ITT: proverbs or expressions in your language that mention other nationalities.
I'll start.
"Alter Schwede!" (old Swede!)
It is expression of astonishment.
Example scenario:
You are walking around inside a town, and some motorcycle drives past you at 100km/h.
You go "alter Schwede!"
and you??
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"Twieled Tork" (A Turk was born) & "Tgħammed Tork"(A Turk was baptised) : Both said when it is raining while the sun is visible.
"Ka'enak bet'azen fe Malta" = "It's like you're calling for prayer(Azan) in Malta"
Used when your friend or whoever you're talking to is doing something really pointless.
kek
Negócio da China (business from China): a very lucrative business arrangement
There's also "Ħaqq it-Torok!" (Damn/curse the Turks!). Used in anger.
"Kylmä kuin ryssän helvetissä" : Cold like in Russian's hell.
Used when it's really cold outside.
cunt
pardon my french
Te vas a poner como un Sueco: It basically means that you are getting fat.
"Falar grego" = speak greek
It's usually used when someone say something in an overly complicated way for no reason
Di mana bumi dipijak, di situ langit dijunjung. Di mana bumi dipijak, di situ langit dijunjung = when in rome do as the romans do
"Have you ever been to China"- used when you are making the discussion long
Mongol is straight up an insult in Brazil
To speak greek is speaking gibberish
When you say something is from Paraguay you mean it's shit.
"Belanda dapat tanah" = Holland gets land (Never enough. Ungrateful)
"Cakap macam Keling" = Talk like Indian (Liar. Giving conflicting statements)
"Keling mabuk todi" = Drunk Indian (Speak nonsense)
"Bunyi Cina karam" = Sound of Chinese wrecked (Noisy)
"It's all Greek to me" = you don't understand it
"Pardon my French" = used before/after swearing or saying something offensive
If someone calls you a Duitser (German) in the Netherlands he means your a traitor, authoritarian or a Nazi.
Amerikaanse toestanden = American situations. It's a doom scenario that politicians often use, as an example of something nobody wants. Such as not having accessible education, health care, shootings, inequality, law suits, being able to get fired easily and so on. "Let's make sure we don't get American situations here"
All the Greeks have the same face = General statement about how everyone of a group acts (or literally looks) the same
The history behind it is kind of amusing. Originally it was a Yiddish phrase that said "All the Ivans have the same face", with Ivan being a generic name for a goy, but "Ivans" and "Greeks" sound almost the same in Hebrew, so over time it got switched
"Getürkt" means literally turkey-ed, means something is a fake or swindling.
It's Chinese for me. = I don't understand it.
>Tfw you feel slightly insulted but you also realise this daily in your politics and in yourself.
Should have never given you to the spanish habsburgers.
Tork-e-khár which is a racist insult meaning "Turkish donkey" in Iranian.
Met de Franse slag = With a French (whip) blow. It means delivering shoddy work.
Oost-indisch doof zijn = being East-Indian deaf. East-Indian is Indonesian.
Which means only hearing what you want to hear.
Another one that might be a bit offensive today is "To kill a Turk and rest", meaning to take things one step at a time.
The origin is an old Jewish joke about a young Jewish soldier in the Russian army talking with his mother before being sent to the Turkish front. The mother, acting in stereotypical fashion, tells her son he shouldn't exert himself too much, and he should just "kill one Turk and then rest". The son explains that he can't, because if he rests then another Turk will kill him, to which she responds "But what possible problem could he have with you, my dear?".
Also, probably not unique, but calling someone a Nazi for being overly strict is so common it's not even edgy anymore.
For example if you give someone instructions. They nod and then do it their own way. Then you start to ponder if they are East Indian deaf.
everyone refers to turkey
Same here
We also have "tête de Turc" (Turkish head) for someones that everyone picks on.
"Filer à l'Anglaise" (run the English way) to flee, to run away.
"Parler Anglais comme une vache Espagnole" (to speak English like a Spanish cow) : to be very bad at English.
