In English there’s the expression, “It’s Greek to me” in reference to something that the speaker has no way of comprehending. In Spanish, or at least the way it’s practiced in Argentina, the same concept is expressed “Chino básico” which is figuratively translated as “It’s Chinese to me” though the more literary (not literally) translation in English would probably be just “It’s Greek to me.” I did just a quick bit of research and it seems that a number of languages refer to this concept by referencing the Chinese rather than the Greek. I don’t want to get into a linguistic issue here, just wanted to throw that “Chino básico” expression out there.
January 4th, 2006 at 5:03 pm
Precisely. The substitution of Chinese for Greek is
the norm for ALL Spanish-speaking countries (not only Argentina) when alluding to something that is unintelligible. Thus, our “This is Greek to me” becomes “Esto para mi es chino” (“To me, this is Chinese”) in the Spanish-speaker’s usage.
Incidentally, you know how the Germans put it?:
“To me, this is Spanish”. Curious, isn’t it?
May 19th, 2007 at 5:12 pm
english spanish…
I Googled for something completely different, but found your page…and have to say thanks. nice read….