[Guest]

How do you explain a concept to a person from another country?

Say......Or for example....

"jumping the Gun" to a person from Burma?

This is not a language translating but a conceptual translation.

[Izzy]

Well, jumping the gun means to start before a signal, so translate the meaning and then explain what an idiom is?

[andromeda]

Yeah I was just about to say what Izzy said.

Those are all idioms. There are equivalents in every country. So basically you just have to explain the meaning of that idiom and the other person will probably say "Oh we have something similar, but it's a bit different"

For example in English it's - "piece of cake", in my language it's - "prosto ko pasulj" or in translation "easy as beans".

So if you wanna explain that to someone all you have to do is to tell him to google the expression, given that he speaks English to some extent.

[Guest]

Yeah, it's a tough part of learning any language: picking up the idioms.

How do you tell someone that when you said "He bought the farm" you really meant "He kicked the bucket"?

[Guest]

Thanks so much for your help. I hope it helps my partner/wife. The woman she is having trouble with is causing lots of problems.

Now maybe my life will be smoother!

[andromeda]

Yeah, it's a tough part of learning any language: picking up the idioms.

How do you tell someone that when you said "He bought the farm" you really meant "He kicked the bucket"?

In my country we say: "He stretched his trotters", or "He threw away the spoon"