In the Japanese language, there is an expression “暗礁に乗り上げる”, which literally means “be stranded on a reef,” and is used to signify a situation of being deadlocked.
Some Japanese people mistake “deadlock” for “reef” because both “lock” and “rock” are written in the same way, “ロック,” and use a wrong expression 「デッドロックに乗り上げる」, which literally means “run on a deadlock .” If you are talking with a Japanese person and hear him use this wrong expression, you can rightly imagine that he is confusing lock with rock; the difference of the two words in pronunciation is hard to be noticed among many Japanese people including me.
Errata:
“people including me” should read “people, including me.”
Well, if one had reached the level of understanding the above Japanese sentences, one certainly wouldn’t be stranded on a reef… This reminds me of a former colleague who would always, instead of saying “that went down like a damp squib” (being of as much interest as a damp firecracker) say “that went down like a damp squid” (a sort of cuttlefish).