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Negative traits attributed to others | ||
Tags: Cultural Identity | Idiom | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Cultural Experiences in Foreign Languages |  | |
| pesahson Diglot Senior Member Poland Joined 5731 days ago 448 posts - 840 votes  Speaks: Polish*, English Studies: French, Portuguese, Norwegian | Message 49 of 74 23 March 2012 at 8:25pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
That reminds me, in Polish a mullet is also called Czech footballer. People would literally say 'He had a Czech footballer.'
We sometimes say someone is 'Ą ę' meaning pretentious. It imitates the French sounds 'en' 'in'. If someone has trouble understanding something, we say Don't pretend to be Greek meaning he acts as thought he doesn't understand Polish at all. It's funny that Polish and Romanian both use Turkish as an example of a language totally incomprehensible. Edited by pesahson on 23 March 2012 at 8:30pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| Chung Diglot Senior Member Joined 7159 days ago 4228 posts - 8259 votes 20 sounds Speaks: English*, French Studies: Polish, Slovak, Uzbek, Turkish, Korean, Finnish | Message 50 of 74 23 March 2012 at 9:26pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
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From Hungarian:
- Ez nekem kínai "It's Chinese to me" (cf. "It's Greek to me") - angolkór "English disease" (rickets) - angolosan távozni "to leave in the English way" (cf. "to take French leave") - cigánykodni "to pull a gypsy" (to lie) - sovány mint a sváb lábszár "as skinny as a Swabian leg" (cf. "as skinny as a beanpole". N.B. Many of the German-speaking farmers who settled in the Hungarian Kingdom were Swabians (from what is now Baden-Würtemburg) and this led to Swabians being often equated to Germans in general.) - ahol a német jár, ott fű nem terem "Wherever the German goes, no grass grows" - örülni neki, mint tót a pogácsának "to be as glad as a Slovak is about [getting] a pogács" (cf. "pleased as punch". N.B. a pogács is similar to a scone while tót is an older term for "Slovak" (BTW the Hungarian family name - Tóth is an alternative spelling of the word). The expression reflects the Hungarian sterotype that someone's extreme happiness is reminicsent of a Slovak being overjoyed by a simple treat) - tótul nevetni "to laugh in Slovak" (to weep) - csehül állni "to stand in the Czech way" (cf. "things are in a bad way") - dohányozni mint a török "to smoke like a Turk" (cf. "to smoke like a chimney") - nincs török a hátunkon "there's no Turk on our back" (don't stress out or rush about) - nyikorogni, mint az oláh szekér "to creak like the Wallachian wagon (N.B. - oláh is an old term for "Romanian" - refers to unpleasantly noisy machinery) - ordítani, mint az orosz az ólban "to bellow like the Russian in the pigsty" (i.e. to shout copiously or intensely) From Polish: - głupi jak Niemiec "dumb as a German" - U niemców ani mucha się nie pożywi "Not even the fly eats well at a German's home" (stereotype of Germans being ruthless and inhospitable) - gdzie Niemiec przejdzie, tam trawa nie rośnie "Wherever the German goes, no grass grows" - zazdrosny jak Turek "as jealous as a Turk" - wołoskie zaloty "Wallachian [~ Romanian] courtship" (boorish behaviour) - włoska sztuczka "Italian ruse" (i.e. deception) - gdzie Węgier, tam gniew, gdzie Słowak, tam śpiew "Wherever there's a Hungarian, there's anger. Wherever there's a Slovak, there's song" - Litwin głupi jak świnia, a chytry jak wąż "The Lithuanian is as dumb as a pig but as shifty as a snake" - uparty jak Rusin "stubborn as a Ruthenian" (Ruthenians were effectively the predecessors of today's Belorussians, Russians, Rusyns and Ukrainians and were the eastern rivals/neighbours of the Poles but the expression today often refers just to the Russians) If anyone can read in Hungarian, this article is very worthwhile and is the source of most of the examples above. Edited by Chung on 23 March 2012 at 9:40pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| pesahson Diglot Senior Member Poland Joined 5731 days ago 448 posts - 840 votes Speaks: Polish*, English Studies: French, Portuguese, Norwegian | Message 51 of 74 23 March 2012 at 9:30pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
That's a lot of hostility towards our neighbours ;). But I have to admit I've never heard any of those sayings. Fortunately, many such stereotypes are a thing of the past. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| Pisces Bilingual Pentaglot Senior Member Finland Joined 4625 days ago 143 posts - 284 votes Speaks: English*, Finnish*, French, SwedishC1, Esperanto Studies: German, Spanish, Russian | Message 52 of 74 06 April 2012 at 10:17pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
I think this might come from the fact that a Swede called Pehr Henrik Ling was one of the pioneers of gymnastics/calisthenics in the 19th century. In older English books people talk about Swedish exercises. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| Sierra Diglot Senior Member Turkey livinginlights.comRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 7127 days ago 296 posts - 411 votes Speaks: English*, SwedishB1 Studies: Turkish | Message 53 of 74 07 May 2012 at 1:26am | IP Logged | ||||||||
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Awesome thread, really interesting!
