Cool sayings from around the world (part 5)

During my travels around the world, I've discovered several interesting expressions from backpackers of various nationalities. One of my favourites is a Chinese saying involving strawberry blancmange, an industrial strength vacuum cleaner, and a Peter Stringfellow mask, but that's one that should probably go unmentioned.

However, most sayings from around the world can definitely be mentioned, and I've collected five of my favourites below for your international expressional pleasure.

1) "Tomorrow is often the busiest day of the week."

This cat's going to be really busy tomorrow.
He'll probably have to drink twice as much milk!

At first glance, I assumed this Spanish saying was an amusing way of saying that they procrastinate a lot in Spain.

However, apparently it's not intended to encourage laziness, and it's actually intended to do the opposite. It's basically a way of saying, "Do it now! Get stuff done today! Otherwise if you keep putting things off you'll just be twice as busy tomorrow."

On a related note, three weeks ago it was National Procrastination Day. Time to celebrate!

Five stupid sayings (part 6)

The English language has many cool sayings, but it also has quite a few silly sayings. This week the Charles Fudgemuffin blog takes a look at five more of those stupid sayings.

Donuts may be dumb, but they're also delicious!

1) As dumb as a day old donut

This was a saying that I first heard while watching Prison Break.

The obvious thought that comes to mind is why the need to specify that the donut is a day old? Is a fresh donut any more intelligent than a day old donut?

I'm pretty sure the donut was pretty dumb to begin with, even before it became a day old. If you were to conduct an IQ test on donuts of various ages, I'm pretty sure the relative intelligence levels would come out as equally stupid.

To be fair, I don't think I've heard anyone else say it, so perhaps it's just the character on Prison Break who was as dumb as a day old donut.

Cool sayings from around the world (part 4)

It's been a couple of years since I last featured cool sayings from around the world on the Charles Fudgemuffin blog, so let's make up for lost time with another round-up of amusing sayings used in various parts of the world. There are also a couple of wise proverbs thrown in there too.

1) "It's a carrot!"

A carrot.
Actually, I probably didn't need to point that out. It was obvious.
Or to put it another way ... it's a carrot!

A cool Korean saying which I like is, "It's a carrot!" which means, "That's obvious!" or "Of course!"

For example if a friend asked me if I was going to watch the football tomorrow, I might reply, "It's a carrot!" If I said that in English, people would think I'd gone mad, but if you said it in Korea they would know you meant, "Of course I'm going to watch the football!"

Apparently, the reason this saying developed is because the hangul* for 'It's a carrot' are quite similar to the hangul for 'Of course', so it started to be used as kind of a joke between friends.

* Korean alphabet characters.

Five stupid sayings (part 5)

The English language has many silly expressions, and I've highlighted some of those expressions before on the Charles Fudgemuffin blog.

This swan is certainly having a good go
at trying to wrap its head around it!

This week I add five more stupid sayings to that ever growing list of silly expressions.

1) "I can't wrap my head around it."

This is a saying which is used to mean, 'I can't understand it,' but taken literally it's a rather bizarre saying.

Of course you can't wrap your head around something. The toughness of the human skull kind of makes that a bit tricky!

Five stupid sayings (part 4)

In general I'm a big fan of the English language, but it does have it's quirks. For example, from time to time on the Charles Fudgemuffin blog I like to highlight silly English expressions, and here are a few more...

1) "He knows which side his bread is buttered."

Intelligence Test: Can you work out which side this bread is buttered?

This is a strange compliment which is used to mean, 'He is clever enough to understand what is best for his own self-interests.'  But I have to say, you don't exactly need to be a genius to tell which side your bread is buttered!

It's not that hard to work out.  You just look at the bread, you see which side the butter is on, then hey presto ... that's the side your bread is buttered.  To be blunt, if you couldn't work out which side your bread was buttered, you'd have to be a bit of an idiot!

10 cool Japanese words and expressions (part 2)

As I've pointed out several times before on the Charles Fudgemuffin blog, I'm a big fan of the Swedish language, but another language I think is pretty cool is Japanese.

As the 2020 Summer Olympics were originally scheduled to take place in Japan next week, that's therefore as good an excuse as any to feature anopther round-up of some of my favourite Japanese words and expressions.

"Bah! I'm too early! He's a not yet dead person."

1) Not yet...

One Japenese word which I find amusing is the word for 'widow'. The kanji symbols for widow literally translate as 'not yet dead person'.

I suppose that technically it's true, but I still can't help thinking it's an unusual way to describe a widow!

Wise and silly African proverbs

From time to time on the Charles Fudgemuffin blog I like to feature cool sayings from around the world, so on that theme, this week's blog post features a collection of African proverbs.

Some of the following African proverbs are very wise and meaningful, while others aren't quite so wise, and are just a bit silly. But which are silly, and which are wise? I'll let you decide...

Editor's note: For the benefit of stupid people, this is
not the actual sun. Merely an artistic representation.

1) "The same sun that melts the wax, also hardens the clay."

This is a clever way of saying that people react differently to similar circumstances. One person might use a difficult challenge to spur them on and achieve greatness. Another person might react to the same challenge negatively and use it as an excuse for failure.

I really like this African proverb and can imagine it being used in motivational talks, so you can probably guess which category I would place this proverb into. But what do you think?

Silly or wise?

Cool sayings from around the world (part 3)

From time to time on the Charles Fudgemuffin blog I like to take a look at languages and sayings from around the world, and this week once again it's one of those times as I round-up another five cool sayings from around the world in a blog post I've creatively entitled 'Cool sayings from around the world (part 3).

"Walk according to the length of your step."
But preferably, wear better fashion than this dude while doing so.

