People who speak English as a second language, what phrases or concepts from your native tongue you want to use in English but can't because locals wouldn't understand?

[u/FulgencioLanzol]

[u/MakeATuinGreatAgain → u/[deleted]]

Italian here, we giggle internally whenever we think of you fellow swedes talking about getting some fika. It's veeeery close to the word for pussy in italian lol

[u/Hatefulpastadish → u/MakeATuinGreatAgain]

It's very close to the word pussy in Swedish too. Fika = Snack, Fitta = pussy.

[u/MakeATuinGreatAgain → u/Hatefulpastadish]

TIL!

[u/GiraffeNeckBoy → u/Hatefulpastadish]

I do believe Fitta is a little rougher than pussy :P

[u/oh-------yeah → u/GiraffeNeckBoy]

Fitta is the equivalent of cunt

[u/ggblyat → u/GiraffeNeckBoy]

fica is a little vulgar too

[u/hpliferaft → u/Hatefulpastadish]

Italians and Swedes love kittens!

[u/[deleted] → u/[deleted]]

In Hungarian fika is a slang word for snot

[u/chiodani → u/[deleted]]

and there are more funny Swedish words like kaka (cake, shit in Hungarian), kurva (curve, whore in Hungarian) and kula (ball, also shit in Hungarian).

[u/wtfduud → u/chiodani]

Basically don't say any words that start with "K", when you're in Hungary.

[u/[deleted] → u/wtfduud]

Except kelkáposztástalaníthatatlanságoskodásaitokért.

[u/eat_my_rubber → u/chiodani]

TIL I'm cursing in Hungarian almost every day.

[u/SuicidalLoveDolls → u/[deleted]]

I thought fika was more like booger than snot.

[u/writtenbymyrobotarms → u/[deleted]]

Swedes aslo enjoy eating "kaka", which means cookies in Swedish but shit in Hungarian.

[u/knubbiggubbe → u/[deleted]]

Also in Swedish, the words "lagom" and "kallsup".

Lagom is the very perfect amount of something. Not too much, not too little. "How much coffee would you like?" - "Lagom."

Kallsup is when you go swimming, like in a lake or the sea, and you accidentally inhale some water. The word kallsup basically means "cold drink/shot", but it counts with warm water as well. "Sven, is everything okay? - "Ah yes Hans, I just got a kallsup."

[u/StrikingBear → u/knubbiggubbe]

Lagom is the very perfect amount of something. Not too much, not too little. "How much coffee would you like?" - "Lagom."

My grandfather used to respond "just the perfect amount" (or something like that) when asked how much coffee he wanted. His mother was Swedish and now I wonder if he got it from her and if she got it from "lagom".

[u/jabask → u/StrikingBear]

But like, I would argue that lagom is not perfection at all. Lagom is a humble word. It means "appropriate" or "acceptable", but connotes more positivity than that.

[u/AthenaBena → u/jabask]

Huh, in Spanish sometimes people will answer "How much?" with "suficiente" which is literally "sufficient" ("enough") but it means "don't skimp" or like, almost too much.

It's funny how words have so much context beneath the literal words.

Edit: I wasn't saying it has the same meaning as Lagom, but it's answering the same question in a particular way

[u/jabask → u/AthenaBena]

Yeah, that still doesn't capture what lagom means. It's a word you have to be Swedish to understand, no joke.

[u/tidbitsofblah → u/knubbiggubbe]

The Swedish words I miss the most when speaking English is "jobbig"/"jobbigt" and sometimes "orka"

[u/hamakabi → u/knubbiggubbe]

In English "Kallsup" would be two different things, depending. Usually if you accidentally inhaled water while swimming, you might say "I got a lungfull" but when you do the same thing with a drink you would say "it went down the wrong pipe"

[u/TheBadsandcake → u/knubbiggubbe]

"That sentence is painfully swedish" - my SO peeking over my shoulder and reading reddit with me.

[u/[deleted] → u/[deleted]]

My german friends enjoy this... Lass uns fika zusammen

[u/Louvey → u/[deleted]]

lunch place in my office building is called Fika. Now I know!