DIR Return Create A Forum - Home
---------------------------------------------------------
Even Greener Pastures
HTML https://evengreener.createaforum.com
---------------------------------------------------------
*****************************************************
DIR Return to: Questions about the Use of Language
*****************************************************
#Post#: 19516--------------------------------------------------
Re: The turkey from Turkey
By: Aliph Date: October 6, 2019, 1:31 pm
---------------------------------------------------------
[quote author=MartinSR link=topic=1369.msg19506#msg19506
date=1569964538]
But now about something different than food. Have you heard
about 'French disease'? They used to call it French or German
disease here, while English disease in France and Polish disease
in Russia... The names show potential ways of spreading of...
syphilis.
[/quote]
Indeed it shows how armies spread the disease all over the Old
World. But there is always a bit of racism behind it, bad things
come from the others never from oneself . Syphilis has to do
with sexually, so nice people have nothing do do with it, only
foreigners do certain practices, think about the “Greek way” for
exemple.
#Post#: 19519--------------------------------------------------
Re: The turkey from Turkey
By: NealC Date: October 6, 2019, 2:21 pm
---------------------------------------------------------
Of course in the US syphilis was something you caught from black
people, because if you need to be a racist in the US blacks are
the default choice.
Even my grandmother who saw a cold sore on my mouth at age 16
said to me, "What have you been doing, kissing coloured girls?".
Sigh.
#Post#: 19521--------------------------------------------------
Re: The turkey from Turkey
By: Nikola Date: October 6, 2019, 3:31 pm
---------------------------------------------------------
This reminds me of a Czech expression we use when we encounter
something unfamiliar we struggle to understand. We say "to je
pro mě španělská vesnice" (that's a Spanish village to
me). In German, it's "Das ist mir ein böhmisches Dorf" (that's a
Czech/Bohemian village to me). A bit of background and some
expressions used in other countries (written in German):
HTML https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/B%C3%B6hmisches_Dorf
It says that to Polish people, things are "Chinese", and
something incomprehensible is a "Czech movie" to them. Do you
use these, Martin? :)
#Post#: 19523--------------------------------------------------
Re: The turkey from Turkey
By: MartinSR Date: October 6, 2019, 4:40 pm
---------------------------------------------------------
Yes Nikola. It's often used here:
"It sounds like Chinese to me"
"I don't get it, it's like a Czech movie"
I'm not sure why is it like that. The thing with Chinese is
obvious, though we could use e.g. Hungarian for it - much closer
and similar comprehension level.
But Czech movies (rather Czechoslovak in my young years) weren't
incomprehensible. I remember rather funny comedies like
Chalupaři, children series (Arabela), medical ones
(Nemocnice na kraji mesta, Sanitka) - sorry for bad spelling ;)
Among newer ones "Vratne lahve" is one of my favourite. I think
this opinion about Czech movies started during the communism
times, when the movies had to be politically correct to be
allowed to be shown in other countries - so we they had to avoid
crucial problems. But I don't know.
#Post#: 19524--------------------------------------------------
Re: The turkey from Turkey
By: MartinSR Date: October 6, 2019, 5:02 pm
---------------------------------------------------------
And "Czech mistake" (Czeski błąd) we say when we swap
letters while writing a word (like I could write "wirting"
instead of "writing"). It's probably because we have words
looking similarly in our languages before we take a closer look.
Sometimes we use it saying about swapped digits in a number.
French s.e.x (oral)
French doggie (about a person who seems to be to delicate and
complaining about everything)
Russian/Ruthenian month/year (ruski miesiąc/rok) - very
long time
English weather - rainy
Pretend to be a Greek - pretend not to know sth
Austrian talking - empty talks which lead to neither
conclusions nor working
#Post#: 19525--------------------------------------------------
Re: The turkey from Turkey
By: Nikola Date: October 6, 2019, 5:07 pm
---------------------------------------------------------
[quote author=MartinSR link=topic=1369.msg19523#msg19523
date=1570398016]
But Czech movies (rather Czechoslovak in my young years) weren't
incomprehensible.
[/quote]
I was thinking the same. You guys must understand them, at least
a little.
