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Breaking News from China

Posted: Mon Jun 05, 2006 12:37 am
by androl
Ricebag fallen over!
CNN is reporting
Image

Posted: Mon Jun 05, 2006 12:44 am
by vermeer
Is it spam?

Posted: Mon Jun 05, 2006 1:06 am
by ElBarto
No, rice. Spam comes in cans.

Posted: Mon Jun 05, 2006 12:58 pm
by Asiamaniac
@ Westinghouse and the other non-German / non-Austrian users:

This is a trifling with words. If you wish to express that something does not interest you at all or that you could not care less about something, you may say in German: "That interests me as much as a bag of rice that falls over in China" ("Das interessiert mich genauso viel wie ein Sack Reis, der in China umfällt.")

I have seen that pic somewhere before and it makes me grin.

Posted: Mon Jun 05, 2006 1:16 pm
by mirandolina
German speakers seem to express their disinterest in terms of food..... es ist mir Wurst.... it's all sausage to me.... :)

Posted: Mon Jun 05, 2006 2:16 pm
by androl
so you don't know this saying outside of Germany? I thought so, because of the English text. Obviously a German made the image.
I found this comment in a forum:
The United States has ceased talks with China's government and is now threatening military action because the rice bags could be an unconfirmed WMD. :lol:

also see this (German)
http://hirngespinst.hi.funpic.de/nachrichten.html

Posted: Mon Jun 05, 2006 3:49 pm
by tabbs
mirandolina wrote:German speakers seem to express their disinterest in terms of food..... es ist mir Wurst.... it's all sausage to me.... :)
Or beans. "Das interessiert mich nicht die Bohne." :lol: This "sack of rice" expression, however, is a less blunt and more ironical way of saying "who cares" ...

Christian

Posted: Mon Jun 05, 2006 4:55 pm
by tabbs
androl wrote:so you don't know this saying outside of Germany? I thought so, because of the English text.
Don't know about the UK, but in the US it is not really known, I think. They have a similar saying in English ("what does that have to do with the price of tea in China?"), but that refers to unrelated issues rather than irrelevant ones ...

Christian

Posted: Mon Jun 05, 2006 4:56 pm
by mirandolina
I'd say it certainly isn't known in the UK.

Posted: Mon Jun 05, 2006 5:31 pm
by JP Simões
mirandolina wrote:I'd say it certainly isn't known in the UK.
Nor in Portugal. The only portuguese expressions I can remember that involve China are:
  • Negócio da China, "Chinese Business", used to refer to a very good deal that you do, a bargain you find
  • Chinamarquês (Chinês + Dinamarquês), "Chinish (Chinese + Danish)", word used to represent an imaginary language.

Posted: Sat Jun 10, 2006 7:36 pm
by Asiamaniac
I just come to see that there is another indication that might identify this image as a joke only: The name "Weisenheimer". This is an old US-word which means a person who likes to talk clever things but not always in a sympathic way. Words with "-heimer" in the end for person with a less sympathic attitude came up in the States in the 1920.

Posted: Sat Jun 10, 2006 7:48 pm
by eurojuanmi
a typical spanish expression:

"Esto es trabajo de chinos" : This is a work for chineses

Posted: Sat Jun 10, 2006 7:56 pm
by androl
don't the Spanish also say "eso me parece chino" ("that seems chinese to me") for something that sounds strange?
In German we say "das kommt mir spanisch vor"

Posted: Sat Jun 10, 2006 8:00 pm
by eurojuanmi
androl wrote:In German we say "das kommt mir spanisch vor"
:lol: I didn´t know it, I like to learn new things

Posted: Sat Jun 10, 2006 8:39 pm
by JP Simões
androl wrote:don't the Spanish also say "eso me parece chino" ("that seems chinese to me") for something that sounds strange?
In German we say "das kommt mir spanisch vor"
I forgot that. We in Portugal say "Isso é chinês para mim" - That's Chinese to me. But I think Para mim isso é grego - Greek - is more used.