Favorite Non-English Phrases

[purple_pockets]

Ever since I started learning Spanish, I have come across some cool phrases. If you know any cool ones, please post it here!

No sé y no me importa
Translation:

I don't know and I don't care

I wish I could tell some of my teachers this next one

No me gusta escuchar a las maestros aburridos
Translation:

I don't like to listen to boring teachers.

p.s. If there are any greivous grammatical errors, please let me know and I will correct it. Thanks!

[Rewritten Ennui]

你的媽媽上大學! (Nǐde māmā shàng dàxué!)

Your mom goes to college!

我來了. (Wǒ láile.)

I came.

Of course, those phrases mean nothing in Chinese. It's sort of a joke among my classmates to ask our Chinese teacher how to translate English insults into Chinese. She'll say it, we all snicker like the immature little kids we are, and then she'll tell us that a native speaker wouldn't understand what's so funny about saying "your mom." Still, I shouted "Nǐde māmā!" at the Korean class during our foreign language baseball games. We lost anyways D:

[Mink]

Stercus accidit, which is (apparently) Latin for

'shit happens.'

My friend knew how to say, "I'm having a party in my pants and you're invited" in French, but I can't remember how to say it. D:

[LateWhiteRabbit]

El burro sabe más que tú.

So fun to say. Ever since learning it 15 years ago I've been waiting for a contextually appropriate situation to use it in. Maybe shouted during an argument over who got us lost in the desert and if it's time to eat the donkey yet.

[lordcloudx]

My favorite non-english phrase is kawaii -- especially when it's used online. It's so fun to see all the rage it incites from l337 JLPT personz

[purple_pockets]

@Mink: You have got to be kidding me! I am going to have to say that at school. I won't get in trouble because no one will know what I am talking about.

@LastWhiteRabbit: That is so neat! I love oddball things like that. It would make great comic relief in a visual novel. My mom is now wondering what I am laughing at.

EDIT: I am half tempted to add those things to my signature...

I know this is unrelated, but I have no idea where to post this question:

Does anyone know how to upload images from your computer for your avatar? I look at the box, and all I see is a URL spot. Does this mean that the image has to be from a website?

[Omnificent]

The only thing I ever took from my days of learning French:

Ta mère est un croque monsieur.
Your mother is a grilled cheese sandwich.

[LateWhiteRabbit]

I know this is unrelated, but I have no idea where to post this question:

Does anyone know how to upload images from your computer for your avatar? I look at the box, and all I see is a URL spot. Does this mean that the image has to be from a website?

You need to upload the image you want as your avatar to image hosting site or somewhere on-line and then link to it. I use Imageshack myself. It's free. Though I could also use my FTP space I have for my website or my blog.

To Omnificent:
It is always the insane and weird phrases we remember, isn't it?

As my Spanish phrase attests, I have an odd habit of mostly only remembering insulting phrases from foreign languages.

For instance, after studying some Arabic in the military (for obvious purposes), all I can remember how to say now is the Arabic equivalent of "Your mother had sexual relations with a camel!" Which, you know, is very unhelpful, except for giving someone an excuse to shoot you.

From Japanese (which I know better than most languages), I always remember most readily the curses or how to tell someone to, ahem, "Go *!%@ [themselves]". And Battle Royale 2 the movie taught me so many curses because I think over half the movie was just cursing. I mean, I learned some just by context as the characters shouted them over and over again in frustration throughout the entire hour and half.

So, ahem, what I'm saying is don't ever use me as your translator guys. I'll just tell that bar tender in Mexico that a donkey knows more than he does when you ask me to order you a drink.

[tuna_sushi]

I kept rewinding if I hear "punyi punyi"
(squishy)

in VNs or animes, I kept rewinding and rolling on the floor -_-

[Weakjounin]

屌你老母

The reason this is funny is due to the diversity of the meaning of the first word.

In Hong Kong, we use the phrase as fuck your mom. In taiwan, the first word is used as cool. The first word itself means dick. So translated word by word would be "dick your mom"

[Sapphi]

I remember in our Spanish book in high school, we had a group of phrases to study that followed a certain theme. IIRC, this came from a part in the book where some friends were talking about going out for a night on the town.

