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Japanese vs English Idioms

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Japanese vs English Idioms



Idioms are a fascinating window into the unique history, culture, and societal norms of a language’s native speakers. These phrases, which often seem illogical or nonsensical when translated literally, carry a wealth of cultural significance and historical context.

For example, the phrase “stamp of approval” in English derives its meaning from a historical context tied to the corporate and manufacturing world. In the industrialized Western societies, products often underwent rigorous quality checks and were marked with official seals of approval by trusted organizations or authorities. In contrast, the Japanese idiom “stamp a drum-sized seal of approval” carries a different connotation, reflecting the unique cultural practices of Japan. In Japanese society, personal seals, known as ‘hanko’ or ‘insho,’ are commonly used instead of signatures for official documents, contracts, and other important papers. The size of the seal is generally related to the importance of the signing party. So although these two languages share a similar phrase, the connotations can be significantly different.

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50 thoughts on “Japanese vs English Idioms”

  1. I always thought "having second thoughts" is more like:

    you gloss over something the first time and then you're like: "wait what the hell was that again?!" and circle back to it

  2. I think of second thoughts like
    “I’m doing it, I’m about to jump”… “oh fuck, im about to jump?!”

  3. There’s one in Mexico that i must admit i have no idea what the logic is behind it, but “te chilla la ardilla” which is roughly “your squirrel is screaming.” And it actually means “your armpits stink.”

  4. Interesting how people seem to think Asian people have a fishy smell and white people have a milky smell. A clear reflection of diet’s influence on scent and pheromones

  5. Fun fact: Bata-kusai came from the notion Japanese people used to have that Europeans' bad smell (what we now know is BO which East Asians genetically don't tend to have) came from eating food with butter.

  6. What's odd is? If you realize there's a man who eats people in Japan and they says that people, especially French taste more buttery.😮😅

  7. Smell like butter…like damn son, you so fat I can smell the butter when you sweat. 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣 they are SAVAGE with their literal translations

  8. My favourite idiom is Swedish. Translated it’s “to shit in the blue cupboard.”

    It basically means to make a fool of yourself. It comes from the time where blue dye was very expensive and luxurious, as such you’d keep all your fine china, silver and generally luxurious things that you want to essential show off and display in the blue cupboard.

  9. A great idiom we arabs got is "Oh you who takes the monkey for his money, the money will go away and the monkey will remain"
    Which refers to people who only marry for money, that if the money gone,only the person they married for his money is here

  10. Us arabs have a ideom which says "Dont throw rocks at people if your house is made of glass"
    I think you probably aleardy get it

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