What is your favorite expression in a foreign language? And what does it mean when translated?

Veni Vidi Verdi : I came, I saw, Aida Oh, OK. Probably "Que sera, sera". What will be, will be. I took Spanish for 7 years and spoke it fluently for a while. It was great being in Europe and speaking Spanish, being taken for a non-American. Prices came down quite a bit, and I was treated much more nicely than my compatriots were.

Can't say I have any favourite expressions in any language.

I like the word "estrenar" from Spanish. It means various things, but the idea is "to show something off." So you can say "Do you like this shirt? It is the first time I am wearing it and I am pretty proud of it," without all that explanation. It's also used for "housewarming." I think it's a pretty cool word. I'm also fond of "Apres moi, le deluge," which literally means "After me, the flood," because it's such a great image. And I'm also fond of the expression in Spanish "Como te cae el?" meaning, literally, "How does he fall on you?" In English we say "How does he strike you?" which is very similar, but I'd never thought about the meaning behind it until I learned the Spanish phrase.

ITALIAN: "Ti voglio tanto bene" or "Ti voglio bene" It means "I love you very much." but not in caring sense, like a parent says to a child.
KOREAN: "ah nyoung ha se yo" it can mean "good morning/good afternoon/good evening/ or the general hello.
GERMAN: Guten tag! "Good Day" I just love it in German

I don't really have a favourite expression in a foreign language, but I am reminded of something a friend of mine observed with regard to French vs English. The English phrase "four-letter word" in french is "mot a cinc lettres", which essentially means "five-letter word." He offered this as evidence that English is 20% more efficient than French!

caudex! It means "idiot" in Latin

I don't think it would be very appropriate on a family site like this one

poisson sans boisson est poison **not actually my FAVORITE phase, but I like it because of how close the nouns sound .. it means 'fish without drink is poison' ...

Dame cabeza or Vidi Vichi Veni.

Nos moritori te salutamus. We who are about to die salute you. (forgive the misremembered spelling from 9th grade Latin)

"oehrwurm" (from German): "earworm," literally, but it means those songs that get stuck in your head that you can't ever get rid of. I'm also rather partial to "schadenfreude," the shameful joy you get when watching horrible things happen to people and enjoying it for some reason (slapstick comedy, "America's Most Brutally Crippling Home Videos," etc. Not that I like those in particular, but they're examples of what causes this.)

"sumomo mo momo mo momo no uchi" this is a grammatically correct Japanese sentence that sounds ridiculous (which is why i like it). It means "Plums and Peaches are among the Peach Family". Silly. I also like "BAKA", another Japanese word meaning "Stupid, Idiot, Dumb Ass, Fool, etc...". Always a fun word ^_^

I have two, actually; both Russian (Transliterated because not everyone has cyrillic font): Na chuzhoy karavay rot nye rasyevay - It is best not to open your mouth wide at the sight of your neighbor's loaf. AND Staraya lyoobov' nye rzhavyeyet - Old love does not rust.

Vas te faire foutre, which is French for "Go f-ck yourself" Ah, the things you learn from grade 8 french teachers... :)

Owa Tagu Siam.

".e'enai ko mi batci" - Lojban for "bite me" with the added suggestion that you are not up to the task.

I forget what it is in Russian, but someone once taught me to say "Eat me, I am a Twinkie" for an LRPG. hee hee also, my sister used to come into my room and say "Isabel, levantate!" to get me out of bed. (That's Spanish for Elizabeth, get up!)

Du ar knapp (literally: you're buttons; idiomatically: you're crazy)

Zeitgeist - the spirit of the time. (German) It's one of the few instances where German is more concise than English.

I am very upset that I can't remember the phrase, just the translation... "Eat me, I am a Twinkie" in Russian.

You mean non-english? English is foreign for me, but I like some of the English expression that have a difficult translation to Spanish. I specially like the expression "muddling along", b'cos describes very shortly my life style.

Quod Erat Demonstrandum, baby. :)

Fleigunde kinderschisse - Flying babycrap!

"Bizdyelniki zhivut plokha." It's Russian and means "Loafers live poorly." I just love the sound of it. By the way, this seems a good time to tell the story of when my husband was watching Channel V, "the number one music channel in all Asia." They speak primarily Mandarin, with occasional smatterings of English and Japanese (e.g. mandarinmandarinmandarin Billboard Top 200 mandarinmandarin). Like any truly multilingual person, the VJs will occasionally switch languages to express a thought that's best expressed in one particular language, and Tom described an occasion when they were flying along in Mandarin and then switched into English for "and of course they were all wearing black." I like it that my native language is the one best suited to express the sentiment "and of course they were all wearing black."

