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Highway code

Sometimes the greatest danger on the road comes from other users:

faire une queue de poisson (French) to overtake and cut in close in front of a car (literally, to do a fishtail)

Notbremse ziehen (German) to swerve away at the last moment (literally, to pull the handbrake)

shnourkovat’ sya (Russian) to change lanes frequently and unreasonably when driving (literally, to lace boots)

autogangsteri (Finnish) a hit-and-run driver

On reflection

Lucky number plates

The Chinese particularly like car number plates with 118, which is pronounced yat yat fatt in Cantonese and sounds like ‘everyday prospers’; 1128 sounds like ‘everyday easily prospers’; and 888 ‘prosper, prosper, prosper’. A number plate with 1164 is not popular because it sounds like yat yat look say, which can mean ‘everyday roll over and die’.

A Hong Kong owner (i.e. a Cantonese speaker) would favour a number plate with just 32168, which sounds like sang yee yat low fatt, meaning ‘a very profitable business all the way’.

Japanese cars can’t have the licence plate 4219 because that could be read as shi ni i ku, which means something along the lines of ‘going to death’.

Jesus’s magimix

If all else fails there’s always public transport (with all the delights that that entails). As the Germans say, ‘We are all equal in the eyes of God and bus drivers’:

gondola (Chilean Spanish) a municipal bus

Lumpensammler (German) the last train (literally, rag collector)

Luftkissenboot (German) a hovercraft (literally, air-cushion boat)

Or perhaps it’s time to splash out on something special:

magimiks belong Yesus (Tok Pisin, Papua New Guinea) a helicopter

Pushmepullyou

Japanese subways are so crowded that they employ special packers to push people on and others to untangle them and get them off when they get to a station. The pushers-on are addressed as oshiya-san (honourable pusher) and the pullers-off as hagitoriya-san (honourable puller).

Unknown and uneasy

The truth is that travel is rarely as glamorous as it’s portrayed. So whatever happens, keep your nerve:

far-lami (Old Icelandic) unable to go further on a journey

kalangkalang (Manobo, Philippines) to be overtaken by night on a journey with no place to stay and nothing to eat

asusu (Boro, India) to feel unknown and uneasy in a new place

bu fu shultu (Chinese) not accustomed to the climate or food of a new place (said of a stranger)

wewibendam (Ojibway, North America) being in a hurry to return home

Empty trip

And sometimes you will be surprised by unexpected rewards:

inchokkilissa (Alabama, USA) to be alone and experience the quietness of a location

uluphá (Telugu, India) supplies given to any great personage on a journey, and furnished gratis by those who reside on the route

Even if you never actually go:

kara-shutcho (Japanese) to pay or receive travel expenses for a trip not actually taken (literally, empty business trip)

Travellers’ tales

Always remember that, as the French say, ‘À beau mentir qui vient de loin’, travellers from afar can lie with impunity:

iwaktehda (Dakota, USA) to go home in triumph having taken scalps

IDIOMS OF THE WORLD

To beat about the bush

y aller par quatre chemins (French) to get there by four paths

iddur mal-lewz a (Maltese) to go round the almond

å gå som katten rundt den varma grøten (Norwegian) to walk like a cat around hot porridge

menare il can per l’aia (Italian) to lead the dog around the yard

emborrachar la perdiz (Spanish) to get the partridge drunk

13.

Home Sweet Home

Padres, primos e pombos.

Os dois primeiros, não servem para casar. Os dois últimos só servem para sujar a casa (Portuguese)

Priests, cousins and pigeons. The first two are not good to marry. The last two only make the house dirty

Location, location, location

‘Choose the neighbour before the house’ goes an old Syrian proverb; and it’s as well to check out the people living nearby before you move in:

kwarts-idioot (Dutch) next door to an idiot

espreitadeira