Phrases that you use in your own country to describe some behavior and you reference some other Balkan country

We use "like an albanian heater"(kato albanski reotan) to describe someone who is slow in response or reaction. Like the one that needs time to get the joke or to catch a ball.

No idea where it comes from or why. I've never met an Albanian person.

Also to do something in "the albanian way" means to do it the lazy or dumb way, but still get the job done.

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ve_rushing@reddit

like an albanian heater

It supposed to be a joke about the albanian industry, not that the albanians are kind of slow.

the albanian way

It's about making shortcuts in order to make the product cheaper...still about the industry, not about people.

I guess we were economic rivals at certain point.

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ZinbaluPrime@reddit

Thanks for the clarification. Now I at least know why it is used like that.

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Puzzleheaded_Sir903@reddit

Buni se ko Grk u apsu.= Complains like Greek in police custody. (When someone complains a lot)

There is an interesting story behind this expression.

Kingdom of Serbia had law that all shops had to be closed on Saint Sava Day in January. (Saint Sava is the founder of Serbian Orthodox Church).

Greek merchants opened their shops anyway and were arrested. They complained and wrote to the king and government. They continued complaining even after being released from jail.

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cosmicdicer@reddit

Very amusing and called for! thanks for sharing

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Internal-Debt1870@reddit

Hahah that's hilarious! And so like many of us.

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Minimum_Work_7607@reddit

we don’t use this phrase (obviously) but i’ve heard people say “they yell like greeks” 💀💀

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rakijautd@reddit

Smokes like a Turk (Puši kao Turčin/Пуши као Турчин). When someone smokes a lot.
That's the only one that is widespread. There might be others, which are localisms, but I can't think of any.

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the_bulgefuler@reddit

We have that one also. Regarding the Balkans there also 'in debt like a Greek' (dužan kao grk), but i wouldn't call it wide spread.

A popular one is 'to drink like a Russian' (pije kao rus), but that's outside the Balkans of course.

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lucasievici@reddit

We also have “smoking like a Turk” in Romanian — talk about world renown lol

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skvids@reddit

sitting cross legged = "sitting in the turkish way"

i've also heard "... and bosnia is peaceful" used a lot. it originated in the 1920s, so i'm guessing it refers to ww1.

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rakijautd@reddit

Aye, forgot about the other two, because I haven't heard them in a while, but yeah those are also common.

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Dapper-Confusion-730@reddit

Smokes like a turk, stingy like a jew , drinks like a russian, swears like a gypsy

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tanateo@reddit

We use the same phrases. But down south is "stingy as a vlah", haha, at least in my country.

Other common phrases are "in debt like a greek" for a person who owes a lot of money. "to turkify" was a popular saying years back, meaning a person who sells out, betrays.

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Internal-Debt1870@reddit

"in debt like a greek"

That has to be rather recent, right?

Kind of weird that a saying that involves ethnicity spread so much so recently.

The similar phrases that we have in greek and are mentioned by OP go waaay back (to be fair, when people didn't know any better and the unknown -other countries - was very curious). Also they're more frequently used by rather older people - I'd say millenials (my age) and back.

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tanateo@reddit

That has to be rather recent, right?

Dont thinks so. I have heard it as a child being used by my parents and i was born in Yugoslavia in the mid 80s lol. So at least it goes back to the 1970s-80s, could be more.

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Mission_Bad3102@reddit

Greece had low debt back then.

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Internal-Debt1870@reddit

Exactly, and not that visible either. It doesn't make much sense to me.

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Internal-Debt1870@reddit

We weren't that bad back then 😫

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sertorius42@reddit

I live in Romania:

“Se bat turcii la gura” - Turks are battling at the mouth, meaning someone is hungry

I also heard “e frumos ca limba rusă” or it’s as beautiful as the Russian language meaning ugly but it doesn’t seem very common

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blumonste@reddit

Interesting

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Equal_Search_1268@reddit

Why are you mad 😠

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blumonste@reddit

Mad? I am intrigued by the information.

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Equal_Search_1268@reddit

It was a joke about the saying mad like a turk my man

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blumonste@reddit

It must be the tendency to get agitated quickly. It does exist.

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Turbo-Swag@reddit

I find it weird when many people from different countries say smoking like a Turk when I always had the impression that actual Balkan countries smoked more than us, maybe that is just a wrong assumption/information on my end or a stereotype.

Maybe it is because we do not drink alcohol as much as Europeans, some Turks never do, so we do not have many options in that area that smoking is all many of us do.