> to play Swedish
Pretend you don't understand
> fool someone like a Chinaman
Fool someone completely
> work like a black man / Chinaman
Work hard
> drink like a Cossack
drink heavily
> English hide-and-seek
Red light green light game
"I'd sooner go to Lisbon" is what you say when you don't want to go somewhere
"I just heard some lusophonic tongue" = I didn't understand you or all I heard was gibberish
Being at the end of your latin = being exhausted
A law of Medes and Persians = a rule that cannot be changed
Spaans benauwd zijn = Being as anxious as a Spaniard. Which means your really not looking forward to something and it makes you anxious
Het in Keulen horen donderen = hearing it thunder in Cologne. It means your very surprised.
>Arab Labor/Work
dirty work/manual labor
In recent years it's being replaced by "working like a Thai", because a lot of Thai farm workers.
>benauwd
Technically it means having trouble breathing. Like when you've been running and your hot and short of breath.
I once heard a French person say (in English) "That person spoke German like a Spanish cow". I always figured it was a joke, but I guess it's a common figure of speech.
In my region people say "very Russian" to describe people usually of fair skin, blond hair and blue eyes.
That's as old as the way to Rome. = Everyone knows that.
The Hague bluf = It's just hot air.
Daar is geen woord Frans bij = There is not a word French in it. Speaking very clearly. For example when your angry and tell someone the truth in his face. Then your not speaking French.
We have the Latin one as well.
"cuento chino"
chinese tale, used when someone tries to scam or deceive another person by telling a story or things like that
Suffering from the English disease = having a waterhead ( Hydrocephalus )
The English disease is Rickets. Which means you have soft bones and probably o legs.
of course they would say that in portugal
"Mirna Bosna": Peaceful Bosnia
Used when explaining how something should be done without causing chaos. For example kids are fighthing over a toy so then you come and say "Share the toy and everybody has it for himself for half an hour and peacful Bosnia."
> to play Swedish
We also have this one but replace Swede with English man
> work like a black man
this one too
Bohemian villages = something that one knows nothing about
Polish economy = a state of chaos, inefficiency
>I personate the chinaman
act like you dont have an idea about what is going to happen
a very new one from the last decade is "tasas chinas" "chinese rates" referring to the high growth rates China has been having for decades.
A tasas chinas became a saying for high exponential growth
La turca (the turkish one/thing with feminine gender) means the act of tittyfucking
This thread made me realize that my language literally has no proverbs about foreigners
Swedish threesome = sexual threesome
>He became a turk!!
he got really angry
Sometimes locals are of fair complexion too but there's this stereotype that all eastern europeans are really light skinned and blond. Haven't heard it outside of my region though.
Thats funny.
I think the sexual references are a bit different here.
Doing it the French way is 69
Greek is anal
Italian is fucking an armpit
Russian is fucking breasts
Swedish is sitting into each other and just wiggling a bit.
British is spanking.
>Italian is fucking an armpit
dafuq
i dont get it
I'd guess it is a rare thing. I would not know.
Belgian is without a condom.
In the Dutch language all dumb blonde jokes are translated as Belgian jokes..
here titfuck is called Cuban masturbation/paja cubana
I dont get anything except Greek is for anal
"french" refers to blowjobs here
Because it is a rare occurrence. "A Turk was baptised" makes more scene in context.
for us ottoman is anal
spanish is fucking breasts
Bourgondian means enjoying life. A Bourgondian meal is having lots of great foods and spending a lot of time eating it.
Living like a God in France = living a luxurious carefree life
"Hacerse el ruso" (to make one self russian)
It means to intentionally ignore a situation or a person
"Kiroilee kuin turkkilainen" = "swears like a Turk"
When somebody uses profanities a lot
Oh, i thought it meant more like gods crying because a turk was born because some peopel say that when jt rains jts because god is crying lol
There's another common expression here: "parir chinos" (to give birth to chinese people). It means somethings is very difficult
*Burgundian
Something sounding chinese means its foreign or not understandable
"Frenching" means oral sex
Feeling czech means feeling like shit
Spreading like the spanish flu means spreading really fast
When someone is really full of themselves we say "did you shit the spanish wax?"
