The Language Of Love

To get one’s eyes stolen: to be dazzled (Japanese)

To throw face: to make a good impression (Spanish, El Salvador)

What a bonbon and me with diabetes: a street compliment (Spanish, Latin America)

What curves and me without brakes: a street compliment (Spanish, Latin America)

Biscuit: hot, sexy, attractive (Spanish, Mexico)

To set the dogs on someone: to flirt (Spanish, Latin America)

Having the waist of an elegant lion: an attractive woman (Hindi)

Like hibiscus rising out of water: grace of a woman (Chinese)

To give the package: to stand someone up (Italian)

To lay a rabbit: to stand someone up (French)

The space below a nose is long: to be lewd toward women (Japanese)

To have fast hands: to be a womanizer (Japanese)

Having seven husbands: loose woman (Hindi)

Unable to stop being the owl: can’t stop flirting (Italian)

An apron hunter: a womanizer (German)

Have one’s atoms hooked together: really hit it off (French)

Buckle polish: slow dance (Spanish, Venezuela)

Wiggle your bucket: dance (Spanish, Mexico)

Swallowed like a postman’s sock: hopelessly in love (Spanish, Colombia)

To have eaten a monkey: to be nuts about (German)

To solidify one’s body: to get married (Japanese)

To distribute cardamoms: to invite to a marriage (Hindi)

Matricide: marriage (Spanish, Costa Rica)

To hang oneself: to get married (Spanish, Mexico)

Handcuffs: the wife (Spanish, Latin America)

Republished with permission of the National Geographic Society from the book I’m Not Hanging Noodles on Your Ears by Jag Bhalla. Drawings by Julia Suits. Copyright 2009 Jag Bhalla. All rights reserved.

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