I'm Not Hanging Noodles on Your Ears and Other Intriguing Idioms From Around the World

By Jag Bhalla

Book Overview

"I'm not hanging noodles on your ears." In Moscow, this curious, engagingly colorful assertion is common parlance, but unless you're Russian your reaction is probably "Say what?" The same idea in English is equally odd: "I'm not pulling your leg." Both mean: Believe me.

As author Jag Bhalla demonstrates, these amusing, often hilarious phrases provide a unique perspective on how different cultures perceive and describe the world. Organized by theme--food, love, romance, and many more--they embody cultural traditions and attitudes, capture linguistic nuance, and shed fascinating light on "the whole ball of wax." For example, when English-speakers are hard at work, we're "nose to the grindstone," but industrious Chinese toil "with liver and brains spilled on the ground" and busy Indians have "no time to die."

If you're already fluent in 10 languages, you probably won't need this book, but you'll "get a kick out of it" anyhow; for the rest of us, it's a must. Either way, this surprising, often thought-provoking little tome is gift-friendly in appearance, a perfect impulse buy for word lovers, travelers, and anyone else who enjoys looking at life in a riotous, unusual way. And we're not hanging noodles from your ear.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1426204582
• ISBN13: 9781426204586
• Release Date: June 2009
• Publisher: National Geographic Society
• Length: 272 Pages
• Weight: 0.55 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 5.0" x 6.9"
• Age Range: 11 to 17 years
• Grade Range: Grades 6 to 12

Customer Reviews

A fun read -- and a fascinating look at the culture of language!

This book is just plain fun! If you love language as I do, you'll find it very enjoyable. As a native English speaker who has studied Latin, French, and Spanish, seeing how (literally) foreign cultures express themselves in metaphor and idiom is fascinating. If non-English speakers find our English idioms as strange as I/we find theirs, no wonder English is so difficult to master. Highly recommended!

I'm Not Hanging Noodles on Your Eara and Other Intriguing Idioms From Around the World

What a fun book! Some of the expressions really crack me up and I have memorized a few to drop on people.

Funny and informative

This is a great little book that allows the reader to peak into other cultures and learn about their idiomatic expressions. This is not a foreign language phrase book, as all of the phrases have been translated into English. It's a quick and delightful read.

A Fun Read

I found this book very interesting and entertaining. The only thing that would have made it better, was if he had used all the entries in a typical sentence to aid in understanding usage.

A funny, revealing and thoroughly enjoyable book

I just got the book today, to give it as a gift. As I started to scan through it I found myself smiling and then laughing out aloud. Then I found myself talking aloud arguing with the book. I am usually a pretty stable sort, but this is a very well written book and presented in a nice engaging manner that literally pulls you in. I am enjoying this tremendously and have ordered a second copy for myself (this one is a gift and I will have to part with it). To quote the book, this can "make the chickens laugh".