Cost in translation - money idioms from around the world

Written by CurrencyFair | Sep 09, 2016

Being considerate folks here at CurrencyFair, we enjoy helping people understand the subtleties and nuances in language that can otherwise cause confusion when living/travelling abroad, or simply arguing with people from different cultures on your lunch break.


We've previously translated some popular Irish phrases, given valuable insight into the (awful) world of corporate jargon, and even laid into the startup scene's overuse of horrendous, empty and mostly made-up words.

So, when we spotted GoCompare had compiled a list of money idioms from around the world, which contained an image of a maggot wearing bacon as a scarf, we were compelled to share.

(Click on any image to view the full list.)

Here's that maggot with a bacon-scarf: clearly a happy maggot, the phrase in German "Leben wie die maden im speck" means to live like a maggot in bacon. Sheer decadence.

Finally, who can resist a hedgehog in a little blanket? Or in this case, someone's pocket - which can't be comfortable. It's a Welsh phrase - "Mae fe'n cadw draenog yn ei boced", meaning somebody cheap.

It refers to a shirt pocket - not trousers, we assume.