[Multilingual Monday] WTF Idioms

[aadroma]

One of the big stumbling blocks for many speakers of a new language is learning idioms. I remember years ago the Chicago Sun-Times having a series of articles written by a German living in America, and one of this articles had stated his difficulty with various English turns of phrases. He had mentioned trying to get a hold of someone, and the

Comments

[didiseven]

My parents are fond of a Chinese expression that literally translates to something like "butt brush walk." It's meant to convey someone that partakes of your hospitality (like a meal), then just stands up, supposedly brushing off their ass, and walks off without thanking you. I suppose the saying originated when people were more apt to be sitting in dust. Of course I am descended from the equivalent of Chinese hillbillies, so it may not be something you learn in a classroom.

[arktos62]

The Irish sometimes will sometimes use the phrase: "put it in a glass case and throw sugar at it", for something completely useless. I have no idea about its etymology, but I plan to use it a lot for the rest of today.
Slainte!

[muckefuck]

In Chinese, 成語 (loosely translated as "four-character idioms") are so plentiful and ubiquitous they are a genre unto themselves. Some are transparent (e.g. 九死一生 jiǔ sǐ yì shēng "nine die one live" = "a narrow escape from a dangerous situation"), but many are concentrated allusions to incidents in Chinese history and make no sense on their own (e.g. 鄭人買履 zhèng rén mǎi lǚ "a man from Zheng buys shoes" = "do things by the book even when it makes no sense"). There are scores of books out there which do nothing but explain the meaning of such phrases.

There are also less formal idioms, some of which are extremely colourful. One of my favourites--and one for which I've never gotten any kind of explanation--is 吹牛屄 chūi niú bǐ "blow the ox cunt". Any guesses as to what that means?

[pirateseasick]

This isn't really to idioms at all, but it seems like that kind of thing you'd like. And, you'll actually be able to read the in-game text!

[pirateseasick]

Really *related*. OOPS. dropped a word there somehow.

Also, I love that the french say they have "other cats to whip" (j'ai d'autres chats a fouetter, I think) instead of "other fish to fry" when there are more important tasks at hand.
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