Hintful Phrases In Specific Languages

Certain languages have specific phrases that are handy for remembering things, such as:

German: I was informed that in script, the writing of 'zunehmend' starts with ')', which is the side of the growing moon ('zunehmend' means 'growing'), and 'abnehmend' (shrinking) starts with the curve '(', which is the side of the shrinking moon. (Northern hemisphere only, but then Germany is in the northern hemisphere, so that makes sense. In english, we could use 's' for "shrinking, which shows both northern and southern hemispheres, but I don't know anyone who does this.)
German:"Bier nach Wein, lass es sein; Wein nach Bier, das rat ich Dir." How many languages / cultures have specific advice to drink beer *after* and not before wine???
more German (why German?): "Faul am morgen, fleissig am abend".
Swedish: The word "lagom" means "just perfectly enough, more would be uncomfortable." A great phrase, perfectly unusable at Persian and India Indian dinners!
According to the German newspaper "die Zeit", there is a french proverb "Blanc sur rouge, rien ne bouge - rouge sur blanc, tout fout le camp", which means you should drink first red wine then white wine.

German:"Bier nach Wein, lass es sein; Wein nach Bier, das rat ich Dir." How many languages / cultures have specific advice to drink beer *after* and not before wine???

An english version of the german saying, found in a New Years cracker: "Beer on wine, lat the be; Wine on beer, I counsel thee"

You might have misunderstood this. We have a similar saying in DutchLanguage

Bier na wijn is venijn, wijn na bier is plezier

(venijn=poison (~ venom), plezier=fun) but it has a metaphorical meaning in that wine stands for wealth and beer for a common drink so it means that it is pleasant to become wealthy from a state of poverty but not the inverse

Lieven

Very interesting, thank you. I would probably never have seen the second meaning. (or is the first interpretation a total sham?)

: No, in German the second meaning is not present at all.
: In Germany I once heard that the 'wealth'-meaning is the original one, but nowadays everybody misinterprets it as a drinking order.

Also, there is an American saying "Whiskey and beer, never fear. Beer and whiskey, mighty risky alluding to the hangover potential in drinking order.

When I was growing up we used to say "Bier nach Wein, das ist fein - Wein nach Bier das rat ich dir!" --AndrewQueisser

Dutch has the following: Avondrood mooi weer aan boord, Morgenrood regen in de sloot. which corresponds to English Red at night, sailor's delight, red in the morning sailors take warning. The English one is actually easier to remember becaue the rhyme enforces the correct assignment of predictions to morning/night, whereas in Dutch one could say Avondrood brengt regen in de sloot... and muck it all up.

They always said language constrains the kind of thoughts you could have. I've just read this page for the first time and intend to give this a try.

But see SapirWhorfHypothesis

New thought number 1: If I stick around Wiki am I going to become multi-lingual after all?

New thought number 2: All software methods should hereafter be written in Swedish. However long the document every page must have the word "lagom" on it. See JustEnoughDesign.