Multilingual Sarah!!!

During my travels I have amazingly become multilingual...sort of. Here are just a few of the phrases I have picked up from different people and different places along the way - from rural Laos and the Mediterranean coast of Turkey to the alleyways of dirty Dublin.

‘Same same but different’
From: Vietnam and Cambodia, also sometimes heard in Laos and as far away as India
Context: used to sell anything, from a hotel room to an identical piece of clothing/jewellery/book to the one you are currently wearing/holding.

‘Less blah blah, more [insert whatever you’d rather be doing]’
From: Jules in Vietnam and Cambodge. Still in occasional use.
Context: ‘shut up and let’s eat/sightsee/leave this disgusting hotel room’

‘Hello Stranger. Hello Beautiful.’
From: Pen, drunkenly letting out a little secret, in Cambodia.
Context: a greeting. That’s all.

‘Red, white and blue, the boys will love you!’
From: Cambodia (Sihanoukville beaches)
Context: 7-year-old boy successfully uses ‘sex sells’ technique in marketing his red, white and blue string bracelets.

‘Why the hell not?’
From: Polo (not ‘Apollo’), sleazy but hilarious owner of our hotel at Sihanoukville, Cambodia.
Context: unlimited.

‘Laoey Laoey, you’re so Laoey’
From: Lao…
Context: Said/sung to the tune and style of the ‘Lucky lucky, you’re so lucky’ from Franz Ferdinand’s song ‘Do you wanna?’. Can substitute nearly any word, e.g. one person might say ‘I’m so hungry’ and immediately the other will reply ‘hungry hungry, you’re so hungry.’ Maybe you had to be there…

‘Khop Chai le lai Deeeeuuuuuuuhhhhh!’
From: Lao
Context: means ‘Thanyou very much person of higher status than me’. The not so quiet American from Daz’s group of expat friends would say this, in a drawl, through the mic whenever the staff would bring us a fresh case of Beer Lao during our karaoke night. Somehow it stuck.

‘BeerLao!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!’
From: Lao
Context: ‘kind sirs and madams, would you care to visit our bamboo, river-side establishment and sample some of this nation’s finest?’

‘I love lamp/Scotchy Scotchy Scotch/I want to be on you/loud noises/We’ve been here literally the entire time you have/build her a cake or summmfing…’ etc etc ad nauseum
From: Anchorman and Napoleon Dynamite
Context: anytime, anywhere.

‘Why like this?’
From: India
Context: ‘I know I just ripped you off but why don’t you want to buy anything else from me?’

‘This is India’
From: uhhh…India
Context: anything can happen in India. When something doesn’t go to plan the excuse is that you are in India and what the hell did you expect?

‘That’s nice’
From: the cinema man in Dharmsala, India and, also, Mark our Spanish housemate.
Context: The cinema man would describe every movie as nice. ‘Have you seen Ice Age 3?’ ‘no, I haven’t actually…’ ‘oh, it’s nice. Have you seen Mystic River?’. ‘Yeh I saw that one. It was amazing, very sad.’ ‘Yeh it’s a nice movie.’

Mark similarly uses ‘nice’ to describe many things that one wouldn’t normally ascribe it to. E.g. ‘Have you been to Spirit?’ ‘No. Is it good?’ ‘It’s nice. It’s the biggest nightclub in Dublin.’. MMmmmmm nice!

‘WHOOOOOOPAAAAAH!’
From: Aussies in Turkey
Context: used during any activity - from jumping off rocks into the water to eating really, really, really good Turkish breakfasts.

‘Şerefe’
From: Turkey
Context: ‘Cheers!’ Literally means something along the lines of ‘What is said and what happens tonight goes no further than here’. Or so I was told.

‘Ya Mum’
From: time immemorial. Most recently re-entered our vocab in Ireland.
Context: the ultimate insult.

‘I know a cool bar…IN MY PANTS! ’
From: Ireland
Context: When Anthea was text flirting with a new friend and he said he couldn’t think of a ‘cool bar’ to meet in, as requested, I dared her to text back ‘I know a cool bar. IN MY PANTS.’ She did it, and gained my life long respect.

‘All talk but no cigar/All talk and no trousers’
From: Ireland
Context: Mon thought the first was a saying. We debated for days before finally she believed that the saying was actually ‘Close, but not cigar’ or ‘all talk but no action’. Yet somehow she managed to maintain she was right (she is ALWAYS right don’t you know!). Her bro-in-law, Ben, introduced us to the second phrase and it has become one of our favourites.

‘AAAAAGH! SADDHU!’ Or ‘AAAAGH! GARDA!’
From: India/Ireland
Context: I was really scared of the Saddhus (holy men) in India and whenever I saw one I would do a Homer Simpson squeal in my head, ‘aaagh! Saddhu!’. Then, when we were walking through the drunken crowd after a night out in Galway I saw a Garda (police) car cruising towards us on the pedestrian mall and yelled ‘Aaagh! Garda!’ for no real reason. Ant thought it was hilarious and we now say it whenever we see Garda. Which is very often. Can also be used in any moment of surprise. E.g. ‘Aaagh! Salsa on my top!’ or ‘Aaagh! Steam from the dryer in my face!’

‘Si si si si si si si si si’
From: Mia, our Spanish flatmate
Context: she just says yes a lot. Especially when we’ve been having trouble understanding each other then suddenly, an epiphany! We make sense!

‘Ace’/‘Grim’
From: English Paul in India
Context: We are ace. Hull, in England, is grim.

‘She likes youuuu!’
From: Shaun of the Dead
Context: when someone really smashed has a dig.

‘Grand’, ‘Thanks a mill’, ‘Byebye’
From: Irish people in Ireland
Context: I hear these three in every phone conversation I have at work. When they say ‘bye’ they say it in two bits, as though they almost forgot to say it twice. It always make me think I have hung up on them in the middle of a sentence.


Wow this ended up being really long. Stay tuned, I’m sure I’ll think of even more soon.

And I will put some photos up soon too. I have quite a backlog to get through. For then time being it’s lunchtime!!!!!!!! And time to cash my cheque! Wooo.