1) "Eat according to the limits of your provisions. Walk according to the length of your step."

When I think of Tibet I think of wise old monks, and this wise saying from Tibet reinforces that image. I suppose when you analyse it though, it's really just a fancy version of the English expression, 'Live within your means.'

The concept of debt and loans is something I've never seen the attraction of, so whichever version of the saying you use, I would definitely agree with this piece of excellent advice.

10 interesting Japanese words and expressions

From time to time on the Charles Fudgemuffin blog I take a look at interesting words and expressions from languages around the world, and this week it's the turn of Japanese...

"Hmm, who can I try out my new sword on?"

1) Swordsplay

An extremely worrying Japanese word is the word 'uji-giri' which means 'to try out a new sword on a random passer-by'!

Thankfully, 'uji-guri' isn't in common usage nowadays and dates back to ancient times, but I can only feel grateful that I didn't live in the ancient days of the samurai when such words were necessary!

Sayings from around the world (Valentine's Day special)

A Valentine's Day themed blog post.

When I was first learning Swedish I bought a Swedish phrase book and one of the things which surprised me was the 'Romance section' of the phrase book.

Incredibly, the phrase book included four expressions for how to tell a Swedish woman, 'Sorry, I'm not interested,' and only one phrase to express interest.  I have to say, whoever wrote the guide book must clearly have never have met any Swedish women, as all the Swedish women I've ever met would most definitely not prompt me to say, 'Sorry, I'm not interested.'

Anyway, although I'm not fluent in other languages, I nevertheless still find foreign sayings and expressions interesting, so in honour of Valentine's Day, here are a few romantic phrases from around the world...

Cool sayings from around the world (part 2)

A camel can't see its own hump, but it can see
its own tongue, as demonstrated by this rude camel.

Previously on the Charles Fudgemuffin blog I've featured a round-up of five 'Cool sayings from around the world'. However, after doing some research, it's come to light that the world in fact contains more than five cool sayings, so here are another five, featuring camels, cucumbers, and combs...

1) "A camel cannot see its own hump."

This is an old African saying which is basically a way of saying we can see the faults in others, but not our own faults.

I can totally agree with this, because I know quite a few people with loads of faults who are always criticising others ... unlike myself. #irony

I don't know of an English saying with the exact same meaning, but I suppose a vaguely related expression would be, 'The pot calling the kettle black.'

Five stupid sayings (part 3)

Previously on the Charles Fudgemuffin blog I've taken a look at various silly sayings found in the English language. There are many more stupid Engish sayings though, so here are five more, focusing on the themes of insect anatomy, poor Geography and unusual precipitation.

"Look at the knees on that bee! Wow! Amazing!"

1) The bee's knees

This is a weird English saying which refers to something which is excellent or outstanding. However, if you ask me, knees aren't particularly impressive, and if I was to be impressed by a pair of knees then I very much doubt that they would belong to a bee!

There are various theories on how this saying originated, but the most plausible is that the saying originated as 'the be all and end all'. This was then shortened to 'the Bs and Es', and if you say this really fast it sounds a bit like 'the bee's knees'.

So it's not as stupid as it sounds after all!  Although, admittedly it's still quite stupid.

Cool sayings from around the world

Another slice of wisdom from the four corners of the planet.

Previously on the Charles Fudgemuffin blog, I've focused on cool sayings from places like Sweden and Korea. This week I expand the net wider and feature a selection of cool quotes from all around the world.

An elephant, best eaten by the whole village,
according to the African saying.

1) "The best way to eat an elephant is to invite the whole village along."

As you can probably work out, this is an African saying* and it's promoting the merits of teamwork.  It basically means it's a lot easier to succeed when you work together than when you work on your own.

* You don't get many elephants in England.

2) "A Raisin in a sausage."

This is a Norwegian expression which refers to a nice surprise in something which was already enjoyable. Although it's not an exact match, the closest English expression would probably be 'the icing on the cake' which for the benefit of any Norwegian readers loosely translates as 'a raisin in a sausage.' It basically means 'the best part of something which was already excellent.'

Five stupid sayings (part 2)

Five more English expressions which may seem a little weird to foreign speakers...

A few months ago I highlighted a few weird English sayings which seem perfectly normal to me as an English person, but when you analyse them they perhaps might seem strange to speakers of other languages. Here's another collection of unusual words and expressions found in the English language...

1) "Egg and soldiers."

Soldiers and soldiers. Can you spot the difference?

On my latest travels I met an English girl and a French girl, and one day the English girl ordered 'egg and soldiers' for breakfast. The French girl responded with a blank look and questioned what 'soldiers' were, so the English girl then explained that the toast was cut into 'soldiers'. The French girl quite sensibly asked why we called them soldiers and the English girl replied, "Because they look like soldiers." However, when you think about it they look nothing like soldiers. They look like rectangular pieces of toast.

If you look at the side by side comparison pictured in the photo, I'm sure you'll agree that there's very little resembance at all.

Five stupid sayings (part 1)

English expressions which may seem a little strange to foreign speakers.

Sshhh!! Don't wake the baby.

Previously on this blog I've highlighted some of the sayings and expressions in other languages (such as Swedish and Korean) which may seem a little weird to English speakers, but once you analyse them they make perfect sense.

This week I'm going to take a look at a few English sayings, but unlike the logical Swedish and Korean expressions, the following English expressions don't really make much sense at all...

1) "I slept like a baby."

Rather bizarrely, this expression is used to indicate that you had a relaxing night's sleep. However, from most of the parents I've spoken to, 'sleeping like a baby' would more accurately suggest that you woke up every couple of hours crying your eyes out for no apparent reason.