From: mdhangton@gmail.com   
      
   On Monday, September 29, 2014 6:44:08 PM UTC-4, John F. Eldredge wrote:   
   > On Fri, 26 Sep 2014 20:15:24 -0700, William Vetter wrote:   
   >    
   >    
   >    
   > > On Wednesday, September 24, 2014 10:54:52 PM UTC-4, Jymesion wrote:   
   >    
   > >    
   >    
   > >> Chinese - it's like ghost script   
   >    
   > >>    
   >    
   > >> Cantonese - it's like chicken intestines   
   >    
   > >>    
   >    
   > > I believe that these are references to Western alphabetic writing, and   
   >    
   > > not general as including speech or technical jargon.   
   >    
   > >    
   >    
   > > This is a problem with these translation dictionaries and online lists.    
   >    
   > > They offer equivalent idioms, but the equivalents don't always have   
   >    
   > > quite the same scopes.   
   >    
   >    
   >    
   > I had a college roommate who was from Hong Kong.  I once used the term    
   >    
   > "goosebumps" (referring to the little bumps formed when you are cold or    
   >    
   > scared, causing your hair to raise).  He didn't recognize the term.  When    
   >    
   > I explained, he laughed and said the equivalent term in Chinese meant    
   >    
   > "chicken skin".  So, two different languages, two different cultures, but    
   >    
   > the same metaphor.   
      
   When I was in my 20's, I saw a free offer for a potato cookbook on a sack of   
   potatoes. Its title was _The Hot Potato_. When it came in the mail, I put it   
   on my desk in the lab, and, when any Indian saw it, they'd stand around and   
   laugh.  Apparently, "hot    
   potato" means womanizer to them.  So this is the same idiom with two different   
   meanings.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)