¡Un momento! ¡No podemos irnos sin Luís!

Wait a minute! We can't leave without Luis!

We had a lot of fun yelling that dramatically.

Also, my Russian book has TONS of funny phrases. My favorite is just funny because it's an early example with limited vocabulary, and Comrade Ivanov sounds like a pretty cool guy:

Это товарищ Иванов. Вы физик или химик, товарищ Иванов? Я не физик и я не химик. Я врач. И я профессор.

This is Comrade Ivanov. Are you a physicist or a chemist, Comrade Ivanov? I am not a physicist and I am not a chemist. I am a doctor. And I am a professor.

[Rewritten Ennui]

屌你老母

The reason this is funny is due to the diversity of the meaning of the first word.

In Hong Kong, we use the phrase as fuck your mom. In taiwan, the first word is used as cool. The first word itself means dick. So translated word by word would be "dick your mom"

Oh my, I'm almost glad my teacher never taught us that word I think that the worst she's ever taught us is "我要吃你的豆腐 (Wǒ yāo chī nǐde dòufu)," literally meaning "I want to eat your tofu." However, she said that the term was slang for taking advantage of someone.

She didn't tell us that it meant something sexual though D: My sisters had to tell me that...

[Weakjounin]

屌你老母

The reason this is funny is due to the diversity of the meaning of the first word.

In Hong Kong, we use the phrase as fuck your mom. In taiwan, the first word is used as cool. The first word itself means dick. So translated word by word would be "dick your mom"

Oh my, I'm almost glad my teacher never taught us that word I think that the worst she's ever taught us is "我要吃你的豆腐 (Wǒ yāo chī nǐde dòufu)," literally meaning "I want to eat your tofu." However, she said that the term was slang for taking advantage of someone.

She didn't tell us that it meant something sexual though D: My sisters had to tell me that...

I read it as I want to eat your tofu, but no idea about the other meanings

sexual or taking advantage of someone

I'm no expert in chinese slang, since I don't come from a region that speaks mandarin a lot (despite me being able to speak it quite well), I come from a place that speaks cantonese and even then I don't know much slang since I go to school in switzerland
which brings me to another phrase that we put onto a t-shirt
the t-shirt says "Big Bite" with a hot dog next to it.

bite is french for dick.

[Elze]

Oh my, I'm almost glad my teacher never taught us that word I think that the worst she's ever taught us is "我要吃你的豆腐 (Wǒ yāo chī nǐde dòufu)," literally meaning "I want to eat your tofu." However, she said that the term was slang for taking advantage of someone.

She didn't tell us that it meant something sexual though D: My sisters had to tell me that...

I've never heard anyone use that phrase before though. It's not like molesters will go around saying "I want to molest you". It's more common to hear the phrase 他偷吃我的豆腐, which literally means he stole a bite of my tofu, and means "he took advantage of me (molested me)", or 他想偷吃我的豆腐, which means "he's trying to take advantage of me".

[Rewritten Ennui]

Oh my, I'm almost glad my teacher never taught us that word I think that the worst she's ever taught us is "我要吃你的豆腐 (Wǒ yāo chī nǐde dòufu)," literally meaning "I want to eat your tofu." However, she said that the term was slang for taking advantage of someone.

She didn't tell us that it meant something sexual though D: My sisters had to tell me that...

I've never heard anyone use that phrase before though. It's not like molesters will go around saying "I want to molest you". It's more common to hear the phrase 他偷吃我的豆腐, which literally means he stole a bite of my tofu, and means "he took advantage of me (molested me)", or 他想偷吃我的豆腐, which means "he's trying to take advantage of me".

Well, it had something to do with the eating of tofu D: She brought this up randomly during one of our lessons, and it was a really long time ago. All I remember is her telling us that "吃豆腐" had another meaning other than its literal meaning. Damn me for going to kindergarten and forgetting how to speak my original dialect. I feel so illiterate in Chinese class :C America, why you do this to me?