Have the weirdest exclamations

Whenever I stub my toe, or feel angry and curse, or give out a happy exclamation, the thing is that it’s not usually in English unless I’m surrounded by English speakers. Generally these things come out of me in another language without me thinking twice about it, including if I’m alone.

For instance, if I hurt myself, instead of saying “Ow!” or “Ouch!” I’ll actually say Owa!! (as in German, written Aua) or ¡Ay! (in Latin America) depending on which language is lingering around in my brain at the time.

When I feel like cursing, I feel I can express it better with Spain‘s “¡¡Me cago en…!!” (with colourful continuations of that, including la leche, la puta que te parió, la Virgen, la hostia and more; it’s a pretty versatile phrase).

19. Translate weird expressions that shouldn’t be translated

I’ve got a pretty good way of not mixing up languages, but it isn’t perfect! As such, some will ooze into other ones, and this includes invasions into my English.

There are some things that you simply say all the time in other languages, but don’t in English.

For instance, the first weeks after coming back from Egypt and speaking Arabic, I found that any time I referred to the future, I was missing an “Inshallah”. As an atheist, I am hardly going to say “God willing” in English, but I did keep over-using a somewhat equivalent “Hopefully” – and way too much. “I’ll see you tomorrow at lunch time… hopefully!” “Next year the world cup will take place in Brazil… hopefully!” and other very odd uses.

Many languages also have a subjunctive form used to express hope that something will happen, whereas in English we just use an imperative. This means that I have awkwardly back-translated Spanish’s “¡Que te diviertas!” to “May you have fun!” and then realized how weird that sounds only after it has come out of my mouth.

Some individual words are really missing from English, and I use their weak translations even when I shouldn’t. For instance, the word “Si” in French or “Doch” in German means “Yes” when answering a negative question, to avoid confusion that you are contradicting what was said rather than the actual meaning of agreeing with it.

So I tend to overuse “Indeed!” in these situations in English. Aren’t you coming? Weren’t you already in that place? Can’t you swim? - indeed! This obviously doesn’t answer the question well at all! Indeed yes or indeed no??

Then there are the set expressions. I have actually said “To live like a king’s body!” (Vivir a cuerpo del rey – instead of to live like a king – what can I say, the Spanish one makes more sense, since a king’s mind has to worry about wars and famine and all that unpleasantness!)

Date: 2015-02-16; view: 806