Funny things: suck it out of my thumb!

In Suriname, everybody is multilingual. You'll at least know your native tongue and one other. For me, I'm blessed with at least 5 languages I can communicate in. The most spoken language in Suriname is Sranang Tongo, a creole language with Dutch, English, Portuguese and African influences. In daily life, most people prefer to communicate in Dutch. But what if you have to communicate in both English and Dutch?

It's a relatively natural thing that people try to speak a foreign language in the sentence structure they're used to. If we have to translate the Dutch version 'Ik heb honger' into English, it'll become " I have hunger" or the other way around. That's why it's funny to hear foreigners trying to speak your language. Probably that's how I sounded in Aruba trying to speak Papiamento.

And what if people try to be formal and always like to insert proverbs into their sentences and literally translates these proverbs into English? This is the result:

No	Dutch proverb	English metaphrase	English equivalent/meaning
1	uit mijn duim zuigen	suck it out of my thumb	I made that up
2	De appel valt niet ver van de boom	the apple does not fall far from the tree	so the father, so the son
3	Wel de splinter in het oog van de ander zien, maar niet de balk in het eigen oog	See the splint in other's eyes, but not the beam in its own eye	see another's minor mistakes, but not their own defects
4	Hoge bomen vangen veel wind	high trees catch much wind	people on high positions will get many comments on their actions
5	De een zijn dood is een ander zijn brood.	One's death is the other one's bread	one's misfortune is the other one's luck
6	twee vliegen in een klap	two flies in one clap	kill two birds with one stone
7	Een ezel stoot zich niet tweemaal aan dezelfde steen	a donkey does not hit the same stone twice	one should not make the same mistake twice

 There are of course a lot more, but at such situations, what would you do? Are you gonna correct that person or are you just gonna laugh about it and leave that person be?

One more for you: I will see through the fingers if you use these metaphrases!