They're as many as the russians -> they are numerous, there are many, you get it
Mention of other nations are usually just in cursing e.g. romanian, slovakian, gypsy, etc
to smoke like a turk = to smoke a lot
spagnola (spanish) = tittyfuck
to speak arabic = to speak nonsense/gibberish
We have smoking like a Turk as well. But we also say smoking like a heretic. Which means the same thing.
CYKA BLYAT
(And i'm not a troll)
When a situation devolves into total chaos it is sometimes referred to here as a "Chinese fire drill"
cringed
It's a Spanish brothel = it's a mess.
A French compliment = you don't know if they mean it or not
His French church is open = his zipper is open
Doing your shirt in the French day = wearing your clothes another day
kek no no, that would be really funny though.
'(to live) like God in France' =(to live your life in) a state of abundance and enjoyment
same, or at the least I can't think of any.
Czech movie = something that no one can understand
Somebody is a Jew = pretty much self explanatory
In my region we use to say you damn Dutch (Holender jasna), but that's for my region exclusively.
'Swedish curtains' = prison/jail
Like: 'He is going to spend the rest of his life behind Swedish curtains./in prison.'
Être fort comme un Turc (Be strong like a Turk) : be really strong
C'est toujours ça que les Allemands n'auront pas ! (Still, at least that's something that the Germans won't have) : when you lost or destroyed something and regret it
Être beau comme un Grec (Being beautiful like a Greek) : be really handsome
Aller se faire voir chez les Grecs (~Go to the Greeks) : go get fucked, fuck off
Filer à l'anglaise (Get away in the English style) : fleeing, avoiding responsibility, being a coward, etc
can't think of any other
"Where a Hohol (Ukrainian) has passed a Jew has nothing to do (steal)".
Two jews know what glasses cost = We crafty people don't have to lie to each other. We both know how it really is.
Doesn't mention nationalities but I though I should share this:
"Dva debila - eto sila" - "Two retards is a power to be reckoned with".
KEK'd
say it in russian
A Greek gift is a gift, usually something large and unwieldy, that you'll never have any use for
A French shower is when you change your clothes and just put on some deodorant/cologne instead of actually showering
For the English to see is when you say to someone you did something without having actually done it just so they'll stop bothering you. Because way back when the Brits were up our asses to get us to end the slave trade, so we made a law making the slave trade illegal. But we never actually enforced it at all, it was just there in the law books for the English to see and if there was still "illegal" slave commerce going on, well what can you do? Brazil is huge, can't police all of it.
What is good for a Russian, for a German means death
Gde hohOl proshOl, tam jevrEju dElatj nEchevo.
>Dva debila - eto sila
I actually heard this in my cunt
>Pardon/excuse my French
For when you swear or curse.
>French exit/leave
To leave without saying goodbye
>French letter
Condom. This one's very, very dated though.
It might interest you to know that during the 16th century genital herpes was called the French disease. Syphilis was also called the French sickness.
>>French exit/leave
Lol, we say "leave ala englishmen" in the same meaning
Sames.
Udawać Greka - pretending to be a Greek (when someone is pretending that he dosen't understand)
Raz na ruski rok - once a russian/ruthenian year (when sth happens rarely)
Siedzieć jak na tureckim kazaniu - sitting like on turkish sermon (to not understand what people around are talking about)
"Kochajmy się jak bracia, liczmy się jak Żydzi" - "(we shall) love each other like brothers, (but we will) square up like Jews"
A French toilet = a toilet with just a hole in the ground
>mongolur
retard/downsyndrom
We use mongoloid for that, though as a slur
Didn't you mean "Holender jasny"?
And I thought that it's pretty universal polish proverb, from what voivodeship you are?
I can't remember any proverbs but we got a bunch of jokes about Norwegians being retarded if that counts
>work like a black man
>Work hard
We basically have the opposite stereotype.
He seems too moderate
"Irish coffee"=coffee with alcohol
that's the name of the drink mang en.wikipedia.org
I like it with cinnamon
Wow. I thought the Irish=alcohol stereotype was a US-only thing.