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Carregando... I'm Not Hanging Noodles on Your Ears and Other Intriguing Idioms from Around the Worldde Jag Bhalla
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Registre-se no LibraryThing tpara descobrir se gostará deste livro. Ainda não há conversas na Discussão sobre este livro. Jam-packed with the little culture-through-language oddities I love learning about. A little more commentary interspersed throughout would have been nice, because the plain list format can get too tedious to read. (But preferably of the more almost-clinical, detached but interesting curator type, because sometimes the author's book and chapter introductions, though enthusiastic, can get a little... bombastic?) I like the themed chapters (colors, countries, etc.) but my beef with this is that idioms in the original language are not provided, just the English translations. It makes it hard to verify these with a native speaker. Still in the process of having the boyfriend confirm and translate the Chinese idioms, so I might actually be able to use them, and am tempted to have friends who major in German and French to look into theirs. Because though interesting to read about, if you try to use these idioms in their English versions, sometimes it doesn't translate back as clearly, and your attempt at showing off that you know these idioms just ends up with a confused local. (Of course, sometimes that's what people will do, they will unconsciously transliterate their local saying into English, and sometimes you get a vague sense of what they're trying to say.) So, original examples would have helped, but maybe that's a tall order. It *is* quite an expansive book already. Some of the idioms are repeated though, under different chapters. If you just want a peek at how the rest of the world thinks (the English "when pigs fly" is "when crawfish sing on the mountains" or "when frogs grow hair" elsewhere), this is nice to flip through. I'd recommend this as a bathroom book. I love words. I love reading about words. I have a favorite linguist (John McWhorter, for those who are interested), and never turn down a book that discusses language, whether it be English or a foreign one. Thus I was heartily excited to read I’m Not Hanging Noodles On Your Ears. Full review: http://libwen.wordpress.com/2010/04/21/im-not-hanging-noodles-on-your-ears-by-ja... sem resenhas | adicionar uma resenha
"I'm not hanging noodles on your ears." In Moscow, this curious, engagingly colorful assertion is common parlance, but unless you're Russian your reaction is probably "Say what?" The same idea in English is equally odd: "I'm not pulling your leg." Both mean: Believe me. As author Jag Bhalla demonstrates, these amusing, often hilarious phrases provide a unique perspective on how different cultures perceive and describe the world. Organized by theme--food, love, romance, and many more--they embody cultural traditions and attitudes, capture linguistic nuance, and shed fascinating light on "the whole ball of wax." For example, when English-speakers are hard at work, we're "nose to the grindstone," but industrious Chinese toil "with liver and brains spilled on the ground" and busy Indians have "no time to die." If you're already fluent in 10 languages, you probably won't need this book, but you'll "get a kick out of it" anyhow; for the rest of us, it's a must. Either way, this surprising, often thought-provoking little tome is gift-friendly in appearance, a perfect impulse buy for word lovers, travelers, and anyone else who enjoys looking at life in a riotous, unusual way. And we're not hanging noodles from your ear. Não foram encontradas descrições de bibliotecas. |
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Next time I put on makeup, I'll remember to say I'm sugaring my waffle (French). Other fun phrases are "Look like the Mona Lisa after a spanking" which is Czech for being poorly dressed and "Smoke belches from the seven openings on the head" which is Chinese for being very angry.
The author's commentary at the beginning of each chapter was the best part. He has a good sense of humor. His rant about the excesses of modern capitalism was surprising but interesting. ( )