(December 5, 2021 at 4:17 pm)no one Wrote:BSBIV:
Don’t feel too badly - the first time I heard the Americanism, ‘There’s more than one way to skin a cat’, I thought, ‘Why would you need more than one way?’
It was years before I found out that no cats were harmed in the making of this proverb.
About a monthish ago, a coworker was explaining how in his gaming group, one of the team members was from England, and he did not understand "You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make him drink" proverb. I thought how can anyone not get that. Then, not 10 minutes later, another coworker who is from Nigeria, asked if anyone was sitting in a chair, to which I replied, "On your feet, lose your seat."
I could visibly watch the utter confusion wash over her face. And then I thought, "Oh, now I get it".
Sometimes you think words make so much sense, but not so much in other societies.
That’s very true, but there are exceptions. I’ve been told ‘Go fuck yourself’ by people from at least a dozen different cultures. Their meaning was always unmistakable.
Boru
‘I can’t be having with this.’ - Esmeralda Weatherwax
