Aren't languages fascinating? As I said, today I've been reviewing basic Spanish phrases. Some can be very confusing. Is it "Cómo estás?" or "Qué tal?" Is it "Cómo te llamas?" or "Cual es tu nombre?" Is it "Mi nombre es Dave" or "Me llamo Dave"? Is it "No entiendo" or "No comprendo"? Sheesh! Give me a break already! Here's another example:
It seems that almost every culture has its own way of answering the phone. When I arrived in German-speaking Basel in 1980, I needed to rent an apartment for Becky and me. One day I called the number of an apartment owner to see if her "Wohnung" was available. Let's say her name was Frau Weiss. A lady answered the phone and I asked her (in German of course), "Is Frau Weiss available?" The response from the other end of the line was, "Sie ist am Apparat." Hmm, I thought to myself, she's apparently on some kind of apparatus. So I inquired. "Could you please ask her to come to the phone?" The reply was instantaneous: "I'm speaking with you!" (The words "You idiot" seemed to be implied.) I had no idea that "I'm on the apparatus" meant "Speaking"! Likewise, when I was lecturing on the Costa del Sol in Spain several years ago, I called up a friend of mine who lived in Madrid. He picked up the phone and said "Digame!" I thought to myself, he just said "Speak to me!" How rude! But all he meant was "Hello."
Idioms exist in all languages. English has about 25,000 of them. In German, "Ich verstehe nur Bahnhof" doesn't mean "I understand only the train station." It means "I don't understand a thing you're saying." Italians say " Conoscono i miei polli" -- "I know my chickens." They mean, of course, "I know what I'm talking about." In Hawaiian Pidgin, "You like beef?" means "Wanna fight?" I could on and on but I think you get the point.
What's your favorite English idiom? Or Spanish? Or German?