Greek is such an unreal language.

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鬼殺し wrote:

I think it's an awesome language. In 90s Australia, high school languages were basically French, German, Indonesian and Japanese. No prizes for guessing which I took. But the whole time I was wishing we were more traditional, that I could take Latin or (ancient) Greek. Relying on translations of some of the most important things ever said or written kind of sucks.

But EVERY language has its weird, literal definitions. I imagine at some point in the US, garbage bins really were cans, and there were baths and people actually rested in public urination/defecation facilities. Or how about this one? MOVIES. Move. Ees.

What's the literal translation of ambulance in German again?

And in Japanese, we have these lovely Chinese carryovers called Yojijukugo, where four kanji together create all sorts of awesome idiomatic meaning. The linked site just randomises through them, but if you can't read hiragana it's sort of useless. You can find easier examples on wikipedia.

Here's a good one:

千変万化
Senpenbanka
Literally, a thousand variations, ten thousand changes
Typically, 'infinite variety' or 'endless shift'

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鬼殺し wrote:

I was being slightly hypothetical, because 'krankenwagon' is famously used as an example for how harsh German can sound.