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Pull the (Franco-German) wool over your eyes
Sometimes, all it takes is for a politician to let slip one comment about another country for Europe to be plunged once again into a new war of words. Who has taken their oath too far - and how do you express that sentiment in other European languages? Idiom of the week
tower of babel, angela merkel, germany, foreign policy, expressions, politics, françois hollande
Czech Republic vs. Chechnya
For us Spaniards, it’s easy to confuse the German for 'German' - 'Deutsch' - and the nationality of the 'Dutch', or the words ‘sueco’ (Swedish) and ‘suizo’ (Swiss). In a continent as rich as we live in, it’s easy to match its languages, identities and traditions with confusions (although football can help)
tower of babel, switzerland, czech republic, translation, culture, language
Bersani brings random (jaguar) metaphors to Italian politics
How do you define making the impossible possible? Italy’s centre-left leader is up for the rather incomprehensive idea of 'knocking the spots off a jaguar' to work hard, whilst the Poles are happy to 'bring trees to the forest'. Metaphors and idioms of futility of the week
German 'FDP' political party followed by Portugal’s 'SOBs'
From one day to the next in early February, Germany’s liberal ‘free democratic party’ had 30, 000 more twitter followers. The rise was attributed to Portuguese twitterers who may have thought they were following an insult page, since they use the abbreviation ‘FDP’ to say filho da puta - aka ‘son of a bitch’
How to shut people up across Europe
I am an exile in a foreign land. I am misunderstood by the clueless expressions of a Frenchman who is insensitive to my efforts in perfecting the nasal sound. It's happened to everyone; that fervent desire to make someone shut up coupled with the lack of appropriate vocabulary
Throwing in the towel
Was Pope Benedict listening to the German indie-rock band Tocotronic’s latest album, ‘Surrender’, when he decided he was done with same-sex marriage, contraception and abortion, and promptly announced his resignation for 28 February 2013?
tower of babel, religion, expressions, society, pope benedict xvi, language
Procrastination (...we'll find European idioms for it later)
'Procrastination is the thief of time', sigh the Brits, borrowing the expression from 17th century poet Edward Young while browsing facebook and making yet another cup of tea - all to delay the moment of engaging with the task at hand. Fortunately, we’re not the only nation inclined to put things off until tomorrow, giving rise to a range of eclectic idioms for the lackadaisical
tower of babel, university, work, lifestyle, idioms, expressions, languages
Tightening the belt
As we enter the fifth year of economic downturn in 2013, Europeans keep ‘tightening their belts’ whilst agreeing that they live ‘in a period of lean cows’ – idiom of the week
tower of babel, money, eurozone, religion, united kingdom, agriculture, idioms
European words of 2012
Onnishambles, Rettungsroutine and l'esodato - read on to see how some of these European words of 2012 inevitable define the course of a turbulent, crisis-shaken year
tower of babel, barack obama, european union, economical crisis, ecology, mitt romney, twitter
Play gooseberry
'What the law does not forbid doing, decency forbids'. A debate about decency and morality in the 21st century seems as frumpy as this quote from the Roman poet Ovid. But in the German language there is a relic of public morality that has survived: 'Der Anstandswauwau' is the 'decency-doggie’ who is playing third wheel on your date. European idiom of the week
Bogeyman and his European friends
El Coco in Spain, Black Pete in the Netherlands, the croque-mitaine in France and the Butzemann in Germany - this band of amorphous beings and monsters are closely related to the Anglo-Saxon Bogeyman who is evoked by adults to ensure children comply with their rules
'Choosy' unemployed Italians
'Stay hungry, stay choosy' was the reply of young Italians to the gaffe made by the welfare minister Elsa Fornero, when she invited lazy young citizens to stop being so ‘choosy’ – a term she even made the effort to pronounce in English, instead of the Italian ‘schizzinosi’ – about working
'Bomeur': stay unemployed, stay bourgeois in France
The crisis gave birth to a flourishing set of neologisms, with one in particular coming out of the French horizon to encapsulate the sense of being unemployed, being inactive and still maintaining a classy way of life. Meet the 'bourgeous unemployed' people of Paris, and their European cousins
tower of babel, lifestyle, economical crisis, paris, unemployment, job seekers, youth
What's in an Israeli name?
If you have any Israeli friends on your facebook lists, there's a good chance you're slightly confused in recent months as to who exactly they are, as their last names have morphed into new, confusing, and sometimes rather long ones. The inspiration was a Hebrew-speaking 'event', initially planned for a week, which has since been extended until May 2013
tower of babel, jews, politics, social networks, culture, israel, society
‘Swag’, an intrinsically French quality
Since 2011 (avant-gardistes will argue 2010), the English slang expression ‘swag’, which is used to lift the term ‘cool’ a little higher, has been used in France at an alarming rate
tower of babel, william shakespeare, street art, france, language
Like a bat out of hell
How do different European expressions convey that feeling of rushing around at hurried top speed? You’d need a stellar beastly cast of a tarantula, bat, devil, cat and pig to explain yourself across the languages. Idiom of the week
tower of babel, belarus, idioms, minsk, expressions, animals, languages
Untranslatable words of 'longing' across Europe
‘Saudade’ and ‘hüzün’ have become famous untranslatable words. They are deeply set in their given cultures, revealing the specific nature and emotion of being Portuguese or Turkish, whilst, simultaneously becoming literary phenomenons. The more ‘longing’ is expressed by these words in point, the more difficult it is to translate them
tower of babel, germany, orhan pamuk, slovenia, stamboul, romania
Builder’s bum
The Germans have been delighting at the ‘builder’s cleavage’ of such poster boys as Prince Harry photographed naked in Las Vegas or topless prime minister Vladimir Putin hunting a tiger in Russia’s wild. How does the exposed expression translate across Europe?
Beat around the bush
No other Yiddish word is probably more used in the German language than ‘Tacheles’. The variation of ‘Tachles’ comes from the Hebrew word ‘Tachlit’ meaning aim or objective. In German the saying ‘Tacheles reden’ means ‘get to the point’ - defying that other idiom of 'cats going around the porridge...'
Tax the lookers
Japanese economist Takuro Morinaga labels the rare specimen of ‘ikemen’, or ‘cool attractive guys’, as being detrimental to the wider social and economic problems of society. If the hotties are getting all the girls, charge them - maybe could it work for the eurozone? Phrase of the week
tower of babel, italy, japan, economical crisis, germany, tax, multilingualism
