As you know, at Avantpage we take translation seriously, and pride ourselves on our unfailing attention to detail, our absolute dedication to our clients and their projects, and the incredible work ethic practiced by every member of our team.
The flip side of that? We love the lighter side of language as well, and we’d love to share a book that recently came to the attention of the Avantpage team.
It’s called I’m Not Hanging Noodles on Your Ears and Other Intriguing Idioms from Around the World, by Jag Bhalla, published by National Geographic and available on Amazon. You’ll discover priceless sayings like, “To live like a maggot in bacon,” (German for “to live in luxury”); “ant milker” (a miserly tightwad in Arabic); “When frogs grow hair,” (“never” in Spanish); “Fine words don’t feed cats,” (Italian for “talk is cheap”) and of course, “I’m not hanging noodles on your ears,” (Russian for “I’m not pulling your leg”).
Also fascinating was a chapter on how the meanings of English words have transformed over the centuries. Did you know that nice originally meant foolish, ignorant or senseless, bully meant darling or sweetheart, and silly meant happy or blessed?
This book comes highly recommended by the Avantpage team, This fun collection of idioms is guaranteed to elicit a smile from linguists, writers, editors, translators, and language lovers from all walks of life.
