I've just got back from a German work experience near Koln and I was told that if I say "ja" twice in a row - "Ja ja" that it doesn't actually mean "Yes yes" but actually "kiss my arse" or something similar. Is that true or were they just winding us up?

Thanks for any help

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adios_(Album)

It would seem so
Its towards the top of the list a little.

Chad

yes, that´s true

'jaja' means "kiss my a**" (leck mich am a****)

I would interpret it as "Yeah, keep talking... I don't give a damn about what you're saying anyways."

So ja = yes? "Ja ja" might not mean a double-affirmative, but more like "yeah, yeah" in which case it's the same in English... "kiss my arse" is a disrespectful phrase, but much more so than "yeah, yeah".

I would love to know about cursing in German... I love to say Scheitze (I know it's spelled a lot differently, with that funny-lookin B symbol in there) instead of... well, the word that the badword filter changes to the UK spelling of "feces"... because it's a hard word to pronounce, for kids anyway, and most people tend to curse accidentally when they do something stupid or hurt themselves... because I'm around kids a fair bit, I've replaced the bad sh** word with the German version. Kids can't replicate it and it feels good to say.

Those sneaky Germans.

I think Nathan's got it right--it's sort of a patronizing, "yeah, yeah!" IMO.

Is that from Fawlty Towers? I've only seen one episode of that in our English classes.

Looks like Ministry of Silly walks from Monty Python to me.

No its Fawlty Towers, from the episode with the Germans.

DON'T MENTION THE WAR!

I mentioned it once...but I think I got away with it

I suddenly have the urge to watch fawlty towers.

Same here. If pressed to pick a fav I'd say "Waldorf Salad" would be mine, but I love them all.

Watching "The Germans" right now

Did we have to bring up the war when talking about Germany?

Anyway - just to clarify what I just said - I'm guessing that saying "Ja ja" as "kiss my arse" is dependant on internation? So if you were to say it sharply and in answer to a question it wouldn't mean kiss it? Or is just something that it means all the time?

LOL!

*Sam gets out his vocabulary book.