Funny foreign sayings ...

[oldbike54]

 Or as Steven Adams says in a local commercial here , "I eat smash steaks"  He is teaching us how to speak Kiwi .

 Dusty

[TobyJug]

How about this one: "My dogs are barking" - meaning "my feet are aching"  - England

[Muzz]

Or as Steven Adams says in a local commercial here , "I eat smash steaks"  He is teaching us how to speak Kiwi .

 Dusty

We talk English as she is spoke down here.

[KiwiKev]

Bob's yer uncle.

Or Bob's your auntie .. commonly used in enzed

[kenvil1]

« You’re a good man, there aren’t many of us left »

« How’s your « Comment ca va? »

[kenvil1]

Or Bob's your auntie .. commonly used in enzed

Or « Robert’s your dad’s brother. »

[JBBenson]

"Ins Messer laufen lassen"

One of my favorites when I lived in Germany. Literally, "Let them run into the knife".

Used when your opponent is about to f**k himself....let him!

[Huzo]

Some of those are good and some are a bit try hard.
When pure wit is exchanged for varying levels of vulgarity, the humour is diminished.
That metal working Rodsmith genius, is an example of a bloke who thinks up  (supposedly) witty one liners and then delivers them in the guise of something that “just came out”.
The best mix I’ve heard comes from Poms, or Aussieisms delivered with a working man’s Pommy accent.
Can’t think of anyone off hand though.. :
Interestingly, I’m in the privileged position where I can read a statement here on WG and then hear it in person again from the author, and the written version pales in comparison.
It’s that damn accent.
With me..?
ps.
Y’all will have noticed that wittiness is beginning to become replaced by less than humorous vulgarity on this thread, I think I can hear a nuclear bomb being assembled in Oklahoma...

[Huzo]

...that you find interesting and try to weave into conversation .

 

I fully understand what you mean by that statement Dusty as do we all, but IMO here’s the thing..
Humour down here is a bit like an apology, if you have to TRY to deliver it...?
You don’t MEAN it, and it won’t work properly.
People are at their funniest, when they don’t mean to be..

[oldbike54]

I fully understand what you mean by that statement Dusty as do we all, but IMO here’s the thing..
Humour down here is a bit like an apology, if you have to TRY to deliver it...?
You don’t MEAN it, and it won’t work properly.
People are at their funniest, when they don’t mean to be..

 I worded the heading in a vague way on purpose , really more about how language evolves because of outside influences . There is a retired copper from Wales who lives here , we visit every so often , he picked up an Okieism from me , "that ain't gonna happen bubba" , which is a much stronger warning to the person it is directed at than it sounds on the surface . What the speaker is indicating is "don't do that unless you want a donkey BBQ"

 In the 80's and 90's we witnessed a Hollywood version of Australia in cinema , people actually believed Paul Hogan represented the common Ozzie, and terms like "shrimp in the barbie" became part of American English . Heck , Cheech made a movie named that . Fortunately those terms have faded away , except for the ridiculous *bloomin' onion* nonsense promoted by the Outback Steakhouse .

 Dusty

[JukeboxGothic]

I always wondered about the "shaved ape". When I was young my father, who was an aircraft engineer and worked at Rolls Royce in the fifties, used to say to me, "You can shave a chimp and put him in a boiler suit but it doesn't make him a mechanic". Funny how language changes over time.