I first learned this during the savings and loan scandal a few years ago. A woman we had recently met had a son who had been implicated in embezzling $70,000 and was to stand trial. Months later I met a friend of the woman and asked what had happened to the son. "He's pulling fathers door" was the reply. After pondering it a bit I decided it meant the young man had fled to the country side and was in hiding among his father's family. When I brought my observation to a language teacher, she exploded into laughter. "Your such a stupid student!" she said. (And yes, even the nice Mongolian teachers will call their students stupid.) Then she explained that pulling fathers door meant to ship him up the river. Then I learned Mongols traditionally communicated with idioms and symbolic speech.
Without further explanation, here are a few more I have learned. See if you can guess the meaning before scrolling to the translation below.
1. I'm going to see a horse.
2. It was like seeing a rabbit with horns.
3. I loaned him a dollar and sent out a river.
4. That woman's body has two floors.
5. Don't eat rice during your exam.
- No cheating -
1. Easy one. I'm going to the bathroom. When said among friends you can later tell them if it was big or little horse, yellow or brown one, etc.
2. It was TOTALLY AWESOME. Imagine the expression on her face when I googled a jack-a-lope and showed it to a woman. She just about wet her pants.
3. I will never get it back. We would say, "That's the last I'll hear from him."
4. Are you thinking "Her elevator doesn't reach the top floor"? WRONG! (I laugh hysterically at my stupid students ;-). The woman is PREGNANT!
5. Um . . don't chew gum? Nope. Made it too easy didn't I. Don't cheat.
It isn't always that bad. Some idioms are the same, like being "red faced" means either "embarrassed" or "angry." Mongols also use sayings that parallel with ours. For instance, "killing two birds with one stone" in Mongolian is "killing two rabbits with one arrow." But it is still amazing what really happened in our brains at the tower of babel. Really. It's no wonder so many dictionary writers lose their marbles!
4 comments:
Ok, here's a good one:
"to kill a bear"
It means to have a bm (#2). I once heard someone say they were went out to try and "kill a bear" but their "gun got jammed".
Aren't these sort of things funnier when you can understand them without any help or explanation?
Melanie in Darkhan
Ok....we found you!
T and J
Nicely done with your article except some "crucial" mistakes in translating of some idioms into English. Was a good try though. Just wondering what your wife has to offer to say about Mongolian idioms, meaning if I can read it and how.
Now, let me explain about the mistakes caused probably by misunderstanding between your interpreter (or teacher as you like) and you, or by your teachers wrong explanation.
1."They're gonna ship him up the river". There is no such saying, but I guess you meant "Let somebody cross the river" which means "Cheated somebody". Like the number 3 on your translation list: "I loaned him a dollar and sent out a river" .But again there is a mistake because the translation makes no sense.(what means "sent out a river"?). It should have said, "I loaned him a dollar and he let me cross the river".(meaning I borrowed him money but never got it back/Cheated)
You're right about "pulling fathers door" which means "going to prison".
About the number 2 in your list, "It was like seeing a rabbit with horns" there is everything correct in your translation; just a few words about the meaning of this idiom. It means rather SOMETHING UNUSUAL or EXTREMELY WEIRD than TOTALLY AWESOME.
Honestly, first I could not understand or guess what means "That woman's body has two floors". After I saw your explanation that it means being pregnant, I was just speechless. How on earth can your teacher give you such a senseless explanation? As I understand there are idioms in every language, and even the saying is different than the actual meaning, it does have a meaning which makes sense. I don't know how to understand about a woman's body having two floors(?). The mistake caused probably by a Mongolian word "davkhar" which has couple different meanings: 1.Floor (story) 2. double
So, Mongols say often (mostly used by mature adults and older people) that a "Woman has a double body" meaning that she is pregnant.
Lastly, some words to the last number-5. Everything correct with the translation. Just wanna make some additional explanation so that our non-Mongolian-speaking friends know what this idiom actually means. In full it should say: "Don't eat rice from others...". Does it make now any sense? You should eat your "rice" and not others', meaning you should do it yourself and not copy from others.
I mean, if you simply say "Don't eat rice during your exam", then one would maybe think that "eating rice is prohibited during the exam" which would express totally
different situation.
There are much more "crazy" idioms nowadays and some of them are really more like "Slangs" than real idioms.
A quite long comment, isn't it?
Wish you good luck in learning Mongolian. Cheers!
are you still using this blog. or do you ahve another one i can follow and keep up to date.
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