Lost in Translation

While living in Germany there were definitely some times where translated words left me confused. One night I heard my roommate complaining about "woolen mice" under the bed. I was worried, did we really have mice in our flat? I took a peek to see what was there. No mice, but definitely some dust clumps that I would call "dust bunnies". We had a good laugh about that one.

Another night, I was cooking with a friend and he asked me to please give him the "snow-broom". I couldn't imagine what he meant by this. After much questioning and pointing I figured out that he wanted the whisk.

When saying good luck to someone in Germany you might say "I'll press the thumbs" and then hold up their thumbs. This might be similar to saying something like "break a leg" in English.

There are many sayings in English that just don't translate or make sense such as "The cat is out of the bag" and "Close but no cigar". Many English proverbs or saying are worth learning as they may be used on the job.

Here's link to a list of the 50 most useful English Proverbs I found from "FluentU English Language and Culture Blog":

https://www.fluentu.com/blog/english/useful-english-proverbs/

What about you? Have you ever experienced a time when the words from your language just don't translate? Feel free to leave a comment.