outcast Bilingual Heptaglot Senior Member China Joined 4949 days ago 869 posts - 1364 votes Speaks: Spanish*, English*, German, Italian, French, Portuguese, Mandarin Studies: Korean
| Message 1 of 7 11 June 2011 at 10:38pm | IP Logged |
I was wondering if there ever was a thread agout this before!!
What are common, cliche, or well-known pick up lines in different languages? Just in case not everyone here understand, in English a ''pick-up line'' is a short and colorful phrase that is usually over the top in flattery, that (mostly men), would use to impress or befriend a woman they meet for the first time, in order to start a conversation that could down the line lead to more than just a chat...
In fact, does every language have such things, since perhaps in many cultures approaching a woman like that is totally alien behavior?
If your language has some pick-up lines, it would be funny to see what they are and a literal translation!!
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B-Tina Tetraglot Senior Member Germany dragonsallaroun Joined 5527 days ago 123 posts - 218 votes Speaks: German*, English, French, Polish
| Message 2 of 7 12 June 2011 at 12:53pm | IP Logged |
"Hello."
Works in all languages I know.
(And if forum policy allowed smileys, here would be one.)
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Lugh Diglot Newbie Korea, South Joined 5419 days ago 10 posts - 13 votes Speaks: French*, English Studies: Korean
| Message 3 of 7 12 June 2011 at 2:06pm | IP Logged |
One of the most famous in French is: "T'as d'beaux yeux, tu sais !" (Lit. "You've got nice eyes, you know!") from Le Quai des Brumes an old black and white movie with Jean Gabin. (Most people do not remember where it comes from though...)
I'm sure there are many others but that's all I can think of as "cliché" pick-up line in French without going back to the sixties.
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Lucky Charms Diglot Senior Member Japan lapacifica.net Joined 6949 days ago 752 posts - 1711 votes Speaks: English*, Japanese Studies: German, Spanish
| Message 4 of 7 12 June 2011 at 2:29pm | IP Logged |
In Japanese it would be お嬢さん、お茶しない? "Hey, miss! You wanna go get some tea?"
It's not something people would actually say, but a cheesy cliché, something like the
English "Come here often?"
Japan has a very healthy "nanpa" (picking up girls) culture, which might be unexpected
considering they're not exactly known for their intimacy with strangers.
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kyssäkaali Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5553 days ago 203 posts - 376 votes Speaks: English*, Finnish
| Message 5 of 7 13 June 2011 at 3:57am | IP Logged |
Just learn the pick-up lines (iskurepliikki or iskurepla in Finnish) in this video and you're good to go:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rOSOZ4iBUkI
:DDD
Really though, I don't think such things are used much in Finnish, except jokingly. I imagine the only place they would get used is in a bar, and Finnish men approaching random unknown women in a bar are preeeetty likely to be drunk, and will using according drunk speech. In fact I just did a google search and most of the sites I found where people are talking about the subject aren't taking it seriously and are just making up their own ridiculous lines, ex. "jos tää ois pokemon , niin mä valitsisin sut" (if this were pokemon, i'd choose you).
I know for a fact that I would never used a pick-up like in my native language. Actually I honestly didn't think there was anywhere in the world where people still used them other than really old men. "Hello" works for me.
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Spanky Senior Member Canada Joined 5956 days ago 1021 posts - 1714 votes Studies: French
| Message 6 of 7 13 June 2011 at 5:29am | IP Logged |
In the Canadian language (spoken in Canada and in some parts of Newfoundland), it is
generally only women who use pick up lines, which invariably are some variant of "You
wish", pronounced generally in either the Cynical or Dismissive dialect. This is
considered an effective pick-up line because Canadian men are well-known to be unable to
resist a challenge, no matter how hopelessly outmatched.
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patuco Diglot Moderator Gibraltar Joined 7015 days ago 3795 posts - 4268 votes Speaks: Spanish, English* Personal Language Map
| Message 7 of 7 13 June 2011 at 11:31pm | IP Logged |
Unfortunately, this generally tends to go hand-in-hand with that awful condition known as "beergoggleitis", which causes the sufferer to utter "how drunk was I?" upon waking the following day and looking to their left (or right).
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