BootsnAll Travel Community

I recently learned that the Chinese character for America/USA is made up of "beautiful" and "country".

I'm not particularly patriotic, but I got a little misty-eyed over that.

And I've heard this more than once: Crisis = "danger" and "opportunity". I like that too.

Do you know any other words/translations like this? (They don't have to be Chinese )

Not quite the same thing, but in Italian there's an insult for Americans that most Americans won't get - "americani" is how to say "Americans," but I've heard some (not many, but some) Italians refer to us as "amari cani" - it sounds basically the same but means "bitter dogs." Ahem.

Thank goodness, I would have felt silly replying to my very own post.

That's exactly the type of thing I meant!

Here's one I saw (orignally posted by cayce) in the Tagalog thread...hope you don't mind cayce!

quote:

kaututang dila = a gossip

literal = farting tongue

I actually have a phrase-a-day calendar for Italian, and it produces some fabulous idiomatic expressions every so often - I usually post them on my blog, if for no other reason than I have nothing else to post that day. I'll keep an eye out for more, and post 'em here, too, next time!