Have you ever wondered how to translate proverbs into other languages? Are the same concepts used, or totally different ones? Well, the answer is that some are, whereas others are totally different.
In German, ‘wir haben alle unsere Kreuz zu tragen’ is a direct translation of the English ‘we all have our cross to bear’. ‘To put all one’s eggs in one basket’ however does not involve eggs nor baskets in German. The expression is ‘alles auf eine Karte setzen’ (to put everything on one card).
When it comes to animals, sometimes different animals are used. ‘Don’t count your chickens before they are hatched’ becomes ‘one should not sell the bear’s fur before killing him’ in German (‘Man soll das Fell des Bären nicht verkaufen, ehe man ihn erlegt hat’).
This is not just applicable to German; in English we say ‘let sleeping dogs lie’ whereas in French ‘don’t wake up the cat who is sleeping’ (‘Il ne faut pas reveiller le chat qui dort’).
Sometimes animals are not involved in both languages. You don’t ‘teach your grandmother to suck eggs’ in English becomes ‘you can’t teach an old monkey to pull faces’ in French (‘Ce n’est pas à un vieux singe qu’on apprend à faire des grimaces’).
Knowing sayings in another language is part of being fluent in that language. You can even buy dictionaries of idioms! Understanding a saying in another language requires more than knowing what individual words mean. A foreigner might understand all the words taken separately, but would they necessarily understand what it means to ‘kick the bucket’? Language is so rich, it is about more than just words….. Go on why not try a new language I can help with German, Spanish, French and Italian.