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Dry_Hyena_7029@reddit

😂 It comes from ottoman time. When ottoman high ranks and even soldier spend there resting time smoking shisha.

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Outrageous_Trade_303@reddit (OP)

I was about to comment that I assume it comes from shisha, or nargile as we call it here.

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standupguy1004@reddit

not balkan but in my town when you se somenody sitting and doing nothing just chilling we often say to him "Boli te k***c ...... sto madjarska nema more " in translation " you dont give a fuck (when person looks at you "like for what ?" you continue) that hungary does not have a sea " i d not know why but it is an expression :)

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mamlazmamlazic@reddit

We also add "a ima mornaricu" So the whole saying would be "You don't give a f*** that Hungary doesn't have a sea but has a war navy"

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standupguy1004@reddit

Yea i forgot to add this

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itisiminekikurac@reddit

Ah we use Serbia there ;-;

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Wolfiee021@reddit

In Romania we say "are you turkish" when someone does something stupid

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XtrmntVNDmnt@reddit

In French there are some expressions. "Tête de turc" (litt. Turk's head) is a scapegoat, "fort comme un Truc" (strong like a Turc) refer to someone with great physical strength and/or resilience, "bander comme un Truc" (to have a boner like a Turk) to mean having a strong erection, and we also say "va te faire enculer chez les Grecs" (litt. go get fucked in the arse in Greece) and I guess it's self-explanatory (there's another expression, where "enculer" is replaced by "voir" which mean to see, but in that context it means get fucked as well, just less vulgar). There's also another expression concerning Greeks and sexual practices but I won't repeat it on Reddit.

As far as I know there are no phrases concerning Serbs, Albanians, or any other Balkans' people, mostly because average French people don't know what the Balkans are and don't know where Serbia, Albania and other Balkans' countries are located, nor what do they people look like or what is their culture.

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mamlazmamlazic@reddit

We also used Bulgarian and Romanian as prefixes for bad versions of copies of things. Most hilarious example of that would be when we called pirated music CDs "Bulgarian original".

Rumor was that Bulgaria got CD pressing facility sometimes in early 2000s or late 1990s and since they produced relatively small number of CD for domestic market some bosses with business sense just stamped out illegal copies of anything popular and those flew like hotcakes for 4-5eur a piece.

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cosmicdicer@reddit

There is a phrase that is from the time of the revolution against the Ottomans that we still very much use: βαστάτε Τούρκοι τ' άρματα. It translates as Turks hold on to your weapons and it's used when someone is furious and ready to attack. It's like a warning, a threat

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TopMediocre@reddit

Not sure how widespread it is, but to do a "Bulgarian business" means to put a lot of time, effort and money in a business and then go bankrupt.

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kudelin@reddit

Don't know if it's specific to my region, but "Власите се давят на края на Дунава." (Vlachs/Romanians drown at the end of the Danube) It means to fail near the end of doing something, when you're almost done with it.

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ristiberca@reddit

I can think of two sayings, both mentioning the Turks:

When you try to say something and the other person just don't get it we say "You don't get it? Are you a Turk?!" ( Nu înțelegi? Ești turc?!)
When you see an object in not in a very good shape in terms of cleanliness or good maintenance an then you notice the owner is also a mess we say "As the Turk so is his pistol" ( Cum e turcul e și pistolul)

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Mihai2388@reddit

De fapt expresia e "cum e tocul,si pistolul" , adica asemanator.Multa lume o spune gresit.

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ristiberca@reddit

E foarte posibil insa eu nu am auzit-o niciodată spusa astfel

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Dry_Hyena_7029@reddit

The first one we also say 😂

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itisiminekikurac@reddit

We use one in sports, "plays like a Bulgarian" which means somebody will play dirty. Mostly refers to a team that will throw in the ball into the court when not everyone is ready.

Say we play 5x5 basketball, ball's out, a teammate slipped. Opponent throws in quickly just to use the 5 to 4 advantage. He's playing like a Bulgarian.

Southern Serbs and those who hail from down there have a complicated relationship with Bulgarians.

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ZinbaluPrime@reddit

Sounds like us

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Xinpincena@reddit

That's funny cuz in Albanian I can't recall any way of saying involving other nationalities. Maybe only one, when someone is well dressed, well mannered with a western-ish way of doing many of the generation of my parents used to say "si Amerikon" - "Like an American"

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Dry_Hyena_7029@reddit

Prođe pored mene kao pored turskog groblja. Walks by me like he is walking by Turkish cementary.

Means: someone walks by but doesn't give wo cents about you, no fellings at all.

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