[quote author=MartinSR link=topic=1369.msg19523#msg19523
date=1570398016]
I remember rather funny comedies like Chalupaři, children
series (Arabela), medical ones (Nemocnice na kraji mesta,
Sanitka) - sorry for bad spelling ;) Among newer ones "Vratne
lahve" is one of my favourite. I think this opinion about Czech
movies started during the communism times, when the movies had
to be politically correct to be allowed to be shown in other
countries - so we they had to avoid crucial problems. But I
don't know.
[/quote]
I can't believe you know all these movies and TV series. You
spelled them correctly, by the way, they're just missing the
accents, which is understandable. I like Vratné lahve, too. My
favourite Polish movie is Seksmisja.
#Post#: 19526--------------------------------------------------
Re: The turkey from Turkey
By: Nikola Date: October 6, 2019, 5:20 pm
---------------------------------------------------------
What about cockroaches? One that's called the German cockroach
in English is "Rus domácí" in Czech. We tend to blame things on
Russians so we obviously didn't think they came from the west,
unlike the black rat, which is sometimes referred to as
"němkyně" (Německo means Germany).
#Post#: 19527--------------------------------------------------
Re: The turkey from Turkey
By: Aliph Date: October 7, 2019, 2:24 am
---------------------------------------------------------
[quote author=MartinSR link=topic=1369.msg19523#msg19523
date=1570398016]
"I don't get it, it's like a Czech movie"
I think this opinion about Czech movies started during the
communism times, when the movies had to be politically correct
to be allowed to be shown in other countries - so we they had to
avoid crucial problems. But I don't know.
[/quote]
That’s a bit strange to me. Czechoslovak moviemakers like Jiri
Menzel and Milos Forman made outstanding and critical films
during the communist era in the so-called Czech New Wave.
Maybe the partial but only partial intelligibility between Czech
and Polish is more accountable, but of course it is a mere
speculation.
In French there is a very pittoresque saying “parler français
comme une vache espagnole” = to speak French like a Spanish cow.
It seems that it refers to Basque people who speak their own
language Euskara which is a language “isolate” that doesn’t
belong to the Indo-European stem but is of older origin. If I
reckon correctly.
#Post#: 19528--------------------------------------------------
Re: The turkey from Turkey
By: MartinSR Date: October 7, 2019, 5:57 am
---------------------------------------------------------
I don't think there were any translation problems of Czech
movies really. And I know there were great movie makers in
Czechoslovakia and in most of communist countries too. But I
think there could be the availability problems with more
ambitious movies. I imagine the first step was always the
censorship in the country of origin - many good films in our
countries were left on shelves without the censorship
acceptance. Some of them were ridiculously cut before showing to
the public. The rest had to wait for better times. Now imagine
that a country wants to export its movie to show them abroad (in
the other country of the communist block). They know it has to
undergo the censorship in the other country too. So if they
allow it and the others reject - it would be shame. You can
imagine: "Are you crazy comrades? What are you trying to send
us? It's potentially poisonous to the working class!"
So that's why I think the foreign movies we were allowed to
watch were thoroughly checked against any lack of ideological
correctness.
The other problem was, that the communism was different in our
countries. In Poland we always had a little bit of freedom
(going to church, possessing small parts of land, making movies
that laughed at some aspects of life in our country), but our
economical status was very low. The shops were empty. When a
luxury article (e.g. toilet paper or meat) appeared, long queues
were formed in front of the shop.
I was happy to travel to Czechoslovakia, Hungary and other
countries then and I was surprised seeing things like chocolate,
coffee, orange juice, ham, and other luxury goods there. We
could buy it there and eat, but it was very hard to smuggle even
small quantities to our country. It could be a reason some of us
had problems with understanding the type of humour of our
neighbours. We were laughing at different things.
#Post#: 19529--------------------------------------------------
Re: The turkey from Turkey
By: MartinSR Date: October 7, 2019, 6:04 am
---------------------------------------------------------
Cockroaches... well... I heard some people calling them "rusy",
but it's not very popular. One species of similar insects are
called "prusaki", so Germans again ;)
*****************************************************
DIR Previous Page
DIR Next Page