I've started to pick up on a few fun ways to be ridiculous is other people's languages, it can be super fun so I wanted to share. Rather than take forever putting them in separate SEO optimized posts, with audio clips - I'm going to give the cliff-notes version of them all here.
The easy way to be ridiculous
A lot of other countries use their words a lot more literally than we do. For example if they say "great" they really mean something is actually great. If you speak English from the US - imagine telling somebody a cake they baked is "good" no way - it would almost be offensive; "good" to us has taken on a meaning "not good" we just don't want to say it. "Thanks" in American English it is just a hair away from being sarcastic; and if you say "thanks very much" it might not mean a whole lot of thanks. I enjoy this way to talking and so adopting this manner of speech is my favorite way to be ridiculous in other languages.
Lots of languages have slang terms that evolved from English, you usually have to dig for them since they don't appear in official translations and won't often be taught in schools. It is often funny how the local grammar mixes with English; and even funnier when you say it because nobody will expect it.
Be ridiculous in Georgian
Mariam's Georgian company got acquired by a company from the US and her new boss said something she did was "phenomenal." In Georgian the literal translation is ფენომენალური (penomenaluri) where the P and Ph are very similar phonologically and "luri"is a common Georgian suffix. I never once heard a local say this word in two months of living in Georgia. It is reserved only for the most phenomenal situations; like if St. George himself descended from the sky in front of you. People almost always smile when you use it - but be careful because the word is so powerful that you might sound sarcastic if you don't use it properly.
If you compliment food - Georgians will refuse to accept, often denying that it is truly "penomenaluri" - but if you compliment a landscape view, or refer to Georgia in general as penomenaluri then you will make friends quickly. To use it - point at a thing or answer a question with "es penomenaluria" which means "it is penomenaluri"
Hello in Georgian is გამარჯობა (Gamarjoba), and the best most normal response is "Gaumarjos" but folks will often respond "Gamarjoba" instead - especially to foreigners when it is assumed they don't know Gaumarjos. You can also alternatively say Gagimarjos. Gaumarjos is also used as "cheers" when drinking so it is jovial to say. Here is how to have a whole ridiculous conversation with someone you are just passing by:
You: GamarjobaThem: GamarjobaYou: GaumarjosThem: * usually they will laugh here and stop, but if they respond gaumarjos, then it is peak ridiculous to respond gagimarjos
Words change in Georgian depending on how many people you are speaking to - by adding the letters "at" so Gamarjoba is to say hello to one person and Gamarjobat is to say hello to two or more. Except that "garmarjoba" is the exception where "officially" you should always say "Gamarjoba" even if saying hello to multiple people. Probably 90% of people will say it "correctly" but spend some time traveling around Georgia where people are so friendly and everyone says hi - then you will definitely hear "gamarjobat"
To be ridiculous - ignore the exception and say gamarjobat when saying hi to multiple people.
Note: I am of the opinion that there is no "wrong" way to speak - since language is a kind of big collaborative art project. Fun discussions to have if someone wants to argue with you.
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| Tbilisi Georgia |
How to be silly in Hungarian
Hungarian is already a little silly for English speakers. To say hello, people say "szia" which sounds just like "see yah!" in English. Note that Szia is to say hello to one person, sziestok for two people. Then they use the English-derived "Hello" for both hello, and more frequently for goodbye, kind of like the Italian "Ciao." You you can say "see yah" for hello and "hello" for good bye; can't get any sillier than that... but actually you can get significantly sillier still:
Just conjugate "hello" in the form for multiple people by adding "stok" like Szia->Szie-stok, so hello becomes "hello-stok" when greeting to multiple people. Note: this is a kind of teenager slang from the 90's that for sure nobody uses anymore, but if you do - then it is absolutely penomenaluri (thanks Kristof).
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| Budapest Hungary |
Surprise people in Estonian
This one is hard - it is difficult to get Estonians to show emotion about anything - but one way to that sometimes works is to give way over the top thanks in true USA style. Literally translating our casual "thanks very much" into "suur äitah teile." In sentiment - this again goes way over the casual way we use it in the US - but that is kind of the point.
Another way is to use the Estonian/English slang phrase for "what the heck" which literally translates to "what a hedge" but you can really easily say it with a lot of emphasis "Mida hekki" which is awesome, almost like you are singing. Interestingly in Finland they say "mitä helvettiä" which is "what the hell" ... so rude.
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| Kõrvemaa Bog Estonia |
How to be silly in Chinese
People teach you to say Hào chī when complimenting food, but it is much funnier to go way over the top and say it is Měiwèi 美味. One benefit of this is that the tones make is super easy to be emphatic about it, you say it kind of like you are stamping your foot on the last syllable.People are super nice in China - so as soon as you say more than three words in Chinese people will compliment you saying that your Chinese is great, or sounds great. The humble way they teach you to respond is saying "Nǎlǐ nǎlǐ" meaning "where where" kind of like saying "hey obviously you aren't talking about me." This is a tad funny - but MUCH better is to say "it isn't" Bùshì and follow up with saying your Chinese is Mǎmǎhǔhǔ 马马虎虎. This translates literally to Horse Horse Tiger Tiger but it is silly idiom to mean "so so" or "a clumsy person" so people will always crack up if you say that describes your Chinese aptitude.
This isn't something you say out loud - but in text "3Q" means thank you, because the mandarin way to say 3 is "Sān", and reading Sān-Q phonetically sounds like "Thank you" with a Chinese accent.
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| Shanghai China |
What to teach other people to say in English:
It is nice to learn local slang - but to be fair I try to teach folks some words that came to English from my part of the country, the greater New York City area, and donated by my own immigrant family's native language Yiddish.
The word is Schlep.
And the thing I like about "schlep" is that it doesn't just describe to haul or carry something - it describes how you feel about the act. You definitely do not want to be schlepping anything - and if you have to then you will do it begrudgingly. Also a versatile word, you can schlep yourself too and whether it is across an ocean or from the couch to answer the door - if you have to schlep there then you really didn't want to. Now there are a few select people out there who know only three to four words of English, and one the words they know is schlep.
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| Lower Mystic Lakes in Medford (basically Boston, USA) |
