You can slide down my hunchback using your tongue

[Trotxâ]

The Mirror in the UK has an interesting article on

Weird and wonderful foreign phrases..

..that just don't translate

English is a rich and wonderful language - but sometimes it's just not good enough.

For example, have you ever searched around in vain for a word to describe someone who gets excited by eating garlic?

Or wondered why there isn't a nice pithy term for a person who is only attractive if they're standing quite far away?

See the whole thing here.

Idiomatic expressions are the toughest to translate. I hope that the Apvienibâ dals Ciumisâs del Glheþ Talossán has a quick and easy guide to these tricky expressions.

Sir T

At least they're not covering, "Il-hovercraft tiegħi hu mimli sallur"

[Dréu Gavárþic'h]

"I will not buy this record, it is scratched"

Incidentally, that sketch is based on a Portuguese - English Phrasebook called "English as She is Spoke" but the people who wrote it had neither a knowledge of English, nor a portuguese to English dictionary, instead they used a Pr-Fr dicitonary and then a Fr-Eng one.

[Sir C. M. Siervicül]

Very funny! "English As She is Spoke" is a good read, too. Like Mark Twain said: "Nobody can add to the absurdity of this book, nobody can imitate it successfully, nobody can hope to produce its fellow; it is perfect."