misleading metaphors wanted

[holger]

good evening,

i repeatedly experienced funny situations with metaphors or symbols that have completely different - sometimes opposed - meanings or associations in chinese and other languages i.e. english or german.

One example may be the pig which stands for luck or feeling good in western thought but has rather unfortunate connotations in chinese language and one has to know about these differences as they occur in everyday conversation.

I`d like to collect similar phaenomenons in a list - maybe a thread like this already exists? - so i would be glad for any of your suggestions. again: it does not neccesarily have to do with animals and/or human characteristics, it neither has to be a metaphor of symbol in the strict definition, just a figure of speech that could not be translated literally or pragmatically be used in the same situation but different language without losing its original sense or leading to misunderstanding.

thanks in advance!

[elena]

maybe dog is another sample

In western, dog is a really great animal. But in China, if u say someone is like a dog,it will surely arise anoying. Theses days, more and more people in China have dogs as pets and they really love dogs, but still theydon't prefer hearing people trope them as dogs:)

[imron]

Calling someone a dog isn't a good thing in English either.

[HashiriKata]

Calling someone a dog isn't a good thing in English either.

Nor is pig, Holger!

[holger]

right, if you call someone a pig here you could be sued to pay fine - i think there's even a price-list for words like these, but probably only in germany. but on lets say birthday greetingcards or souvernirs and the like you can frequently find a pig symbolizing snugness, luck, etc.