new coup for you

After hearing pathetic non-Western insults for years (particularly asian; "your mother is a turtle", etc.) I'm beginning to conclude that only Westerners are capable of really gross burns.

Is it all really in translation? Does "your mother is a turtle" really mean somthing as provocative as "your mother is the lacross team cum dumpster" and its all lost in the cultural divide?

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And why does your tone suggest that you do not care about children?

I want to ride my bicycle, I want to ride my bike.

Thelost1

They have different standards of what is insulting.

"Your mother is a dog" is not really worse than "your mother is a turtle".

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Emphasis added.

"The religion of one age is the literary entertainment of the next."
~Emerson

1069

To call someone a "turtle" in Chinese culture is sort of a double entendre: on one hand, it means slow, dull-witted and stupid. But it also means a cuckold. It means someone who is too stupid to know their spouse is cheating on them right in front of their face.
So, to say "your mother is a turtle" on one hand simply means "your mother's stupid", on the other hand means "Your mother is a cuckold", or "Your father fucks around on your mother, and she's so stupid she doesn't even realize it."

I think it's difficult to discern the finer nuances of various languages and cultures unless one is actually fluent.
It's probably not that their insults lack bite; it probably just seems so to you because you're unfamiliar with the culture, so the insults go over your head.

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Lightdemon: "Is 10 going to outer space or something?"
Jerry: "...yes, 10 is going to outerspace."

battleax86

Yeah, it's hilarious learning some of the nuances in foreign languages. Since we're specifically talking about the Chinese, a friend of mine who served as a Mormon missionary there told me that their way of cheering on racers (like we would say "Go! Go! Go!") literally means "Add oil! Add oil! Add oil!"

bub

In French we'd say "appuye sur le champignon!" (press the mushroom)

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===|:-)

bub

I'm not fluent in English but I see that some of Cherokee's insults are hilarious