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German here. We use Chinese, Spanish and train station. As in: Am I talking Chinese to you? And: That seems Spanish to me. Meaning"that doesn't seems to be ri

German here. We use Chinese, Spanish and train station. As in: Am I talking Chinese to you? And: That seems Spanish to me. Meaning"that doesn't seems to be right. And if I am not able to grasp something I would say: I only understand train station.

lucb1e 7y ago
Dutch: we use Chinese and Spanish to me as well, but it doesn't mean that something doesn't seem quite right. It typically means that you don't understand something. Looking in a dictionary, it is mentioned for Chinese, but not for Spanish, so maybe it's because I grew up close to the German border that the local dialect uses Spanish and thereby the people might also say Spanish in normal Dutch. For the train station, we don't have something that means the same that I can think of right now, but a similar one is "my name is Haas". You can say it when you suspect someone just pretends not to know anything about it, but about yourself it can be used either way. Seems to be a purely Dutch thing, I looked up the Wikipedia and discovered that it does not have anything to do with the animal "haas" (hare). Somewhat unsurprisingly, it comes from a story about a German: https://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mijn_naam_is_haas https://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mijn_naam_is_haas Paraphrased in English: The saying probably stems from an event in 1855, where a German student wanted to flee to France. To cross the border, he needed an identity card, which he got from a classmate, Victor von Hase. Von Hase then claimed he lost his ID, but it was later found in France, where the murderer had lost it. The real Von Hase had to appear in court and that is where he spoke the words millions would come to speak after him: "Mein Name ist Hase [...] ich weiß von nichts." (My name is "hare", I don't know anything about this.)
- Xylakant 7y ago
  The same saying exists in German as well.
  - lucb1e 7y ago
    Oh, odd that there is no mention of it on the Wikipedia page, nor a translation.
    - Xylakant 7y ago
      I was never aware of the origin, but I know the use. And I was born and raised quite far from the Dutch border, so it’s not local spillover. I’d put that down to the notoriety requirements of the German Wikipedia which are somewhat peculiar. Edit: It’s mentioned on this Wikipedia page https://de.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victor_Hase https://de.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victor_Hase and TIL: The expression was coined in the city I was born in.
ggambetta 7y ago
And in Spanish we use Chinese.
chousuke 7y ago
That last point brings to mind an idiom in Finnish. When you don't understand something, you can say "En tajua hölkäsen pöläystä". Now, the funny thing about this is that I don't think most Finns could tell you what "hölkäsen pöläys" actually means; it's just a part of the idiom, and kind of invokes the feeling of nonsensical speech. The words themselves are nonsense. The literal translation is therefore "I don't understand hölkäsen pöläys" :P
- Xylakant 7y ago
  There’s a real background to “ich verstehe nur Bahnhof” though. It’s not nonsense, it reportedly has its origins at the end of the First World War when german soldiers wanted to travel home. All they were interested in was getting to the train station. https://german.stackexchange.com/questions/3248/meaning-and-origin-of-ich-verstehe-nur-bahnhof#3249 https://german.stackexchange.com/questions/3248/meaning-and-...

lucb1e 7y ago

Dutch: we use Chinese and Spanish to me as well, but it doesn't mean that something doesn't seem quite right. It typically means that you don't understand something. Looking in a dictionary, it is mentioned for Chinese, but not for Spanish, so maybe it's because I grew up close to the German border that the local dialect uses Spanish and thereby the people might also say Spanish in normal Dutch. For the train station, we don't have something that means the same that I can think of right now, but a similar one is "my name is Haas". You can say it when you suspect someone just pretends not to know anything about it, but about yourself it can be used either way. Seems to be a purely Dutch thing, I looked up the Wikipedia and discovered that it does not have anything to do with the animal "haas" (hare). Somewhat unsurprisingly, it comes from a story about a German: https://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mijn_naam_is_haas https://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mijn_naam_is_haas Paraphrased in English: The saying probably stems from an event in 1855, where a German student wanted to flee to France. To cross the border, he needed an identity card, which he got from a classmate, Victor von Hase. Von Hase then claimed he lost his ID, but it was later found in France, where the murderer had lost it. The real Von Hase had to appear in court and that is where he spoke the words millions would come to speak after him: "Mein Name ist Hase [...] ich weiß von nichts." (My name is "hare", I don't know anything about this.)

Xylakant 7y ago
The same saying exists in German as well.
- lucb1e 7y ago
  Oh, odd that there is no mention of it on the Wikipedia page, nor a translation.
  - Xylakant 7y ago
    I was never aware of the origin, but I know the use. And I was born and raised quite far from the Dutch border, so it’s not local spillover. I’d put that down to the notoriety requirements of the German Wikipedia which are somewhat peculiar. Edit: It’s mentioned on this Wikipedia page https://de.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victor_Hase https://de.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victor_Hase and TIL: The expression was coined in the city I was born in.

ggambetta 7y ago

And in Spanish we use Chinese.

chousuke 7y ago

That last point brings to mind an idiom in Finnish. When you don't understand something, you can say "En tajua hölkäsen pöläystä". Now, the funny thing about this is that I don't think most Finns could tell you what "hölkäsen pöläys" actually means; it's just a part of the idiom, and kind of invokes the feeling of nonsensical speech. The words themselves are nonsense. The literal translation is therefore "I don't understand hölkäsen pöläys" :P

Xylakant 7y ago
There’s a real background to “ich verstehe nur Bahnhof” though. It’s not nonsense, it reportedly has its origins at the end of the First World War when german soldiers wanted to travel home. All they were interested in was getting to the train station. https://german.stackexchange.com/questions/3248/meaning-and-origin-of-ich-verstehe-nur-bahnhof#3249 https://german.stackexchange.com/questions/3248/meaning-and-...