I just started learning Esperanto and I am surprised at how awesome it is. I think Esperanto would work great for regional use but what about internationally with regard to idioms, slang, and spcific saying tied to a culture. For example, sometimes in English we might say "that sucks" refering to an event or thing that is bad. If we say "Tio suĉas" then it probably won't be understood properly by other cultures. I imagine many cultures might interpret this as a sexual thing rather than a complaint. How does Esperanto deal with such issues.

This won't deter me from learning Esperanto but I am just curious.

Interesting question! In my experience you try to rephrase idioms as literally as possible. When you use the phrase "That sucks" in English, you don't actually mean that something is sucking on something else. You mean that it is bad or unenjoyable or something. So you would say something like "Tio estas malbonega," "Tio malbonegas," "Tio estas malgxoja," "Tio malgxojas," etc.
The same goes for other idioms, to my knowledge.

I would propose to never translate idioms into another language (as you already mentioned, this will most probably not be understood), but to express the meaning of the idiom in the other language.

For instance: "This party sucks." could be any of:
"Tiu ĉi festo enuigas min."
"Tiu ĉi festo estas malbonega."
"Tiu ĉi festo similas entombigon."
Or anything else which conveys your opinion about the party.

For instance: "My moment of power was a damp squib" cannot be translated as "Mia momento de potenco estis malseka petardo". Most people wouldn't get the meaning. An option would be "fakte ne estis tiel grandioza kiel mi anticipis." or something similar.

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Idioms get especially difficult and dangerous, when the same idiom exists in different languages, but with different meanings. E.g. Spanish "cagarse en algo" and German "auf etwas scheißen" both mean literally "to shit on something", but the Spanish meaning is "screw up", while the German meaning is "don't give a fuck".

As a side remark, here in Argentina "cagarse en algo" would indeed mean "don't give a fuck". A close idiom, "cagar algo", would mean "screw something".

Both idioms are unellegant and worth being avoided in formal conversations.

Regards,

Daniel

nornen:I would propose to never translate idioms into another language (as you already mentioned, this will most probably not be understood), but to express the meaning of the idiom in the other language.

For instance: "This party sucks." could be any of:
"Tiu ĉi festo enuigas min."
"Tiu ĉi festo estas malbonega."
"Tiu ĉi festo similas entombigon."
Or anything else which conveys your opinion about the party.

For instance: "My moment of power was a damp squib" cannot be translated as "Mia momento de potenco estis malseka petardo". Most people wouldn't get the meaning. An option would be "fakte ne estis tiel grandioza kiel mi anticipis." or something similar.

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Idioms get especially difficult and dangerous, when the same idiom exists in different languages, but with different meanings. E.g. Spanish "cagarse en algo" and German "auf etwas scheißen" both mean literally "to shit on something", but the Spanish meaning is "screw up", while the German meaning is "don't give a fuck".

danielcg:As a side remark, here in Argentina "cagarse en algo" would indeed men "don't give a fuck". A close idiom, "cagar algo", would mean "screw something".

Both idioms are unellegant and worth being avoided in formal conversations.

Regards,

Daniel

Whoa. Worse even: same language, same idiom, different meanings.

nornen:

danielcg:As a side remark, here in Argentina "cagarse en algo" would indeed men "don't give a fuck". A close idiom, "cagar algo", would mean "screw something".

Both idioms are unellegant and worth being avoided in formal conversations.

Regards,

Daniel

Whoa. Worse even: same language, same idiom, different meanings.

Don't forget same language, different idioms. British phrases like "piece of kit", etc. are quite foreign to Americans.

I suppose we do have a similar phrase, only it is opposite: we don't give a shit if we don't care about something.

(WARNING: contains informal language some people may not like)

Mainly because of the several inmigrations Argentina has received, our local version of Spanish is quite different from classic Spanish both in pronounciation and in expressions, more or less like American English differs from British English. In my opinion, other Spanish speaking countries have not departed so much from classic Spanish.

Nevertheless, Spaniards and Argentinians usually understand each other perfectly (just like British and Americans). It's only the exceptions that add some funny misunderstandings here and there.

For instance, the most common phrase meaning "grasp something" in Spain is "coger", which in Argentina is a colloquial and unellegant way of referring to having sexual interocurse (and yes, I could have replaced all that explanation with just the four letter word you all have in mind). A colloquial, not too elegant but also not too unellegant, expression used in Argentina is "joder", which means something along "having some fun", but in Spain means - guess what: yes, the four letter word again. So, when a Spaniard asks in Argentina where he can "coger" (take) a taxi, he is likely to receive some awkward answer like "Maybe through the tailpipe?" I recall a Spaniard (he would say a basque but that's another can of worms) who, during his first days in Argentina, told me (in Spanish): "All Argentinians have envy of me - I spend all day long 'cogiendo'"

Bottom line: when abroad, or when writing to someone abroad, let's be careful with idioms and colloquial meanings of words, no matter if we (supposedly) speak the same langauge.

Recards,

Daniel

kaŝperanto:

nornen:

danielcg:As a side remark, here in Argentina "cagarse en algo" would indeed men "don't give a fuck". A close idiom, "cagar algo", would mean "screw something".

Both idioms are unellegant and worth being avoided in formal conversations.

Regards,

Daniel

Whoa. Worse even: same language, same idiom, different meanings.

Don't forget same language, different idioms. British phrases like "piece of kit", etc. are quite foreign to Americans.

I suppose we do have a similar phrase, only it is opposite: we don't give a shit if we don't care about something.

danielcg:(WARNING: contains informal language some people may not like)

Interesting...

In my Puertorican Spanish variation, we do "coger" like the Spaniards, and "joder" like the Argentinians...

We have yet another Spanish word (it starts with "chin" and ends with "gar" ) for the four letter word you are refering to...

danielcg:As a side remark, here in Argentina "cagarse en algo" would indeed mean "don't give a fuck". A close idiom, "cagar algo", would mean "screw something".

BTW. These mean the same in Puerto Rico.

BoriQa:

danielcg:(WARNING: contains informal language some people may not like)

Interesting...

In my Puertorican Spanish variation, we do "coger" like the Spaniards, and "joder" like the Argentinians...

We have yet another Spanish word (it starts with "chin" and ends with "gar" ) for the four letter word you are refering to...

danielcg:As a side remark, here in Argentina "cagarse en algo" would indeed mean "don't give a fuck". A close idiom, "cagar algo", would mean "screw something".

BTW. These mean the same in Puerto Rico.

OK, to complete the list of profanities, here in GT we use the following and again with opposed meanings to some of your usages:

"coger" = to have intercourse
"chimar" = to have intercourse
"chingar" [1] = to mock, to make fun of, to annoy, to be annoying ("¡Déjen de chingar, patojos!" )
"joder" = no much used, but understood as to mock, to make fun of, to annoy, to be annoying ("¡Cómo jode ese ishto!" )
"cagarse" = to be afraid, to fear ("Me cagué cuando lo vi." )
"cagarla" = screw up ("Hoy sí la cagaste con tu novia." )
"cagarse en" = screw up ("Ese tu cuate se cagó en todo." )

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[1] This is not a swear word. A school boy can tell his mother without fear of consequences "En el cole Paquito me chinga mucho."

Here are some subtle idioms that are easy to miss. How would you translate these?

He's good at math.
She did well yesterday.
Things went well at the convention.
You did a good job with the kids.