I lived in Germany for a while when I was a kid. I love the fact that when foreigners try to say that they are cold, they usually construct it as "Ich bin kalt," which really means "I am dead." (the correct phrase to indicate that you're cold is "Ich friere mich"). Also, one time soon after we arrived in Germany, my family was standing on the overlook of a castle on a hill at sunset, commenting to each other in English on the surrounding landscape; we especially couldn't get over the majestic-looking mist swirling around in the valley. We got some dirty looks from the people around us, because "mist" means crap in German. **steve: that is so perfect :)

semper ubi sub ubi = always wear underwear

Ubi dubitas, ex flagellatum. When in doubt, whip it out. (I just thought it was cute) oh! actually, ausflippen which is real honest-to-G-d German for 'to flip out'. The cool thing is it's a seperable verb so if you were, say, ask someone "Shall we flip out now?" it would be "Flipen-wir aus jetz?" or in the past tense, "He really flipped out!" "Er wirklich ausgeflippt!" (apologies if I mangled the conjugations. I didn't take that much German) LELLE: phonetically, kushy minya, ya Twinkie

"Nolite te bastardes carborundorum" - Latin for "Don't let the bastards wear you down". From _A Handmaid's Tale_

I have no idea how to spell it and can only remember part of it, but it was swedish for 'soon there will be no cheese on the moon'. it seemed like a good phrase, I think it may have originated with another survey central user..

at the moment? "svaha". I believe it is some amerindian language's term for "the period of time between when you see the lightning and when you hear the thunder," roughly equivalent to but more evocative than "waiting for the other shoe to drop," but I read it in a novel and so it might be fictional. No, wait, time has passed: "monton pila burujon puniado"(sp?) which is Cuban slang for "a whole bunch" and just *sounds* neat. No, wait, time has passed: "My hovercraft is full of eels", which is the translation for a phrase I have learned in various foreign languages, because I love the look on people's faces when I excitedly ask them how to say it in a new language. No, wait, time has passed: "sheHeHyanu," a Hebrew word that is part of a prayer recited the first time some ritually important act is performed in a new year, used in my family at least to mean "hey, this is the first time {I, you} have done this [or first time in a while] and I think that's cool and praiseworthy." No, wait, time has passed... Basically, I don't *have* a favorite phrase and can't imagine having one.

"On ne voit bien qu'avec le coeur. L'essentiel est invisible pour les yeux." One cannot see well except with the heart; the essential is invisible to the eyes. (From Le Petit Prince.)

carpe diem
seize the day

I don't have one.

> I don't have one.

OMG eloradanan! No one but we two has been here since 1998!!

Besides us, only Pomeranian and Bill still visit the site!

That's probably because I was going through all the badly rated surveys before I created any of my own. I wanted to find out what not to do when I created my first survey so I wouldn't make the same mistakes.

Oh! Smart move!

Thanks. It's also interesting to watch some of the people that were here early on & see how they have changed over the years.

I guess I qualify as one of the oldies to watch?

Yes, I guess so, but there are those who have been here since the late 1990's. I'm guessing that's when this site was created. I've had my eye on one person in particular. He's changed a lot over the years. His surveys have gotten better & he seems to have a better control over his temper now. A large number of the badly rated surveys were by him.

Who? Romkey?


Hey! I just changed my user page image - tell me what you think!

No, someone named Frostbrand. He & another person named kaleb really went at each other in their comments at times.

Nice picture. I really like the necklace you're wearing.

Thanks! I just noticed the cleavage - I think I'll crop that out.

Yeah Frostbrand is Brian - he has grown up somewhat and Kaleb doesn't come here anymore - he was from Australia and as red-necked as any good American can be!

Is Brian a teenager? He seemed to come across as one in a lot of his earlier comments.

What's wrong with cleavage? I don't think you're showing too much if that's your concern.

Well, this is Survey Central now you know...

Brian is rather young yes - he must be in his early 20s now...

Now you can't see all of that pretty necklace.

True!

So where's your picture??

If he's in his early 20's now, then he must have been a teen when he started here. He seems very political.

I think it's part of his education... I forget what he studies now.

I don't have any way to post one at this time. I don't have a scanner, but I may get one in the future. I'm planning to get a new computer in the next couple of years and high speed too. Dialup sucks in so many ways.

I hear ya - get a digital camera instead of a scanner! Much more convenient.

I wouldn't be surprised to find out that he's studying political science.

Something like that...

I hadn't thought about that.

There as inexpensive as scanners and more versatile.

With his interest in politics, it would seem to be a natural career choice for him.

You can ask him.

That's true. You can't take pictures with a scanner.

Yes, I suppose I could.

Yep! Well I'll bid you goodnight! It was nice talking to you - I'll catch you tomorrow?

Most likely. I enjoyed talking with you too. Goodnight.

'Nite!

actually i'm not English,so English is a foreign language for me..there is a poem in Farsi,my language which i love,my friend has composed it himself,it is:درخت دافعه دارد که سیب می افتد/وگرنه هر سقوط نشان جاذبه نیست"
the translation:"the tree avoids an apple to drop onto the earth,so not all falls mean earth's appeal to the apple.."(it's somehow against Newton's law)

I don't have one.