> Anyone who has learned a second language will have made an exhilarating (and yet somehow unsettling) discovery: there is never a one-to-one correspondence in meaning between the words and phrases of one language and another. Even the most banal expressions have a slightly different sense, issuing from a network of attitudes and ideas unique to each language.

Actually, as a native Romanian speaker, it shocked me when I moved to the UK and started noticing how many phrases have a literal translation along with the same meaning in both languages. For example, "straight from the horse's mouth". I can only assume it's a modern acquisition in at least one of the two, but it's still surprising to see such an unexpected bridge between the languages.

Of course there are plenty that don't translate, but even the few that do are interesting to see.