks me "what does 'womanizer' mean?" I told him that is was a term for a man who has a bad reputation for using women poorly. He laughed and explained that he assumed Britney was singing about a man who was turning into a woman, using the example of how "an energizer gives energy." But since Britney is a woman already, he applied the womanizing to the man himself. Good point. From a ESL perspective, applying similar rules to different words can have a hilarious result.

Britney Spears' lyrics (or whoever) lend themselves quite easily to Taebun's assumption, too:

WOMANIZER
Superstar Where you from, how's it going?
I know you
Gotta clue, what your doing
You can play brand new to all the other chicks out here
But I know what you are, what you are, baby

Look at you
Gettin' more than just re-up
Baby, you
Got all the puppets with their strings up
Fakin' like a good one, but I call 'em like I see 'em
I know what you are, what you are, baby

Womanizer
Woman-Womanizer
You're a womanizer
Oh Womanizer
Oh You're a Womanizer Baby
You, You You Are
You, You You Are
Womanizer, Womanizer, Womanizer

Boy don't try to front I (I) know just (just) what you are (are are)
Boy don't try to front I (I) know just (just) what you are (are are)

You Got Me Goin'
You're also Charmin'
But I can't do it
U Womanizer

Boy don't try to front I (I) know just (just) what you are (are are)
Boy don't try to front I (I) know just (just) what you are (are are)

You Say I'm Crazy
I got your crazy
You're nothing but A Womanizer

Daddy-O
You got the swagger of a champion
Too bad for you
You just can't find the right companion
I guess when you have won too many, makes it hard
It could be easy
Who you are, that's just who you are, baby

(and so on...)

I wonder how many other people in Korea have the same translation.