I have a couple more to add, not all derogatory. An Indian summer is a late heat wave in the fall, usually after there's already been a frost. A Canadian tuxedo is an all-denim outfit. A highly offensive one, not unlike "to gyp", is to Jew someone / get Jewed meaning, I guess, to get cheated, swindled, or lowballed. Extremely out of date nowadays due to its racist origins is mongoloid, which I've seen used for people with Down's Syndrome and other developmental disabilities. I gather the term came about because someone thought the facial features associated with Down's Syndrome were similar to Mongolian features. "Pardon my French" is a common phrase to jokingly excuse yourself when you curse. Chinese whispers and Chinese fire drills also come to mind, although I have no idea what the connection to China is in either of those games. Chinese whispers (aka Telephone) is where a line of people take turns whispering a phrase to one another and it comes out all garbled by the end; a Chinese fire drill is where the occupants of a car get out at a stoplight and race around the vehicle. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| Josquin Heptaglot Senior Member Germany Joined 4847 days ago 2266 posts - 3992 votes Speaks: German*, English, French, Latin, Italian, Russian, Swedish Studies: Japanese, Irish, Portuguese, Persian | Message 54 of 74 07 May 2012 at 5:02am | IP Logged | ||||||||
In German, there are two versions of this: "französischer Abgang" (French leave) and "polnischer Abgang" (Polish leave). Both mean the same. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| prz_ Tetraglot Senior Member Poland last.fm/user/prz_rul Joined 4862 days ago 890 posts - 1190 votes Speaks: Polish*, English, Bulgarian, Croatian Studies: Slovenian, Macedonian, Persian, Russian, Turkish, Ukrainian, Dutch, Swedish, German, Italian, Armenian, Kurdish | Message 55 of 74 07 May 2012 at 8:51pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
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In Polish:
- ty Rumunie! (you, Romanian!) - very offensive expressions with negative connotations - but was mostly created not because of Romanian people, but these with Roma origins - poturczeniec - a person, who has convered to islam. Comes from the times of Ottoman Turkey - cyganić (Cygan = Gipsy) - generally to lie - czeski film (the Czech film) - the situation when nobody knows what and why actually happens - Czy mam mówić do Ciebie po chińsku? (Should I speak to you in Chinese?) - when someone doesn't react for the things we're saying - nie udawaj Greka (Don't pretend the Greek) - don't pretend, that you don't understand what I mean and/or that you don't know something - raz na ruski rok (once a Russian year) - seldom, occasionally And an interesting idiom in Russian - Бенгальские огни - sparklers (in Polish - zimne ognie, literally "cold fires") :) Edited by prz_ on 07 May 2012 at 8:55pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| espejismo Diglot Senior Member Russian Federation Joined 5054 days ago 498 posts - 905 votes Speaks: Russian*, English Studies: Spanish, Greek, Azerbaijani | Message 56 of 74 09 May 2012 at 10:56pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
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My favorite one is "voici les anglais qui arrivent"... Something a Frenchwoman might say once a month. Edited by espejismo on 09 May 2012 at 11:12pm 5 persons have voted this message useful |
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