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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 |  | |
| Marikki Tetraglot Senior Member Finland Joined 5498 days ago 130 posts - 210 votes  Speaks: Finnish*, English, Spanish, Swedish Studies: German | Message 57 of 74 11 June 2012 at 4:14pm | IP Logged | |||||
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In Finland, when you see a new gadget or hear of some new technical innovation and want to express that “Yes, I am impressed …but is this really necessary?” you’d say ”Kaikkea se saksalainen keksii!” which means something like ”Oh, all those things that Germans invent...”
Generally Finns love gadgets and technology so in most cases this should probably be understood a little bit more like an expression of admiration than disapproval. Edited by Marikki on 11 June 2012 at 4:29pm 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| Cavesa Triglot Senior Member Czech Republic Joined 5012 days ago 3277 posts - 6779 votes Speaks: Czech*, FrenchC2, EnglishC1 Studies: Spanish, German, Italian | Message 58 of 74 12 June 2012 at 9:32pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Pije jak Dán. -drinks like a Danish (a lot.)
Poturčenec horší Turka.-a person who converted to islam and Turkey is acting worse than a Turkish (applies to most turncloaks) Cikánská sprcha. -the gipsy shower, the same as puerto rican shower To je pro mě španělská vesnice. -It's a Spanish village to me. I don't know anything about it. And if I remember correctly, one kind of a cockroach (the huge ones) is called Rus (the russian). Makat jak barevnej. -Work hard like a negro. I cannot remember any such about the Polish but we have jokes about the language. (I recently wrote a few to another thread). And a lot of sayings about gipsies, of course. There are many of the non-offensive ones, such as švédský stůl (Swedish table-bufet), etc. 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| Medulin Tetraglot Senior Member Croatia Joined 4671 days ago 1199 posts - 2192 votes Speaks: Croatian*, English, Spanish, Portuguese Studies: Norwegian, Hindi, Nepali | Message 59 of 74 13 June 2012 at 10:42am | IP Logged | |||||
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A Brazilian Portuguese expression: ''para inglês ver'' (for Englishman to see)
is used for things (like laws) which exist, but neither enforcement or obedience is expected in real life. (The nearest equivalent would be ''pro forma'') . ;)] Things that look nice on a paper, and you can tell foreigners ''we have this in Brazil too''. Like LEI SECA (''alcohol prohibition law''). So, when the English visited Brazil, Brazilians were more formal and serious, therefore the expression ''para inglês ver'' (for Englishman to see) . When they left, the partying was on. Edited by Medulin on 13 June 2012 at 10:47am 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Gorgoll2 Senior Member Brazil veritassword.blogspo Joined 5149 days ago 159 posts - 192 votes Speaks: Portuguese* | Message 60 of 74 24 June 2012 at 10:34pm | IP Logged | |||||
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There´s a brazilian slang: "baitola", which means homossexual. It was created because
English engineers misspelled the word "bitola" - It´s an iron piece in Portuguese. But, in general Brazilian people only mock Portugal, Argentina and Paraguay. Brazil is a very huge country: We prefer mock different regions. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Rykketid Diglot Groupie Italy Joined 4836 days ago 88 posts - 146 votes Speaks: Italian*, English Studies: French | Message 61 of 74 16 July 2012 at 2:55pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Well for example I don't understand why Americans call chips "French fries".
Here in Italy we call roller-coasters "montagne russe" too. Wikipedia says that the first roller-coasters were really built in Russia. Moreover the sponge cake is called pan di Spagna (Spanish bread) here, while in Spain it is just called bizcochuelo. Just to remain in the culinary field, we have a cake which is called zuppa inglese (English soup) which is not a soup and is 100% Italian. Furthermore, I found out that both English and Italian have the so-called Turkish toilet (la turca in Italian), and I'm really curious to know if Turks claim it to be their invention. Plus, we don't use the wrench but the English key (chiave inglese). The one I find the funniest and I hope not to hurt anyone's feelings, is that there is a sexual practice that we call "spagnola" and in Spain they call it "cubana". No idea of how it is called in Cuba :-P --- I've seen that someone also posted some idiomatic expressions, so I'm going to do the same: Fumare come un turco---> to smoke like a Turk (to smoke a lot) Essere puntuale come un(o) (orologio) svizzero--->To be as punctual as a Swiss (or a Swiss watch) (a person who's always punctual and turns up not one minute earlier, not one minute later). Parlare/scrivere arabo---> to speak/to write in Arabic, Arabic stands for something incomprehensible. --- Ok, I know that some of them are not negative traits but they seemed nice to mention. Edited by Rykketid on 17 July 2012 at 8:44am 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| iguanamon Pentaglot Senior Member Virgin Islands Speaks: Ladino Joined 5265 days ago 2241 posts - 6731 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, Portuguese, Haitian Creole, Creole (French) | Message 62 of 74 16 July 2012 at 6:53pm | IP Logged | |||||
@Medulin is absolutely correct in the meaning of the phrase, but I found its origin quite interesting. I learned that the origin of the phrase dates to the time when the British were enforcing the abolition of the slave trade from Africa. The Brazilian government had just borrowed a large amount of money from the British in order to pay off Portugal after independence. Britain had outlawed the slave trade and the Royal Navy was the enforcer of this law on the high seas. Still, slavery was viewed as being important to the Brazilian economy of the time and slavery continued to exist despite British pressure to abolish it. As a compromise, Brazil was obliged to adopt its own law against the slave trade in 1831. The government generally overlooked the importation of slaves from Africa despite the pro-forma law in place. Hence the origin of the phrase a law "for the English to see".
source: http://www.escribacafe.com/podcast-lxix-brasil-parte-2-o-imp erio/ transcrição- audio and transcript. Edited by iguanamon on 16 July 2012 at 7:01pm 3 persons have 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 63 of 74 16 July 2012 at 7:11pm | IP Logged | |||||
Hmmm, I think I know what you're talking about. In Polish it's the same as in Italian "Hiszpan". 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 64 of 74 16 October 2012 at 10:43am | IP Logged | |||||
In Cuba, it's referred to as "hacer una española" :P 1 person has voted this message useful |
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