Which Idiom?

[Fridayman]

Question for Japanese folks:

If the figure of speech in an English idiom is the same as a Japanese one, would you learn it (instead of an alien one)? What is the reason?

Example 1: crawl into a hole / ﾅ椎?窶堋ｪ窶堋?窶堙≫?堋ｽ窶堙ｧ窶愿ｼ窶堙ｨ窶堋ｽ窶堋｢ (I want to shamefully crawl into a hole)

Example 2: burn the midnight oil / 窶慊ｭ窶堋ｫ窶的 (worker bee)

 

[EriAki]

A little unsure as to the actual question, but - Idioms differ between languages so I would learn them in both languages. They won't directly translate from language to language, so you could risk saying something 'weird' with some of them. I guess for most of them though, people will probably understand what you are trying to say!

 

[Fridayman]

I agree. A translated idiom doesn't sound right. Many countries do this though: in China they create their own idioms in English, such as 'come to play' (means 'visit'). This may be a translation, but I'm not sure.

My question asks about metaphors. Sometimes, metaphors are similar in each language, like the example I gave (crawl into a hole), so I was wondering whether Japanese people would prefer this type of idiom.

Regards