Chinese versus Australian idioms
Tags: idioms, Australian vernacular
Who has the best line in idioms? I am going to lose hands-down, but it could be fun. My inspiration is a book called 'On the smell of an oily rag' by Ouyang Yu, a Chinese perspective on translation challenges, written in English (if that makes sense.) The description 'poison pen' comes to mind (- 中文怎么说?) but it is wonderful stuff - I will share some from time to time,if there is any interest.
A Chinese proverb goes: 一百遮十丑 yi bai zhe shi chou (one white covers up ten uglinesses.) This is juxtaposed with an equally dodgy Australian saying: two Wongs do not make a white, which the author re-transates into Chinese as 两个黄和一个白不一样。
Comments (20)


New lesson idea? Please contact us.